UFO Seen From FedEx Plane over Mexico March 19, 2020. Venus? (NARCAP TR 20)

[Mick West]

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gu0EemWzZpM

Article:

1. The UAP/Light came from above and stopped/hovered near FL37, about the same altitude as the aircraft, shone a light on the 767 and briefly approached the aircraft. Then it instantly matched the speed, and heading of the aircraft and maintained a consistent separation.

a. The light descended vertically, stopped abruptly, and shone a light on the 767 causing the crew to believe that there was another airliner on a collision heading with its landing lights on.

b. It changed direction from vertical descent to a sudden stop/hover, to approaching the aircraft briefly, to taking the same heading and speed of the aircraft at about the same altitude and an estimated distance of 1-2k ft.

c. It matched the altitude, speed, and heading of the aircraft, 575mph and at 37,000ft for over 32 minutes.

d. The UAP/Light changed colors and turned away from the aircraft on a perpendicular heading, West, just inside the Mexico/US border.

e. The UAP/light did not have wings or running lights. It was a new and unique observation to the experienced air crew.

Source: https://www.narcap.org/blog/narcaptr20

Sounds like Venus to me, the larger pulsating is autofocus.

Queretaro, QRO is on CST (UTC-5), but Memphis (MEM) is on CDT (UTC-6). The actual time of the video is not given, but we have:

Article:

The flight, having left Queretaro Airport at 8:05pm was 50 minutes behind schedule. The aircraft was at cruise altitude, 37,000ft, traveling North-bound at 490kts/ 575mph, 150 miles South of Monterrey, Mexico. The visibility was good, the nearest storms and clouds were 40 miles to the West. This route passes over the sparsely populated state of Tamaulipas and crosses the US border near the towns of Reynosa, Mexico and Brownsville, Texas.

Source: https://www.narcap.org/blog/narcaptr20

Curiously little detail on the flight in the report. I'm having a hard time finding the flight. There is this.

AGUAS waypoint, and 0334.7z looks like a time? [Edit: it's the projected time of arrival at AGUAS, a few minutes lare. ] That would put it at 2234 CDT, 2123 CST, 2034 PDT

It seems like it's a cargo plane. Maybe FedEx (Memphis, MEM is the Fed Ex Express hub)

There is a photo on the report page, with EXIF:

Date and Time

2020:03:19 22:01:29

Manufacturer	samsung
Model	SM-G965U

Exposure Time	1/4 s
Flash	No flash
FlashPix Version	1.00
FNumber	F1.5
Focal Length	4.3 mm
Focal Length In 35mm Film	26.0 mm
Image Unique ID	I12QSKF06VM I12QSKL01VA
Interoperability IFD Pointer	5198
ISO Speed Ratings	1250
Max Aperture Value	F1.5

The actual flight is FDX82

So, 03:30 UTC is 9:30 CST (UTC-6, 10:30 CDT, UTC-5) at the end of the video, Venus is 10° above the horizon.

If you had a superb telescope and no atmosphere it would look like:

But of course it's just a point of light, and out of focus with atmospheric distortion and focus seeking, it looks like a wobbly pulsating blob.

 

[Easy Muffin]

View attachment 43958

AGUAS waypoint, and 0334.7z looks like a time? That would put it at 2234 CDT, 1934 PDT

It seems like it's a cargo plane. Maybe FedEx (Memphis, MEM is the Fed Ex Express hub)

The time is the expected ETA over the AGUAS waypoint; below it is the remaining (down range) distance. The three rings on the map display depict ranges of 40/80/120 nm around the aircraft.
Taking the reported ground speed of 575 mph (equal to 500 kts), it would take them about four minutes to reach that point, ie the time in the video is 03:30:30 UTC or thereabouts.

The cockpit displays are not the original 767 instruments but appear to be the Collins retrofit, which FedEx started to receive from Boeing for their 767's in 2013: https://cargofacts.com/allposts/news/first-767-300f-for-fedex/

 

[Mick West]

The time is the expected ETA over the AGUAS waypoint; below it is the remaining (down range) distance. The three rings on the map display depict ranges of 40/80/120 nm around the aircraft.
Taking the reported ground speed of 575 mph (equal to 500 kts), it would take them about four minutes to reach that point, ie the time in the video is 03:30:30 UTC or thereabouts.

Thanks - I was wondering that. Close enough, for the Venus position.

 

[Vahan]

Thanks - I was wondering that. Close enough, for the Venus position.

But of course it's just a point of light, and out of focus with atmospheric distortion and focus seeking, it looks like a wobbly pulsating blob.

Mick - have you ever attempted to re-create a "wobbly pulsating blob" as you believe it could have been created here?

 

[MapperGuy]

Someone needs to develop a "How to photograph a UFO" guide book. Zooming in may reveal details of the object. But zoomed in video can make it impossible to distinguish between movement of the UFO and movement of the camera. Is the UFO zipping back and forth left and right, or are the camera holders hands just shaking? Keeping foreground objects in the field of view helps distinguish between the two.
Foreground objects like trees and buildings also allow reconstruction of the exact direction the camera was pointing.
The pulsations here look like the auto-focus trying in vain to make sense of a white point on a black background.
It would have been nice if they zoomed back far enough to show the edges of the windscreen, so we could be sure what direction
the object was at.

 

[Mick West]

Mick - have you ever attempted to re-create a "wobbly pulsating blob" as you believe it could have been created here?

There are plenty of videos of stars and planets that demonstrate the effect. Examples (rather more zoomed in)

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0yf9gV89f0


I did a video in my garage to demonstrate the mechanics.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0GI20nAb40

 

[stemplusc]

I am a Captain at SWA. Tonight, May 22, 2021 enroute from KDEN to KPHX we saw 2 different starlink trains. As we were watching the 2nd Starlink train from 38,000ft (a really nice view by the way), several other aircraft chimed in that they were seeing something "amazing" in the sky. At least 2 other flight crews were reporting "Objects in the sky". My First Officer chimed in on the ZAB center frequency that we were on and said "Those are Starlink satellites"... one crew responded by saying "Never saw anything like it." So even in the world of professional aviation many "Trained Military" pilots and civilian pilots are unaware of what they are seeing in the night sky. I tried to take video of the starlink train and my Iphone 10 recorded the starlinks in a very similar "out of focus" image.... I have been flying for 30 years, my eyes at night are always looking out into the darkness, I have never seen anything that I could not logically explain. But I do so hope some day little green men land on the White House lawn...

 

[Mick West]

At least 2 other flight crews were reporting "Objects in the sky". My First Officer chimed in on the ZAB center frequency that we were on and said "Those are Starlink satellites"... one crew responded by saying "Never saw anything like it." So even in the world of professional aviation many "Trained Military" pilots and civilian pilots are unaware of what they are seeing in the night sky.

Very interesting example, thanks. I think it's easy to assume that everyone knows about Starlink trains now, but obviously not. I see posts about them all the time in all kinds of forum.

I tried to take video of the starlink train and my Iphone 10 recorded the starlinks in a very similar "out of focus" image.

Could you post this? Might be a useful example. You can email it to mick@mickwest.com if that's easier.

 

[JMartJr]

Mick - have you ever attempted to re-create a "wobbly pulsating blob" as you believe it could have been created here?

I ain't Mick, but while getting a picture of the moon and Venus being spectacular in the evening sky tonight, I tried a short vid. After strong gusty winds all day, it of course it got calm just as the Sun was setting, so we didn't get the benefit of swirling turbulence for pulsatingness...

Camera: Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ300

 

[jarlrmai]

Scintilation is generally more apparent on stars than planets though it will still be there for a planet, it depends more on temperature layers in the atmosphere than wind per se. But it's complex set of interactions and hard to predict.

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

 

[JMartJr]

That what's fun about this place, you learn all sorts of stuff!

 

[Mick West]

Interview with the pilot

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXLFC-hwQ6M