....This plane was on
short short, REAL short final for a jet. The plane couldn't have
been more than 1000 feet in the air and a mile and a half and
15 seconds from landing. yes, it was that close.

I know that's just a quick estimate, but generally those numbers don't mesh
with an ILS profile, so I'm guessing the plane was farther out and higher
than it appeared (but I've been wrong before...). Observing big airplanes
from the ground can lead to lots of illusions. :-)

Maybe it was a little further out than that but I was stopped at a red
light (no, not the PAPI i was driving a car) and I stopped the whole
time. So we are talking 1 minute for the plane to do 2 S-turns and pass
by me. That is that the most so we're talking at the most 3-4 miles out.

the other person wrote:
What happeened with this incident (I was there at the viewing
area, listening to tower), was that there wasn't enough space between
him and the traffic in front of him. The traffic ahead was a good 40kts
slower, and to prevent a go-around, Tower approved S-turns to the
south. This is rather common to see happen when there is a spacing
issue, as I've seen VIR44 (744, EGKK-KLAS) do it behind traffic. As
long as they're not on short final ( 4nm ) they're fine.

This guy got back onto the localizer no less than 1 mile away. that is
simply fact, yes, I am that positive of that as he passed by me
at maybe 300 feet AGL 1/2 mile or so from the threshold.

anyway, this plane was DAMN close. S-turns out at 10 miles, yea no
problem. S-turns that close scared the hell out of me. A coworker
who saw it too. Knowing I was a pilot he asked me about it. That's
how close it was.

Anyway, the first time I saw something like that.

Gerald