How fast do planes fly? Viral video shows one perspective

The clip showed an aircraft flying in the opposite direction. Photo / 123RF

When moving about on a plane or chilling out in your seat, it’s easy to totally forget you’re 33,000 feet (10058m) high and zooming through the air.

Even while glancing out the window, it often looks like the plane is slowly and gently gliding along.

However, a video posted to social media has shocked travellers by revealing what a plane looks like from the position of another aircraft, and how fast it moves through the sky.

Posted by Alabaman Cole Mayo with the caption “Cockpit views”, the video has been viewed more than 12.3 million times. In the clip, Mayo films the view from outside an aircraft window and shows another aircraft speeding past in the opposite direction.

“What it’s like passing a plane going the opposite direction with 1000-foot [304.8m] separation,” read the text overlay on the video.

According to viewers, the plane in the video was a C-130 Hercules; a four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft. However, viewers added that its speed would have been similar to that of a commercial aircraft, which surprised many who watched the footage.

“The plane in the video is a C-130, which is INCREDIBLY slow compared to a passenger jet,” one person wrote.

@colemayo2

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People appeared to be so surprised because, while on board, they didn’t feel they were moving quickly.

“Why don’t we feel this speed in the plane? While in it, there’s no sensation of high speed. Why’s that?” one person wrote.

“How come it feels like the plane you’re on is sitting still?” another asked.

Another said they felt that if planes moved that fast, passengers should be “pinned to the back of our seats”.

One viewer said they could not believe planes were travelling that fast, given the length of certain flights.

“That CANNOT be how fast we are going,” they wrote, adding it took “forever” to get to places.

Why do planes feel like they’re moving slowly?

The reason we don’t realise how fast we’re travelling, people commented, was because there aren’t often markers to compare your speed against.

“Because nothing is passing on left/right so you can see your speed,” one person wrote.

However, others were quick to point out the video didn’t accurately show the speed of a plane, as it was filmed from another moving object.

“If both planes are moving at 500m/h [804km/h], you experience the other plane moving at 1000m/h [1609km/h],” one person wrote, describing it as relative velocity.

This phenomenon is known as “motion parallax” and is often the reason behind optical illusion-like aviation videos that make planes appear to be stuck in mid-air.

Last year, a similar kind of video gained widespread attention for the way it made a plane looked like it was suspended.

“Motion parallax is real,” one person simply wrote.