>I hate that they call this having a "near-collision"

>They came close to having a collision

What?

>but there was nothing like any sort of collision

Because "near"

Not OP, but "near collision" implies the very close passing of two objects. These two planes did not come close. Instead, action was taken to avert an almost sure collision.

That said, this is all pedantic.

> "near collision" implies the very close passing of two objects

Near collision is not about inches of distance. It is how close we got to an accident happening. If the timing were a little bit different, or someone noticed things a little bit late, or the weather were a bit foggier, or the runway a bit slipperier we could have two burning wrecks and everyone on-board dead.

“Near collision” is exactly right here. So many things went wrong here, and the fact that everything turned out fine were up to chance. That is we come near to a collision happening.

Distance is relative; for an aircraft about to take off, moving at 50m/s means that 1000ft is a short distance - obviously for a human walking it feels much further.

See e.g. stopping distances for car drivers at different speeds.

"Near collision" in this case is perfectly ordinary english phrasing. It does not assert a collision happened.

Unless you ask George Carlin: https://youtu.be/zDKdvTecYAM

Without re-watching the video in question, wasn't Carlin's complaint about a "near miss"? A "near collision" is everything he asked for.

.... damn, you're right.

Yeah, he's wrong.

Was it any kind of collision? No, it wasn't. There was no collision of any kind.

Was it any kind of miss? Yes, it was a miss. What kind? A near one.

>No bad thing happened

Right, because "near." It's in the title.

100% false. A runway incursion of this magnitude would absolutely be classified as a "bad thing". You're getting hung up on semantics.

Delta itself has likely tens of thousands in consequential financial losses from this event, if not more. And lives were put at risk.

This is literally the opposite of a George Carlin joke.

Yeah, he is just wrong.

It was a miss. What kind of miss? A near miss.

It was not any kind of collision.

For two passenger cars this sort of distance isn’t a near collision but I’d say it is for an airliner taking off.