5 ms·
Uh, so... I don't have precise enough times to do this, but my first question is, "Is this an Iridium Flare event?" If you have never seen "Iridium Flares", gra
by KirinDave 8y ago
Uh, so... I don't have precise enough times to do this, but my first question is, "Is this an Iridium Flare event?" If you have never seen "Iridium Flares", grab your phone and download an Iridium Flare app. They're confusing, spectacular, and they actually happen pretty often.
Because this sounds an awful lot like an iridium flare. And they're a kind of persistent source of "inexplicable aircraft" reports because they're SO bright you assume they have to be close by.
- atombender 8y agoIridium flares are extremely brief — they last just a couple of seconds. The pilot said "the object had come up along the left side of the aircraft". No pilot is going to describe an Iridium flare like that.
- KirinDave 8y agoThey are brief, but they can be longer than 2 seconds. They can easily last 7 seconds. Some even longer. Also, they can migrate across a huge swath of the sky and when you confuse a person's visual system, they have to interpret it. Obviously, I don't know for sure. But I checked and there was one in the area with a pretty long duration depending on where you are.
- Rebelgecko 8y agoIt looks like an Iridium passed over the ocean between Ireland and Iceland around 6:30Z, around 15 minutes before the radio conversation. However it doesn't quite line up with where I'm assuming the aircraft were
- _asummers 8y agoWould looking at it through a lens of clouds make it appear in a different spot to an observer?
- partiallypro 8y agoI never knew this was a thing, this definitely explains my experience with a satellite passing by I posted to this thread earlier.