Any Events West of Brisbane 0800 GMT?

[Bobbsy]

This is a total long shot...

Just after 1800 local (about 0800 GMT) my seven year old son and three of his friends dashed in yelling at me to "come and see the crashing plane". They are convinced they saw a passenger jet descending with flames behind one engine.

By the time I got outside there was no plane to be seen, flames or otherwise (there was about 70% cloud cover east of us and they described the plane as flying west to east).

I'd discount this entirely but my lad (who is very well travelled for a seven year old) is pretty detailed in his description of "a two engine passenger jet with a red tail like Qantas". We're about 120km due west of Brisbane International (Toowoomba) so seeing a plane of any size low enough to make out the tail colour is pretty unusual.

My theory is just normal exhaust possibly making a contrail, illuminated by the low sun but I'm on instructions from the kids to ask if any plane had some form of engine trouble in the right area and time period.

Thanks to all for your patience with an SLF query.

[NIK320]

That sounds more like a very imaginative young lad you have there :ok:

[Capt Fathom]

Yep. Too much sugar in the young bloke's diet I suspect!

[Fliegenmong]

More to the point who was the low level aerobatic champ over Coomera - Hope Island today?, bottoming out well below 500

Anyone else? Special Dispensation?

Don't get me wrong...not a polished display by any stretch of the imagination it really wasn't, something more akin to what I'd fly with a model

But all that aside.....

Was that sanctioned???

If so I am afraid........

[sixtiesrelic]

Maybe one kid with a good immagination but a number ... they saw something.
I go with the con trails.
When I was a kid in the fifties my father was in England and came home with a story of seeing contrails lit up by the sun when it was almost dark on the ground and how striking it was for him.
He was over there doing the Viscount course prior to bringing one of them back to Oz. He'd flown prior and during the war, so, had seen plenty of interesting things yet this one stoked him.
Sunset was a smidgen past 6 PM amd the clouds in shadow would be contrasty with lit up contrails.

[thunderbird five]

The flash of light you saw in the sky was not a UFO. Swamp gas from a weather balloon was trapped in a thermal pocket and reflected the light from Venus...

[sagan]

Bobbsy

As usual on this site you get no help, 4 replies of pathetic snipes, 'backslapping' one liners or irrelevance from the weak links in this industry.

Ask any pilot a met question or something 'hard' and you often get this result.

I would guess contrail.

The upper atmosphere was humid over South East Queensland with cirrus and there were contrails well west of Brisbane at sunset yesterday.

The best effect of what your son may have seen is when a short contrail is between you and the setting or rising sun that reflects off ice crystals in the contrail, making it look very much like flames.

Google contrail images.