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Two Passenger Airplanes Seemingly Race Towards Landing, It’s a Common Thing

Drag races are cool, there’s no doubt about that, but you don’t necessarily expect two planes to engage in such a contest, especially mid-air.
American Airlines aircraft on the runway 1 photo
Photo: American Airlines
And yet, a recent landing at the San Francisco airport looks like a genuine drag race between two passenger airplanes. However, we must spoil the fun from the very beginning and tell you that both were actually heading towards parallel landing strips and weren’t involved in some contest.

On the other hand, videos posted online by TikToker TahoeMatt show this United flight cruising next to an American Airlines plane in what is described as an ad-hoc race. Of course, there’s no such race, but it certainly looks like there is. Let's be honest, we wouldn’t be surprised if some of the passengers believed the two planes were challenging each other to see which one reached the landing strip first.

In reality, however, the two planes were about to touch down on parallel landing strips at the San Francisco International Airport, as the runways are some 750 feet (230 meters) away from each other.

The audio you hear on the video obviously isn’t real and is actually a recording that the TikToker added to the clip, but on the other hand, it seems to fit the whole ad-hoc “race” like a glove.

The second video is even more exciting, as it shows the two planes touching the ground and seemingly racing each other towards the gate.

Of course, given that the two runways are so close, planes landing together is probably a pretty common sight for people arriving in San Francisco via air, especially on a busy day at such a crowded airport. Mind you, for the WWW, it’s still a thing that’s worth going viral.

The videos have already exceeded 15 million views at the time of writing, with over 1.6 million likes and more than 10 thousand comments.
@tahoematt

When your trip home turns into a race ???? #planerace #airlinetiktok #traveltheworld #unitedairlines #pilot

? original sound - Owen
@tahoematt

Reply to @tahoematt Part 2 ?? Race Finish #planerace #airlinetiktok #foryou #sfo #parallellanding

? original sound - TahoeMatt
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About the author: Bogdan Popa
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Bogdan keeps an eye on how technology is taking over the car world. His long-term goals are buying an 18-wheeler because he needs more space for his kid’s toys, and convincing Google and Apple that Android Auto and CarPlay deserve at least as much attention as their phones.
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