Originally Posted by canadianpilgrim

This will be either my stupidest post ever or very serious.

Yesterday while flying in India, the following happened:

Mid-flight, while at cruising altitude, our plane suddently made a "right" turn at about 20 degrees and seemed to gain altitude. We did this for about 45 seconds, then carried on the level. Less than a minute later a jet whizzed by to the left and lower altitude.

In mid-air, I'm sure my eyes could have been playing tricks on me. It seemed it was close enough that I could make out the windows on the other plane. I would estimate it was 2,500 feet lower and less than 5,000 away.

Is there any possible way, that one can verify flight paths of airplanes internationally to see if, in fact, this happened or if in reality it was much further away? What are distance limits for aircraft while in the air? Is this a potential violation/navigational error? Should I report this and to whom?

I don't think they were would have been a collision, however, I believe, if we continued on our original course, we would have violated some limits of approach rules.

Unfortunately, given India's lack of a professional culture and government cover-ups, I don't believe this would be reported to the necessary regulators. Within the past month, the pilot of a European carrier reported a near miss at Delhi International with a SpiceJet plane. This was picked up by someone listening to aircraft radio and gave it to a tv station. The pilot didn't make the report until reaching Europe.

Can someone pat me on the head and say, "Now, now, nothing to worry about"?