I drive by ORD almost every day when I'm not flying out of there. Something that I have noticed lately, perhaps moreso than ever before, is the number of aircraft making "S-turns" on approach to various runways. What this means is that the controllers (or the pilots) have messed up spacing and the aircraft is buying some time to get separation from the preceeding aircraft. But it certainly makes for some weird orientations to what I perceive as the "normal" approaches -- "Hey, why is that plane over there?"

Is it me or is anybody else noticing this?

I imagine this has a lot to do with aircraft getting stacked up with all the weather we've been having, but I noticed it this morning around 8am with a UA 733 on approach to 4R.

Also, I saw what appeared to be a near miss a few weeks ago (a Friday, mid-May). The wind was off the lake and 4R was being used for arrivals (and I thought I saw the departure conga line heading over there around Lake O'Hare) and 14L was being used for departures. Anyhow, I saw a 14L departure fly in front of what may have been a 4R missed approach. The 14L departure made a very sharp left turn and the 4R aircraft was maintaining a fairly low altitude on what looked like the runway heading. Maybe it was the angle, but converging flight paths at low altitude always look scary to me. IS there anyplace to look for information on near misses?

my past three flights have had these S curves. I have been flying in/out of ORD for quite awhile now and never had experienced this before. I seemingly made the incorrect assumption it was due to the strong winds.