Two Air Canada Jazz flights prepare for takeoff on PIA’s Runway 23.

The nose gear of the KLM 747 I posted yesterday. And yes, it really did seem THAT close.

A KLM 747 moments from touchdown at Toronto’s Pearson Airport.

A commercial flight landing on Runway 23 at PIA.

One plane comes in low for a landing on Pearson’s runway 23 as another takes off well ahead from the same runway.

For this shot I was camped out right at the start of runway 23, so that the planes were passing directly overhead. To give you an idea of just how close this Boeing 737 was, this was shot with an 18-70mm lens at 18mm and is not cropped. The plane was probably no more than 50 or 60 feet overhead. Yes, it was scary. Scarier still is that this same plane experienced engine failure at 3300 feet on March 11, 2003, shortly after takeoff from Kelowna, BC. It returned to Kelowna and landed safely. (It’s amazing what you can find out on the Internet.)

KLM / Royal Dutch Airlines’ Boeing 747 ‘City of Bangkok’ touches down on runway 23 in Toronto. Moments earlier the 747 — once the world’s largest passenger plane — was preceded by an Emirates A380, now the world’s largest.

The massive Airbus A380, operated by Emirates Airlines as flight EK241 from Dubai to Toronto, completes its journey on runway 23 at Lester B. Pearson International Airport. The A380 is now the world’s largest commercial passenger plane. Scheduled arrival time at the gate on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays is 3:45pm, but on this day it touched down at 3:03pm and was at the gate just a few minutes later.

American Airlines Boeing 737-823 N928AN had its first flight Jan. 25, 2000, and was delivered to AA on Feb. 7 that year. Others have photographed this same plane in Toronto, Miami, Philadelphia, New York, Montreal, San Jose, Los Angeles, Fort Lauderdale, Mexico City, Boston and Reno.

A plane takes off from runway 05 at Pearson Airport, May 22, 2009.