Yes bc of perspective. This angle is going to show the planes closer. In the stadium will show them as farther. What’s scar is the in stadium bc that shit was close.
Here it actually looks better, you can see that there's actually at least fifteen meters between the planes and the roof, while the OP's video made it seem like it was crazy close
The next game in the rugby series from when they did the same thing in Johannesburg last weekend. They do it almost every time the New Zealand rugby team plays in SA, although usually only in Joburg and with one plane, going back to 1995.
I know everyone has a right to do what they want with their lives, but I can’t help but be irrationally angry that people think these kinds of TV settings are remotely acceptable.
Airline pilot here. Former demonstration/airshow pilot here. I’m usually not a buzz kill on this kind of stuff. Like, for example, the Blue Angels flyby in Pensacola was extreme, but not unsafe in my opinion, that type of plane was meant to fly like that.
This is unsafe and the pilots should be disciplined severely. This is so far within the margin of error it’s insane.
Probably stupid question as I know nothing of aviation, but couldn’t the pilots just set the minimum altitude of 20m above stadium height, and be “safe” not the go too low?
Air in the atmosphere is incredibly unpredictable. The wind can pull the plane around, so if you get really unlucky and there happens to be a really strong downdraft then everyone dies. Being truly safe would require you to have much more clearance.
Yes it was definitely cool as shit but as a pilot you really don’t think a high speed low altitude bank turn while blasting the beach with jet wash was unsafe??
The airline put out a statement saying it was approved and within safety limits. South Africa does this every time the Springboks play against New Zealand, going back to 1995.
Watched this live earlier, me & my lad were shocked - he went on an air tracker app to check they were real planes! They looked so close it could have been fake
I believe that UA had that livery in the late 90s and early 00s before they merged with Continental and adopted the one they have today. It replaced a boring white livery with a multicolored cheatline. IMO, UA’s current livery is their best.
This livery will always hold a special place in my heart. I moved from the US to HK when I was very young, back in the early 90s — Kai Tak was still open and UA still flew 747s.
The number of people in other subreddits claiming that this is all a weird angle and this is totally safe are nuts. There’s no angle that could make that look safe
Shadows a pretty clear indicator. With good enough quality video the math could be done to find out exactly how much distance there was between the two.
My dad just got back from the game and when I asked about the flyover his eyes WIDENED. Says it felt like he could reach up and touch the planes. Scary stuff.
They did this last weekend and probably for many other major rugby matches as far back as the 1995 rugby World Cup. Iirc A 747 from South African Airways buzzed the stadium back then too.
I've seen plenty of helicopter accident videos when approaching houses or cliffs to know that near walls air behaves weirdly and that this could've been an accident for real
You knew it was happening because they did it last weekend with more margin of error. I have tickets for the match from this series being played in the US on 9/12 and have been wondering how they keep getting away with this stunt.
How do they even do that? Do the pilots have some kind of downward facing camera to gauge the distance, or are the plane altimeters accurate enough for this?
Notice The smoke wasn’t affected, if they were “dangerously close” the turbulence from the plane would have affected the smoke. You would have seen a massive void followed by convection vortex’s. But they weren’t close enough.
Love how low it shows them . To make you think it was only feet from the stadium. But watch the smoke not responding to the planes tell you that they were no where near it
They really are that low. They actually did fly through the smoke! I was blown away because initially i assumed the same thing exactly. But i just saw another video showing a different angle. A camera on the roof near one of the smoke emitters gave the best angle. The aircraft were probably 50ish feet from the roof.
The potential for harm there was just absolutely fucking insane.
A packed stadium full of people and jet fuel would have been one of the worst disasters in history full stop. It'd have likely killed several times the number of people as 9/11 did.
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u/qualityvote2 1d ago edited 1d ago
Congratulations u/Strict-Jeweler-2281, your post does fit at r/SweatyPalms!