Light show between 40 and 30 West
 

Flying eastbound last night. My colleague decides to settle in for some controlled rest. So headset on and properly tune in to 123.45 and 121.50. Lots of excited chatter. Not unusual as it was “sporting” on the tracks last night.

But no it wasn’t the usual ride reports. Someone nattering on about the light show. And then many many more voices chirp in. The busiest I have ever heard 123.45. Something happening between the moon and Venus (later worked out not to be Venus. But a very bright fixed celestial object. Mars maybe?)

discussion of lights blinking. Then going left and right. A trio of them. Dancing around each other. Then disappearing for a few minutes. Then coming back. I thought meh. Satellites. But then I think most of my fellow aviators are pretty experienced. And suddenly bang. I saw them myself. It was absolutely surreal. I have never seen anything I can’t explain. It wasn’t satellites. It wasn’t the orionid meteor shower. It wasn’t spaceX’s starlink satellite train. About 10 aircraft from all nations could see it. And then when we hit about 25 west whatever it was was gone.

Chatting to some mates in other airlines, whatever this phenomenon is has been happening for several days. Always looking east.

No one in the air had a satisfactory explanation.
Again I have seen satellites, spacex starlink and meteors and it is none of the above. Many many pilots have seen whatever it is. I’m not saying it’s little green men, but it is definitely a unexplained (for now) flying objects.

Anyone have any ideas? Anyone seen them? Probably a little niche as it seems to be new and probably only visible from the flight deck.

Collective suggestibility? You were all listening in to the excited comments.

Were you perhaps looking too intensely at celestial objects in the dark, thus making them appear to move about?

I am not seeking to dismiss what you saw; I offer some explanations which are worth consideration. Most unusual sightings can be explained as mundane phenomena...which is not necessarily proof of mundanity!

Do the lights maintain any kind of formation? If so, do they do so whilst changing position? Do they change colour?

A few weeks ago we saw similar, but over the Balkans area. Numerous aircraft reporting the same thing to ATC, from northern Greece up to Croatia. On approach to SKG we had an extremely bright unusual fixed light in the sky (at night). Northbound we saw 3 lights moving as described, aircraft closer to it said they could see the objects above them moving in a manner aircraft aren't known to move, estimated at FL500. No idea what they were.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....6b2f75644a.gif

It's a cook book!
 

"To serve Man " IIRC :)

It wasn't around the time of the Artemis launch?

Artemis did cross my mind. But whatever it was it was moving too fast across the field of view to be out of the upper atmosphere. And the mass hysteria angle did cross my mind as well. But it has been seen over many days by many different crews.

Many unexplained 'UFO' type phenomena will be the military of various nations exercising various pieces of kit (which of course they'll deny all knowledge of).

If we occam away the more exotic possibilities, it is most likely that as the above poster says, some form of space-mil tech being tested, or used. Maybe in a portion of the sky that apart from pilots in their darkened cocpits, no man would be there to see it (whatever). All those billions that seem to disappear in projects that don't stand up to scrutiny must be going somewhere and these sightings could well be the result.

I guess it's not the easiest thing to film on a phone with all the cockpit lighting and glass in the way but I wonder if anyone managed to get some video of the phenomena.

"They" seem to be at it again.
Well documented phenomena.
Did you get an idea of direction of movement, overall?

in my field of vision right to left. Then disappearing and then starting at the right again. Generally between the moon on the left and a star/planet same height as the moon on the left

military crossed my mind. But why do it in a place where hundreds of people in flight can see it.

why not do it in a bit of “space” where very few people can see it. South Pacific for example. As opposed to direct line of sight of the nat tracks.

I heard on 123.45 that crews were trying to video it but too dim to be picked up on camera phones.

as to the moderator that moved it from JB to R and N. Fair enough your train set. But can I claim my prize for being the first ever thread to go in this direction as opposed to the opposite way 😱

Thanks for the description. Out of curiosity, any long obvious North-south movements?

I suggest a report to a certain NGO that has the biggest record of reported events up to now, and no not muffon or whatever it is called.
Actually you will find many similar incidents in their records.

Maybe let the pilots discuss this "rumour" on the "Professional Pilots Rumour Network".

A Chinese rocket stage came apart in LEO a couple of days ago. Could it be debris from that?

Right to left then gone. Then another set right to left again and gone ?
Does right = south ?
Objects high enough to still be illuminated by the sun then as they track north into the earth's shadow ?
Something, well 2 groups of 3 of them, in low polar orbit ?

‘Back to Boeing’, that was a perfect description of what I and many other aircraft also saw in the mornings of the 11th and 16th Nov.
Initially, I put it down to the SpaceX starlink cubesats moving in varying orbits and catching the reflecting sun. But, as another pilot pointed out, they were not moving in a fixed orbital path….to add, I saw up to 4 moving lights at one time. They would be about as bright as the ISS at their brightest. Both nights they were in exactly the same part of the sky, above the eastern horizon, to the right of the bright star Arcturus. Which seems, is where you saw them too.

Fascinating.
I expected far more cynicism , nice to see the lack of it so far.
‘ Back to Boeing’ & ‘birdspeed’ , did you report it to your employers?
Is there a policy on any airline that makes it incumbent on you to do so , or would that leave you open to criticism?
What did the other people on the flight deck with you think of what you saw?

The narrator is a highly experienced F-14 RIO, ex CO of USN Academy Annapolis and ex editor of the USN "Approach" flight safety magazine.

Captain James Howard. BOAC

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=476030439840305

It's my long term favourite UFO story.

BTW. Jupiter is still very bright. Look at its moons (binoculars) now cos you're not going to be alive when it comes this close again.