I work at a news station and was sent a photo (from a legitimate photographer with whom I am friends) of two planes appearing to fly closely to one another. He said one made a sharp turn just after he took the photo. I have a time, approximate location, and the names of the two airlines. They’re not passenger planes. I just want to see if I can find the data that could correspond with this event. Is that possible on FlightAware.com without their flight numbers and destinations? Thanks!
FA does not have a replay system for the overall system map.
Some competitors do have map replay functionality (FR24 and planefinder come to mind).
You’d got to the correct place on the map and then choose to rewind to the correct point in time.
Planes vertically separated by 1000 feet (300m) have sufficient separation.
On a photo taken from below they might look close to each other, but that vertical separation is perfectly normal and sufficient.
Also aircraft can be instructed to maintain visual separation to another aircraft.
In that case, no minimum distance is required.
Search for some videos on youtube of aircraft on parallel approach to SFO.
Are the plane registration numbers visible in the photo ?
Also, its a bit confusing when you say they aren’t passenger planes, yet say you have “the names of the airlines”
As has been pointed out, angles and viewpoints from the ground can create the impression that planes are closer than you think they should be, particularly when considering the image compression of a telephoto lens.