Fast moving light seen from passenger jet over upstate NY
Object seen during United Airlines flight 200 from Chicago to Albany, NY. I was a passenger on the left side of the cabin, with a view to the north out my window. Lights in the cabin were dimmed aside from a few reading lights and television screens for the inflight entertainment. It was probably sometime between 11:20 and 11:50 pm. The weather was mostly clear, with the stars and moon easily visible and a very small amount of light left from sunset at the northwestern horizon.
Our flight was beginning to make its initial descent to the Albany airport, but still very high- as the cruising altitude of the flight was announced to be 39,000 feet. As a former resident of Upstate NY, I could determine when we flew over Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse.
When we began approaching what I believe to be Utica, and possibly Rome to the North, I noticed a bright point of warm white light which at a quick glance would apprear to be a bright star or planet (no blinking ! to indicate it was a commercial aircraft,) to the north. It was moving significantly faster than our aircraft to the ENE direction. As it was to my eyes, simply a small, steady light, there was no way to determine how large or far away it was from our jet. It is entirely possible that it was a high-altitude aircraft, or satellite, but it seemed to be moving much more quickly than satellites I've observed from a stationary position on the ground. I was only able to observe it for a minute or so, as it flew somewhat parrallel and higher than aircraft, then quickly away. There was no change of speed during the sighting. The light appeared to be flying in a straight line, although I may have seen it swerve slightly a couple of times- possibly due to air movement between myself and the object, or the movement of our aircraft. No other passengers that I was near seemed to notice anything, and as I was traveling alone, I did not alert anyone around me to what I saw.
I consider myself a skeptic, and I am making this report simply because it was something that I could not easily identify. It did not look the same as other commercial or military aircraft I've seen from an airplane, and it was thousands of feet higher than necessary for a plane to use landing lights.
Object seen during United Airlines flight 200 from Chicago to Albany, NY. I was a passenger on the left side of the cabin, with a view to the north out my window. Lights in the cabin were dimmed aside from a few reading lights and television screens for the inflight entertainment. It was probably sometime between 11:20 and 11:50 pm. The weather was mostly clear, with the stars and moon easily visible and a very small amount of light left from sunset at the northwestern horizon.
Our flight was beginning to make its initial descent to the Albany airport, but still very high- as the cruising altitude of the flight was announced to be 39,000 feet. As a former resident of Upstate NY, I could determine when we flew over Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse.
When we began approaching what I believe to be Utica, and possibly Rome to the North, I noticed a bright point of warm white light which at a quick glance would apprear to be a bright star or planet (no blinking ! to indicate it was a commercial aircraft,) to the north. It was moving significantly faster than our aircraft to the ENE direction. As it was to my eyes, simply a small, steady light, there was no way to determine how large or far away it was from our jet. It is entirely possible that it was a high-altitude aircraft, or satellite, but it seemed to be moving much more quickly than satellites I've observed from a stationary position on the ground. I was only able to observe it for a minute or so, as it flew somewhat parrallel and higher than aircraft, then quickly away. There was no change of speed during the sighting. The light appeared to be flying in a straight line, although I may have seen it swerve slightly a couple of times- possibly due to air movement between myself and the object, or the movement of our aircraft. No other passengers that I was near seemed to notice anything, and as I was traveling alone, I did not alert anyone around me to what I saw.
I consider myself a skeptic, and I am making this report simply because it was something that I could not easily identify. It did not look the same as other commercial or military aircraft I've seen from an airplane, and it was thousands of feet higher than necessary for a plane to use landing lights.
No
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
Off
No
No
Yes
No
No
No
No
Utica
USA
about one minute
about one minute
43.10
-75.23
light
NY
Occurred : 6/25/2010 23:35 (Entered as : 06/25/10 23:35) Reported: 6/28/2010 10:49:13 AM 10:49 Posted: 7/6/2010 Location: Utica, NY Shape: Light Duration: about one minute Characteristics: There were lights on the object, There were aircraft in the vicinity or aircraft chasing the object
Fast moving light seen from passenger jet over upstate NY