Explained: UFOs over Melbourne April 2022 [Roulettes Aerobatic Planes]

[johne1618]

What are these objects recorded over Melbourne, Australia in April 2022 by YouTuber Era-Modon.

They are traveling too fast to be balloons or birds. They seem to be too close together to be planes unless they are a display team (also no wings?).

The video zooms in at around 0:10. Observer rather sweary!

[Video Removed By User]
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sf_nWSNodtI

Snapshot from video



Another equally sweary video taken on the same day in the same location

[Video Removed By User]
Source: https://youtu.be/_NXOsgPgua4

 

[Mendel]

What are these objects recorded over Melbourne, Australia in April 2022?

Source, location, time?

 

[johne1618]

Source, location, time?

Apparently both videos were taken around Midday Friday April 1st, 2022 around 1 pm local time by YouTuber Era-Modon. (According to YouTube comments on first video). Hopefully not April Fool's joke! So far the observer hasn't given the exact location.

Update: location given in YouTube comments as Coles Express in Truganina.

 

[flarkey]

Looks like low level fighters to me

Maybe related to this...?

https://www.airforce.gov.au/operations/flying-operations/air-force-dedicate-new-memorial-point-cook

 

[flarkey]

Snapshot from the video:


Royal Australian Air Force Aerobatic team - The Roulettes - in formation. Kinda similar....?



Source: https://youtu.be/Rv-j-XHqy6w?t=3468

 

[johne1618]

Looks like low level fighters to me

Maybe related to this...?

https://www.airforce.gov.au/operations/flying-operations/air-force-dedicate-new-memorial-point-cook

Observer claims sighting was on Friday Apr 1st whereas these flypasts were on Wed Mar 30th.

 

[flarkey]

Observer claims sighting was on Friday Apr 1st whereas these flypasts were on Wed Mar 30th.

That is true. Trying to see if they were displaying in Melbourne on Fr 1 April too.

 

[jarlrmai]

Air display teams often do sit recs before events, they also sometimes fly into local airbases ahead of the time etc.

Getting the location would be key.

 

[flarkey]

Building seen in the video is here:



https://www.google.com/maps/@-37.8243629,144.7413716,3a,75y,263.95h,73.67t/data=!3m10!1e1!3m8!1szS0GRYdd0y8nklh5MF3UjQ!2e0!6shttps://streetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com/v1/thumbnail?panoid=zS0GRYdd0y8nklh5MF3UjQ&cb_client=maps_sv.tactile.gps&w=203&h=100&yaw=35.281322&pitch=0&thumbfov=100!7i16384!8i8192!9m2!1b1!2i37



Coords: -37.8243629,144.7413716 , Looking west



Edit: fixed hyperlink

 

[Mick West]

Stabilized.

I think @flarkey nailed it, the Roulettes, at a low angle. You see the white tails.

 

[flarkey]

Just for reference, the RAAF display on March 30 was pretty much in the area of the video. The flight path of one of the Roulettes display Aircraft is available on ADSB exchange.


Aircraft A54-044

 

[Mick West]

Typical formation


Source: video from that location, March 31st. at 3:22

I think this one is explained.

 

[jackfrostvc]

I'm in Melbourne

Every year a week before the Grand Prix and on the grand prix weekend, they fly formations ....right over my house.

The roulettes do so and then you get an f/a-18 fly around scaring the crap out of the cats

Grand Prix is this coming weekend

Here's a pic I took of them one year from my back yard

 

[jarlrmai]

I'll paste the link to this thread into the posters YouTube video I am sure they will be delighted.

 

[jackfrostvc]

Lol, I'm reading this thread and the Rouletttes fly over my house as I'm reading.
They are still going at it now

I live next to the F1 track(road) here in Melbourne

 

[johne1618]

Apparently both videos were taken around Midday Friday April 1st, 2022 around 1 pm local time by YouTuber Era-Modon. (According to YouTube comments on first video). Hopefully not April Fool's joke! So far the observer hasn't given the exact location.

Update: location given in YouTube comments as Coles Express in Truganina.

Update from Era-Modon:

Just to be clear, Video was taken on Wednesday 30/03 at 11:52 am. uploaded to youtube on Tuesday fourth of April. I work in 24/7 roster and got confused with dates.

 

[jarlrmai]

Update from Era-Modon:

This is why uploading original footage with metadata is so important. Sure have a YouTube version for ease of sharing etc, but also have a google drive etc version of the original file.

If we'd had the file from the phone, we'd know exact date/time and location likely. Independent of eye witness errors.

If people genuinely want things identifying original footage is hugely helpful.

If any video comes out that is genuinely odd, seeing that original footage if also going to be the only way we can determine it's likely not faked.

 

[flarkey]

Update from Era-Modon:

Screenshot confirming...

 

[jarlrmai]

 

[flarkey]

I assume that is at the exact time of the video....? I have added the witness location and direction for the removal of all doubt....

 

[jarlrmai]

I assume that is at the exact time of the video....? I have added the witness location and direction for the removal of all doubt....

Th

Yeah, sorry, that is at the time the video was taken as said by the observer. I got distracted by work as I was posting and hit submit.

 

[Mendel]

Update from Era-Modon:

Excellent update!

It demonstrates how even well-meaning witnesses can introduce errors.

Source, location, time?

The correct time and location help identify a lot of sightings. Information about the source sometimes helps identify hoaxes (and corroborates the other info somewhat), that wasn't needed here.

 

[Mendel]

Building seen in the video is here:

What was your process to identify the exact location?

 

[jarlrmai]

What was your process to identify the exact location?

Can't speak for Flarkey but I found the location independently at the same time Flarkey (he beat me to the post) but knowing it was Melbourne and then at some point in the second video a Coles warehouse sign is visible, they obviously partner with LINFOX for the warehousing so a Google Maps search for LINFOX COLES WAREHOUSE gave a few locations and then a quick street view drive identified the multicoloured building

 

[flarkey]

Can't speak for Flarkey but I found the location independently at the same time Flarkey (he beat me to the post) but knowing it was Melbourne and then at some point in the second video a Coles warehouse sign is visible, they obviously partner with LINFOX for the warehousing so a Google Maps search for LINFOX COLES WAREHOUSE gave a few locations and then a quick street view drive identified the multicoloured building

Yeah that's pretty much what I did too. I think I may have googled COLES DISTRIBUTION CENTRE and I had a hunch we were looking for a site in the West of Melbourne, but the same idea applies.

 

[ZeNrG]

Stabilized.

I think @flarkey nailed it, the Roulettes, at a low angle. You see the white tails.

No... I was there. They were disc shaped craft.

 

[JMartJr]

Odd, then, how they were flying where these planes were flying, in a formation these planes use, with the white bit about where the tail fin would be, associated with an air show where I'd expect a very large number of people with cameras rolling to be enjoying the amazing sights. I'd have thought somebody would have captured an angle that looked like discs, say circles seen from below.

 

[Mendel]

No... I was there. They were disc shaped craft.

You were seeing distant dark shapes against a bright sky. These shapes are not disc-shaped from the direction you saw them; you think you saw the disks from the side, but it's really not easy to identify a shape from an oblique angle, especially if you can't see it clearly.

It's an established principle in cognition that our expectations shape our perceptions.

Article:

Pareidolia [...] is the tendency for perception to impose a meaningful interpretation on a nebulous stimulus, usually visual, so that one sees an object, pattern, or meaning where there is none.

Common examples are perceived images of animals, faces, or objects in cloud formations, seeing faces in inanimate objects, or lunar pareidolia like the Man in the Moon or the Moon rabbit.

Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareidolia

I don't doubt you sincerely believe you saw flying disks, but the evidence points to these disks being an optical illusion.

 

[flarkey]

Odd, then, how they were flying where these planes were flying, in a formation these planes use, with the white bit about where the tail fin would be, associated with an air show where I'd expect a very large number of people with cameras rolling to be enjoying the amazing sights. I'd have thought somebody would have captured an angle that looked like discs, say circles seen from below.

Also weird that the Roulettes didn't see the disks and cancel their display due to an air proximity hazard.

 

[ZeNrG]

Typical formation


Source: video from that location, March 31st. at 3:22

I think this one is explained.

You're kidding right?
Apart from not having any visible wings, tail rudders, cockpits or visible propellers... how is this explained? Plus the flight path shown is many kms away from Truganina and the Roulettes are NOT allowed to fly so low when not actually performing.
NOTHING has been explained.

 

[flarkey]

You're kidding right?
Apart from not having any visible wings, tail rudders, cockpits or visible propellers... how is this explained? Plus the flight path shown is many kms away from Truganina

In the original video the objects appear many km (3.2 km to be exact) away from the witness. This matches with the analysis we have done.

and the Roulettes are NOT allowed to fly so low when not actually performing.

They were actually performing. This was a display for a Royal Australian Air Force 100th anniversary celebration at RAAF Base Point Cook.

NOTHING has been explained

Everything has ben explained. If you think something needs further explanation please post it here and be specific. We will explain it for you.

 

[JMartJr]

... not having any visible wings, tail rudders, cockpits or visible propellers...

The tail rudders are visible. The wings would not be visible, just as they are not in this pic:


For the resolution of the picture/vid, the cockpit and prop would not be expected to be particularly noticeable. The tanks or whatever they carry slung below them CAN be seen I think, but just barely:



But what you CAN see clearly is the formation -- same as the planes in this team use. And the team was flying there at that time. Far as I can tell, the objects in the video never do anything that the planes would not do. Seems to me that's enough walking like a duck, quacking like a duck and other general duckiness to safely conclude, in the absence of any non-duck features, "That's a duck."

 

[ZeNrG]

The tail rudders are visible. The wings would not be visible, just as they are not in this pic:


For the resolution of the picture/vid, the cockpit and prop would not be expected to be particularly noticeable. The tanks or whatever they carry slung below them CAN be seen I think, but just barely:



But what you CAN see clearly is the formation -- same as the planes in this team use. And the team was flying there at that time. Far as I can tell, the objects in the video never do anything that the planes would not do. Seems to me that's enough walking like a duck, quacking like a duck and other general duckiness to safely conclude, in the absence of any non-duck features, "That's a duck."

 

[jarlrmai]

Yes that's it, those are the white vertical stabilisers, everything is just a bit less defined and clear in the video. But the white tail planes stand out. They might be clearer on the original non recompressed video.

 

[ZeNrG]

Yes that's it, those are the white vertical stabilisers, everything is just a bit less defined and clear in the video. But the white tail planes stand out. They might be clearer on the original non recompressed video.

they're not just less defined as you put it. The rest of the things like wings and everything else needed for conventional flight is just not there full stop.
Plus they were absolutely silent.

 

[JMartJr]

ZeNrG, I'm not clear on where we are here. Would you agree that the wings, props and canopies would not be visible from that angle at that resolution and image quality, but you continue to expect to see the tail rudder and continue to not see them in the videos/pics? Just asking so as not to waste your time arguing over areas where we agree.

Concentrating on the tail rudders, I would agree that they are more visible in this image on the two trailing planes:

The white upward projections on the left, leading planes ARE faint, I agree, but they are present, and they are very visible in the planes to the right of the image. What about those white projections at the tail-end of the objects do you think is NOT compatible with the white tails of the Roulettes' planes? It seems a pretty odd coincidence that all four objects show some trace of a white vertical protrusion just where the four white tails of the planes would be! Especially when you add that to the other coincidences: the same formation and the same time and place the planes were flying.

 

[jarlrmai]

It seems the original videos are removed. I have them saved to my HDD what's the policy on attaching them if the source is deleted? @Mick West

 

[Mick West]

It seems the original videos are removed. I have them saved to my HDD what's the policy on attaching them if the source is deleted? @Mick West

I think it's fair use, non-commercial investigation

 

[jarlrmai]

Both videos:

 

[Mendel]

You may need to fiddle with your contrast settings, but I can see the tail fins offset brightly against the sky.

Kudos to @JMartJr @Mick West for finding such a close match!