Brian Dunning
Member
This just in from an air ambulance pilot friend in Australia, who gave permission to post here. tl;dr - 30 minute sighting of two anomalous lights dead ahead of the aircraft over the Coral Sea.
Falcon 900 flight from Nauru (INU) to Brisbane (BNE) late at night with no moon and clear starry skies. Here is the flight track with all the DTLD:
https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/VHCAD/history/20250128/0700Z/ANYN/YBBN
Attached is a photo of their flight summary screen after landing, and a KML file — note the datalogger was on all day so three flights are included in the KML file, extracting the correct one is above my pay grade. He also provided a GPX file but the forum would not let me upload it.
No exact times were noted, but the sighting lasted approximately 30 minutes, beginning 1 hour before landing, and ending 30 minutes later when they had to turn their attention to their descent into BNE. The direction was dead ahead the whole time, and both pilots agreed it was about 10º above them. They both understood it was impossible to estimate distance. The lights were both white, moving relative to the visible star field, and gradually changing brightness as their direction changed, ranging from the brightness of a faint star to brighter than Venus. Sometimes they made suddenly 90º turns to vertical, and usually appeared like one was chasing the other. They noted that RAAF Amberley Base is to the west of Brisbane and speculated if these could be F-18s maybe firing their afterburners to account for the change in brightness, but both pilots dismissed that possibility as they would be much too far away for them to see. They are also familiar with satellite flares, but noted the Moon was on the other side of the Earth so that was improbable, and inconsistent with 30 minutes of visibility.
They tried multiple times to take pictures, but neither phone was able to resolve them. No pictures worth keeping were taken. The pilots also put their chins up on the dash and covered their faces with their hands, both to see them better, and to eliminate any chance that these were reflections from inside the cockpit.
At about their 10 o'clock position was the remnants of an old thunderstorm which produced occasional flashes of lightning.
The sighting ended when it was time to descend, and as they did so, the lights faded into the sky glow from Brisbane.
Take it away, gang. The pilot said he'd be willing to drop in here to answer any questions.
Falcon 900 flight from Nauru (INU) to Brisbane (BNE) late at night with no moon and clear starry skies. Here is the flight track with all the DTLD:
https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/VHCAD/history/20250128/0700Z/ANYN/YBBN
Attached is a photo of their flight summary screen after landing, and a KML file — note the datalogger was on all day so three flights are included in the KML file, extracting the correct one is above my pay grade. He also provided a GPX file but the forum would not let me upload it.
No exact times were noted, but the sighting lasted approximately 30 minutes, beginning 1 hour before landing, and ending 30 minutes later when they had to turn their attention to their descent into BNE. The direction was dead ahead the whole time, and both pilots agreed it was about 10º above them. They both understood it was impossible to estimate distance. The lights were both white, moving relative to the visible star field, and gradually changing brightness as their direction changed, ranging from the brightness of a faint star to brighter than Venus. Sometimes they made suddenly 90º turns to vertical, and usually appeared like one was chasing the other. They noted that RAAF Amberley Base is to the west of Brisbane and speculated if these could be F-18s maybe firing their afterburners to account for the change in brightness, but both pilots dismissed that possibility as they would be much too far away for them to see. They are also familiar with satellite flares, but noted the Moon was on the other side of the Earth so that was improbable, and inconsistent with 30 minutes of visibility.
They tried multiple times to take pictures, but neither phone was able to resolve them. No pictures worth keeping were taken. The pilots also put their chins up on the dash and covered their faces with their hands, both to see them better, and to eliminate any chance that these were reflections from inside the cockpit.
At about their 10 o'clock position was the remnants of an old thunderstorm which produced occasional flashes of lightning.
The sighting ended when it was time to descend, and as they did so, the lights faded into the sky glow from Brisbane.
Take it away, gang. The pilot said he'd be willing to drop in here to answer any questions.
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