We're discussing a matter of 10s of feet between the near-collision we saw, clipping the tail of one plane, or hitting the plane behind at landing speed, so I i

We're discussing a matter of 10s of feet between the near-collision we saw, clipping the tail of one plane, or hitting the plane behind at landing speed, so I imagine the set of "what could have happened" is rather large. That said, I suspect the following three crashes give _some_ indication of what might have happened: USAir 1493 - 737 collides with a turbo-prop on landing; the smaller plane is essentially crushed by the 737 Asiana 214 - Landing gear and tail clip seawall on approach Tenerife disaster - 747 strikes the side of a second 747 a few seconds after leaving the ground on takeoff; engines, lower fuselage and main landing gear struck the plane. 583 fatalities. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USAir_Flight_1493 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USAir_Flight_1493 / https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asiana_Airlines_Flight_214 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asiana_Airlines_Flight_214 / https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenerife_airport_disaster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenerife_airport_disaster