N115LF Bizjet Pilot saw bright light pass by his plane (Reddit)

[flarkey]

This thread is gaining traction on Reddit.


Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/UFOs/comments/1htxlhm/26_year_pilot_just_witnessed_something_i_cannot/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

It seems like a good test for the Sitrec Support for Multi-Track from ADSB-Exchange feature:
https://www.metabunk.org/threads/si...exchange-and-other-drone-tracking-tips.13820/

https://www.metabunk.org/sitrec/?sitch=custom

Time: 01/04/2025 2318Z

Location: 20 miles NE of Williamsport Airport(KIPT) @ 30,000ft

I've been flying corporate aviation the better part of 16 years. Flown all over the world and many of my hours have been at night, I'm accustomed to seeing how things are supposed to look. Never seen anything unexplained in all my career, the wildest would be a newly launched Starlink chain and some rocket launches..

Last year I invested in a very high spec pair of NVG goggles, mainly to look at the stars from home and to hike around in the woods with at night. I like bringing them on flights at night to look at the stars.

This particular trip we were heading to Newark NJ (KEWR) from the Western US. Having been following the "drone" situation out there and this being a night flight I was looking forward to bringing my NVGs on this particular flight. We were cruising at 45,000 ft Eastbound and the sun began to set. We started our descent around 300 miles from our destination. It was dark enough around 250 miles out that I could start using my goggles. At 250 miles away the entire area around NY, NJ & PA looked like the cameras on the red carpet at the Oscars from all the strobe lights on aircraft over the East Coast. You could see plenty of stars, satellites & even watched the ISS overhead. Upon descending through around 33,000 ft, and with my naked eye and that of my co-pilot, we saw an incredibly bright bluish light, approximately our altitude, and roughly 10 miles away at my 11 0'clock.(I was in the left seat flying). Distances can be deceiving at night and I came up with that distance based on the size of the light, it was rather large. I should also point out we had nothing on our TCAS(a traffic collision avoidance system using transponders of aircraft), nor anything on Foreflight using ADS-B.

The light was getting larger and heading directly at us at approximately our altitude(at this point we were reaching 28,000 ft). I looked through my goggles to get a different view and zero strobe lights or a beacon flashing were showing. Just a round single point of light. The point of light shifted from heading directly towards us to moving past our left wing. It passed within I would approximate 3 miles, staying incredibly bright past my 10'o'clock, 9 o'clock, & upon reaching my 8 o'clock position the light shut off, and a single flashing red light appeared.

Throughout this event I switched between looking at it with my naked eye and back to the goggles. I got a very clear view of it directly off my left side through the goggles. It was an oblong sort of circle with a single point of very bright light shining straight at us, like a car in headlights. Its speed was not anything unusual and was about the speed of a normal aircraft passing by.

I tried running through a series things to disprove what I saw. Normally climbing through 18,000ft you turn off your landing lights and are left with just your strobes and a beacon lights. Okay so maybe they (the 737) forgot to turn them off all the way up to 28,000ft and also forgot to turn their strobe and beacon on, which is highly unlikely but possible. The really weird thing is that as it passed my and went to my 8 o'clock position the landing lights face forward, these would not have looked like a spotlight shining at me. My next thought was maybe they had the wing light on(this illuminates the leading edge of the wing to look for ice). If this were the case it was slightly above my altitude and still would not have looked as bright or direct as this did(even with the naked eye it was incredibly bright. The the fact the light simply turned off and a blinking red light appeared(which I saw through the goggles and my naked eye), was very strange. Also, had we been down at a much lower altitude I would have chocked it up to a helicopter with a rotating spotlight mounted on it, but I've never seen a helicopter up at 33,000ft. Also ATC would have informed us of aircraft at that location and altitude, and our TCAS would have shown an aircraft.

My one regret was not calling ATC to ask if an aircraft was at that location, even though it did not look like one. Also I did not bother with a video because they never show up correctly at night and I didn't want my attention diverted away from simply observing what I was seeing.

No clue what that was but it was strange. I've included a screenshot of us on ADS-B, no aircraft meeting that location, altitude or description. The one 737 to the almost 6 o'clock position in the screengrab was at 38,000 feet and not in the correct location or direction of travel from what I observed. My aircraft is the blue one lowest in the image.

Anyway, that was strange.

N115LF - Bombardier Challenger 300

The pilot checked ADSB exchange and noted that there was a 737 in his 6 o'clock position at a time just after the object flew by him,

OP's screenshot:

However - before that the 737 was pointing directly at him and climbing.

This makes the 737 a likely candidate for what the pilot saw.

A few minutes before: https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?replay=2025-01-04-23:17&lat=41.388&lon=-76.936&zoom=10.0

3D view in Google Earth

The KML of both ADSB tracks is attached:

I've tried to load the kml into sitrec, but am getting lost in fixing the camera to N115LF and pointing it at SWA2875 - @Mick West , can you help? Edit: I think i have got it in Strec now:

https://www.metabunk.org/u/ZYZPB8.html <-- click this and then uncheck 'Paused' for a flyby simulation at x16 speed.

https://www.metabunk.org/u/DWz2Pf.html <-- click this and then uncheck 'Paused' for a flyby simulation at x1 speed at their closest point.

 

[flarkey]

One thing that will need to be explained is the Pilot's claim that there was no TCAS alert for the on-coming aircraft:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_collision_avoidance_system

Google earth suggests they only within about 10nm of each other but with around 9,000ft vertical separation , which I dont think would have set off a TCAS TA.

We can also use Sitrec to check their closest point of approach , which is 5.89nm at with ~8000ft vertical separation. This was at 2318:20s ZULU , which is the same time that the pilot reported the sighting at.

https://www.metabunk.org/u/YDlGKT.html

.... so there was never a risk of collision, and the aircraft never got within in the Traffic Alert (TA) or Resolution advisory (RA) limits, although the two aircraft were within the 20nm Intruder alert range.

 

[jarlrmai]

So the pilot would likely have seen this aircraft, but they don't mention it?

 

[flarkey]

So the pilot would likely have seen this aircraft, but they don't mention it?

He doesn't mention it specifically, other then than seeing it on ADSB....

From his Reddit post....

The light was getting larger and heading directly at us at approximately our altitude(at this point we were reaching 28,000 ft). I looked through my goggles to get a different view and zero strobe lights or a beacon flashing were showing. Just a round single point of light. The point of light shifted from heading directly towards us to moving past our left wing. It passed within I would approximate 3 miles, staying incredibly bright past my 10'o'clock, 9 o'clock, & upon reaching my 8 o'clock position the light shut off, and a single flashing red light appeared.

<snip>

I've included a screenshot of us on ADS-B, no aircraft meeting that location, altitude or description. The one 737 to the almost 6 o'clock position in the screengrab was at 38,000 feet and not in the correct location or direction of travel from what I observed. My aircraft is the blue one lowest in the image.

The sitrec playback suggests that it was in exactly the right location and direction of travel to explain what he observed.

 

[flarkey]

Flypast in Sitrec Video... (16x Speed)

 

[jarlrmai]

Yeah it sure looks like it is what they saw but that's gonna be a hard sell

When he says "looked through my goggles" I assume they mean some sort of Night Vision Goggles?

Single light no strobes suggests landing light overpower, but at that altitude would a landing light be on? Maybe some weather conditions affected it?

 

[jarlrmai]

seems like they tried to reason the lighting thing as well

I tried running through a series things to disprove what I saw. Normally climbing through 18,000ft you turn off your landing lights and are left with just your strobes and a beacon lights. Okay so maybe they (the 737) forgot to turn them off all the way up to 28,000ft and also forgot to turn their strobe and beacon on, which is highly unlikely but possible. The really weird thing is that as it passed my and went to my 8 o'clock position the landing lights face forward, these would not have looked like a spotlight shining at me. My next thought was maybe they had the wing light on(this illuminates the leading edge of the wing to look for ice). If this were the case it was slightly above my altitude and still would not have looked as bright or direct as this did(even with the naked eye it was incredibly bright. The the fact the light simply turned off and a blinking red light appeared(which I saw through the goggles and my naked eye), was very strange. Also, had we been down at a much lower altitude I would have chocked it up to a helicopter with a rotating spotlight mounted on it, but I've never seen a helicopter up at 33,000ft. Also ATC would have informed us of aircraft at that location and altitude, and our TCAS would have shown an aircraft.

 

[jarlrmai]

Sounds like they had the landing lights on and then turned them off and there was just the red strobe. No report to ATC who could have then called then 737 crew to establish any lighting oddness like a test or forgotten landing lights? Maybe the other aircraft prompted a lighting check, like when you forget to turn off your high beams..

 

[Duke]

Yeah it sure looks like it is what they saw but that's gonna be a hard sell

When he says "looked through my goggles" I assume they mean some sort of Night Vision Goggles?

Single light no strobes suggests landing light overpower, but at that altitude would a landing light be on? Maybe some weather conditions affected it?

To fly with NVGs, you need NVG compatible flight instruments. I wasn't aware bizjet or commercial a/c went to that expense. Also, the military NVGs I've worked with snap into place on flight helmets and can be lowered/raise for use/non-use in flight.

Maybe he's talking about some commercially available handheld unit for only limited use in flight, like a pair of binoculars might be?

 

[flarkey]

Maybe he's talking about some commercially available handheld unit for only limited use in flight, like a pair of binoculars might be?

In his original post the pilot says this, so I think they were just for personal use and not part of formal night flying or VFR procedures.

Last year I invested in a very high spec pair of NVG goggles, mainly to look at the stars from home and to hike around in the woods with at night. I like bringing them on flights at night to look at the stars.

 

[flarkey]

Just had a DM on Reddit from the pliot....

Hey Flarkey I just read your analysis and watched the video. That was absolutely brilliant. The 737 not only has wing embedded landing lights but also retractable ones under the fuselage. From that vantage point it would make sense if they dropped them down that a bright light would be shining at us through the entire event. I'm going to issue a statement on my post. Do you want me to put your link up with credit to you or would you like to post it?

so

 

[jarlrmai]

Let the trained observer post it would my guess

 

[flarkey]

Here's his update.


Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/UFOs/comments/1htxlhm/comment/m5qn2z1/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

 

[jarlrmai]

Nice of them to link to one of my posts

 

[JMartJr]

Good of them to not want to go down the 'I know what I saw" route and insist it could not have been what it in fact was! In the world of UAP reports, that is extremely refreshing!

 

[Calter]

While I appreciate the OP recognizing he might have been wrong, it kinda sucks that the original post has nearly 5k upvotes (with an even bigger number of views) yet the debunk won't be seen by even a fraction of that number. Even less if OP only talks about it as a comment on a two-day old post (it has 7 upvotes in 7 hours and I assume most of them come from people that saw it through here).

 

[Bonky]

Nice job, flarkey. I saw this go down on reddit and grinned when I saw the link leading back here.

It'd be nice if OP pilot dude would edit his original post to include the new info. I see that happen from time to time on reddit and really helps cut down on the transmedium/transdimensional moron blather.

Keep up the good work, y'all!

 

[Mendel]

Sweet! That's the kind of reaction we're hoping for!

 

[taurusclover21]

You da man, flarkey!