A-10 "Chased" by Object [Looks like a Bird]

[Mick West]

This is a summary post of the investigation in the thread below.

The discussion started with a post by @Sophons

I am uncertain of the validity of the leak, but the author states the following

Ok guys, here it is, the big reveal!! This is the footage that was directly leaked to me via a Department of Homeland Security agent. What you are looking at is the very first legitimate leak of a genuine UAP buzzing and then following an A10 Warthog from the nearby, Davis Monthan AFB. We have heard many stories lately of fighter jets coming into close contact with unknown objects but no footage has ever surfaced until today. The object in question was analyzed and found to be an authentic UAP of unknown origin that exhibited advanced flight capabilities. The object in question came extremely close to the A10, during its routine flight, and began following and even catching up to the jet before changing direction. The A10 seemed to have taken notice of the object as it eventually turned and circled the same area again. The unknown craft once again buzzed the A10 dangerously close before taking off in the opposite direction at high speeds. Towards the end of the footage, as the FLIR operator was observing the craft, it suddenly accelerates at high speeds and flies out of sight. Again, this is an authentic incident direct from DHS. The source wishes to remain anonymous but chose to share this with me because he felt it was the right thing to do. When I asked "Why me?" he replied, "because I love how you present your evidence

Clip

Full Video:
https://www.metabunk.org/f/A10 warthog DHS UAP LEAK RAW..mp4

Subsequent stabilization of the video on the object seems to show flapping wings:
View attachment 45922

Stabilization on the plane shows the object moving along a sinusoidal path, consistent with a bird.
View attachment 45942

Here I stabilized for the nose of the A-10. Then took all the frames overlaid with a "minimum" blend mode to get the path of the bird-like object. I then inverted that (to make it white) and overlaid it on the stabilized video, with a small vertical offset, so you can see the object follows the sinusoidal flight path.

4K version
https://www.metabunk.org/f/Stab a10 grey fixed glitch crop OVERLAY PATH.mp4

 

[LilWabbit]

If this is really DHS footage, suddenly all the grainy Navy UAP footage looks like 8K panorama in comparison. Join the Navy!

The flying dot seems much closer than the plane. A bird, a bug? Remarkably unremarkable footage to be honest.

 

[Alphadunk]

Just seems like something flying in the foreground far from the plane, I don't see any reason to spend too much time on this one.

 

[DavidB66]

I think I've seen extracts from this video before. My first reaction was 'obvious bird'. My second reaction is 'obvious bird'.

If the object is actually following the Warthog, it doesn't seem to be doing a great job of it. The object and the plane are only briefly in shot together, and when the plane makes a sharp turn around 0:30 the object doesn't turn with it, but goes out of shot. It is also very small compared to the plane, unless it is a lot further away. The simplest interpretation is that it is a relatively small object closer to the camera than the plane, which just happens to come into shot while the Flir is tracking the plane, then at some point the operator decides to track the object instead of the plane. In the early part of the video the object also seems to change shape from moment to moment, which would be consistent with a bird flapping its wings.

 

[deirdre]

Same Youtuber had another longer vid with some alleged info.

 

[Mick West]

Yeah, still looks like a bird, much closer to the camera.

 

[Mick West]

Stabilized seems to show wings flapping.

 

[MclachlanM]

Stabilized seems to show wings flapping.

Beat me to it, here is a real bird in IR for reference:

 

[Mick West]

Here I stabilized for the nose of the A-10. Then took all the frames overlaid with a "minimum" blend mode to get the path of the bird-like object. I then inverted that (to make it white) and overlaid it on the stabilized video, with a small vertical offset, so you can see the object follows the sinusoidal flight path.

4K version
https://www.metabunk.org/f/Stab a10 grey fixed glitch crop OVERLAY PATH.mp4

 

[LilWabbit]

Beat me to it, here is a real bird in IR for reference:

View attachment 45923

Brilliant. Unmistakably a bird. Couldn't resist smiling watching your closeup and comparison. Still a UAP though, we don't know if it's a gannet, a cormorant, a gull, or a crow. Maybe it's classified.

 

[deirdre]

or a bat. (assuming the timestamp on the flir was set accurately)

 

[MclachlanM]

If I were a betting man...

A pair of Burrowing Owls stand outside their burrow along Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, AZ.

 

[LilWabbit]

My vote goes to the great horned owl, also found in Arizona


Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alM0Eb8qMJ0

The bird in the "DHS" footage seems larger than the burrowing owl or the western mastiff bat (despite the largest bat in the US), despite both being endemic to Arizona. Its real-time wingbeat frequency (despite what seems like intermittent flapping) is slower than that of the burrowing owl and the mastiff bat.

Back in the day I was stationed in Sri Lanka for a year where I saw the world's largest bats, the Indian flying fox (or to be precise, the great flying fox in New Guinea is even one notch bigger). Their wingbeat frequency would match the one in the footage better. Alas, they're in another continent. A giant tree full of flying foxes suddenly taking off at early evening is quite the sight. Indiana Jones: The Temple of Doom wasn't filmed in Sri Lanka without a reason.

 

[JMartJr]

Burrowing Owl flying:

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evT6zpUQRrY


Great horned owl flying:

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alM0Eb8qMJ0


I don't have enough "owl knowing" to say if these are typical wing beat speeds -- both look a bit fast for the beat in the UFO footage to me. But to get that slow wing beat, if it's an owl, bet on the biggest one.
(It is annoying, for our purposes, how many owl flying videos on YouTube want to show them in majestic slow motion!)

 

[deirdre]

both look a bit fast for the beat in the UFO footage to me.

it depends on how much environmental lift you got. less lift more wing flaps.

and fuzzy video glitches make it kinda hard to really tell what is flap (or lack of flap) and what is artifact.

this snowy owl has different beats through the video (2 prior brief scenes with faster briefs, im timestamp embedding at longest footage section)

Source: https://youtu.be/l2jrpbnrQR0?t=126

 

[LilWabbit]

Albeit not usually flying at night, it's not impossible that the bird is a golden eagle or a red-tailed hawk, awakened or startled by the plane. The golden eagle would certainly qualify as a big bird with slow wingbeats.

Wingbeats at 10 seconds into the video following soar:


Source: https://youtu.be/RJrbjUfTgNc

 

[Mick West]

Given the sinusoildal flight path, I think it's like "bounding" or "flap-bounding" flight. Indicating a smaller bird.

 

[LilWabbit]

A study on intermittent flight amongst birds:

https://academic.oup.com/icb/article/41/2/188/135398

Sinusoidal pattern is characteristic to all intermittent flight. In intermittent flight "periods of flapping are interspersed with periods of gliding".

According to the study, three kinds of intermittent flight are observed: (1) bounding (mostly small birds), (2) undulating (all kinds of birds) and (3) chattering (rarer, but includes magpies).

The study says "bounding flight paths often include substantial cyclic variations in height" which doesn't quite match the more steady sinusoidal UFO pattern Mick drew. Undulating seems likelier.

 

[Sgt.Squarehead]

The first clip looks like the aircraft is towing a sensor pod (like they use on test flights); hard to get a sense of what the trajectory is because the camera aircraft is also maneuvering

Those are towed decoys (not sensors) and I'm not sure the A-10 can use them:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AN/ALE-50_towed_decoy_system

 

[LilWabbit]

That was my immediate reaction too...A bird lower and closer to the camera.

PS - I'd further agree with the later suggestions of one of the larger raptors...That is exactly what I thought of.

Yup, and I think this footage can already be deemed 'explained'. The UFO is a bird on an undulating flight path with a wingbeat matching a medium to large-sized bird. Possibly an owl or a raptor.

Finches and other small birds have faster wingbeats and their sinusoidal pattern has more cyclic height variations.

 

[Kyle McDonald]

Returning to this thread because the CBP has now officially released this video as "Records pertaining to Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon".

Interestingly, the CBP release is redacted while the original leak is not redacted.

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[Doctor Franger]

My vote goes to the great horned owl, also found in Arizona

Back in the day I was stationed in Sri Lanka for a year where I saw the world's largest bats, the Indian flying fox (or to be precise, the great flying fox in New Guinea is even one notch bigger). Their wingbeat frequency would match the one in the footage better. Alas, they're in another continent. A giant tree full of flying foxes suddenly taking off at early evening is quite the sight. Indiana Jones: The Temple of Doom wasn't filmed in Sri Lanka without a reason.

LilWabbit not alarmed at the prospect of owls? unnatural, suspicious.

Our Melbourne treesfull of flying foxes depart intermittently, unhurriedly and one at a time at early evening. In their very Australian way. (they will do it en masse a la Temple of Doom if you bang the tree with a cricket bat)
They travel in a very anthropomorphisey way; in their commute from inner suburban roosts to outer suburban gardens and orchards, thousands begin by following the path of a river like it's a freeway ("Flying Foxes at Yarra Bend Park" on the Youtube)
They begin to diverge in every direction farther out as if following an invisible aerial cow path (if you are on a particular outer street corner and a FF flies over every minute or two, they will pass over the same point every night). (or maybe observer POV bias)
Jungle FFs follow scents on the breeze to fruit and nectar, maybe urban FFs have indeed adapted to follow ground landmarks to a food source.
Oops OT over and out.