Another Reddit thread a line of lights in Poland

[jarlrmai]

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/UFOs/comments/1gk1q8s/amazing_night_over_poland_hundreds_of_reports_and/


This Reddit thread was posted attached are 3 videos which I downloaded, the ones that show anything odd show a line of lights that split.

One of our readers, working on a 50-meter crane, witnessed the entire event at 6 p.m. He describes it as follows: "I was observing from the crane at a height of about 50 meters in Jachranka, near Warsaw

That is here

https://maps.app.goo.gl/Zpx9KYqvCZb2GbqD7

At 17:10 UTC (from the date metadata in the iPhone video files linked in the Reddit post)

I looked at ADSB Exchange for that time (17:10 UTC is 18:10 local time) in the direction the filmer was looking was a large number of light aircraft from a Polish company that seems to offer aircraft training and events and other things.

https://aeroklub.waw.pl/

They had a few planes all flying loops towards and away from the filming position and they were all separated only by a few 100 feet in altitude.

https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=488280&lat=52.496&lon=21.020&zoom=11.1&showTrace=2024-11-04


Source: https://imgur.com/qwPzM3A


So with lights on and stacked over each other they would appear like the vertical column of lights we see.

Then when one or more turned out of the formation they would appear to split and fade as they headed away from the filmer.

So my theory is this was some sort of night formation flying exercise, someone who speaks Polish might be able to find some social media that talks about the event.

Update: looks like they were doing touch and go landings at Lotnisko Chrcynno airfield

 

[flarkey]

The metadata on the downloaded .mov files suggests that these were filmed Mon Nov 4 21.09:48 +00:00 2024, not 6pm-ish local time.

Edit - my bad - the EXIF gives Creation Date as 2024-11-04T18:09:59+0100.

 

[jarlrmai]

Nah I think they were edited or uploaded to iCloud or something on that date

Creation Date : 2024:11:04 18:09:59+01:00

This is the earliest date in the EXIF which also matches the description given

We've had this with iPhone files before

 

[jarlrmai]

There's no GPS metadata in the files as well which might indicate some editing or GPS turned off.

 

[flarkey]

This looks like Skydivers at night to me. The site that @jarlrmai suggested earlier is also home to Skydive Warsaw - Here's a promo video of Skydive Warsaw, including an image of Cessna 208 Caravan, SP-WAW used by the club for jumps. Cant find any recent flight history of that aircraft though.


Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SZLymXyCfo

This part of the OP video looks like a parachute formation or stack, particularly how they break apart at the end.

 

[jarlrmai]

Skydivers were my 1st thought but the planes I see on ADSB are not dive planes and are not at the altitude for skydiving, the number of them matches the number of lights in the video and they are in the right direction and at the right time.

 

[flarkey]

Skydivers were my 1st thought but the planes I see on ADSB are not dive planes and are not at the altitude for skydiving, the number of them matches the number of lights in the video and they are in the right direction and at the right time.

using adsb can you find a time when all the planes are lined up for 19seconds and then break away with 2 going one way and 3 going to other?

 

[jarlrmai]

Yeah that's the hard part, I'm not sure how accurate ADSB is for that type of resolution

 

[jarlrmai]

At around the time in 4464.mov 1708, there's 4 light stacked and 3 planes flying towards the viewpoint.

Could there have been more planes but they had ADS B switched off as they were in formation/training? Or is that military thing only?

The other issue with my theory is there does seem to be other lights that look like planes as well as the stack..

Could do with a really accurate location for this one to see how things line up.

It's taken from from a crane, so a temporary structure. I have asked for a proper location as it's not a personal residence.

 

[jarlrmai]

The more I watch it the more it looks like lit parachute jumpers, but there's no drop plane at that time/date but that location is used for parachute drops and they wouldn't do drops when they are doing touch and gos

It's really really odd. It's almost like the metadata is wrong.

 

[jarlrmai]

Would night time jumps require a NOTAM?

 

[FatPhil]

Could there have been more planes but they had ADS B switched off as they were in formation/training?

That went through my mind too. Rando search engine result for ``ADS-B formation'':

https://www.mooneycaravan.com/web/Mooney/Pages/Learn/Squawk.asp?Zr07Pyvpx=NQf-O&Zr07TPyvpx=Yrn40
ADS-B and Formation Flight - Mooney Caravan

In clinics and practice formation flight, Lead squawks Mode C and ADS-B Out. All wingmen STOP SQUAWK, with both transponder and ADS-B off.

who?

https://www.linkedin.com/company/mooneycaravan
Mooney Caravan to Oshkosh Educational and Safety Foundation

The Mooney Caravan to Oshkosh Safety and Educational Foundation is an IRS section 501(c)(3) charitable organization dedicated to safe formation flying of ...

So they might know what they're talking about.