when airline companies talk about a "near miss", why is it misleading?

It is not beneficial to airlines to publicize near misses, in fact there are hundreds of occurrences every year, pilots fail to keep the assigned elevation they are assigned, or fail to keep the route in the flight plan, but there are also hundreds of planes in the air at any given time so I don't think is misleading, just a matter of avoiding to create panic among travelers..☺

A near miss is classified as an event when aircraft fail to keep proper separation - normally 1,000 feet vertical and one mile horizontal. At about 450 MPH which is roughly cruise speed for most airliners, one mile vanishes in about 4 seconds if the aircraft are head on, which would be very unusual, and even then it only takes 100 feet of vertical separation to make it a miss

a near miss in airline terms is a 1000 feet and a mile separation both being broken.

Which is very near if you think of the potential closing speed. Very few seconds to react, 600mph jet does a mile every 10 secs, but two jets closing on each other would half that !!!

It's not that near at all - I think it's anything up to a mile away? Also, I read this on Wikipedia:

In the United Kingdom, an aviation near miss report is known as an "airprox", by the Civil Aviation Authority. Since reporting has begun, aircraft near misses continue to decline.

A near miss in airline terms refers to miles not a few yards.

Maybe this will help you -- It means they didn,t Actually Collide - but passed very close to each other less than the distance allowed within the Rules , --- Hows That ????

Cos a near miss is a hit!

Ok which would you prefer me to do

Nearly miss you?

or

Nearly hit you?

By a wisp