Low-flying, asymmetrically-lit, silent pseudo-airplane flying on a clear night.
On the clear, star-lit evening of April 22nd, 2020, I observed an unidentifiable aircraft while I went outside to feed my horses at exactly 22:00. Because my home is near two mid-sized airports (30 miles and 62 miles, respectively), there is a high volume of air traffic in the night sky I am familiar with identifying.
This one was different. It was similar in shape to a typical regional commercial jet (~70-seater), but had a much wider cylindrical barrel with wider wings which had a sharper angle in reference to the rear of the aircraft. It had MANY continuously-shining yellow lights on the ventral surface, moreso on the left side than the right, and specifically had one brighter light towards the left side. The front end of the aircraft did have some red lights on both the right and left sides, but not on the wings.
What confused me was the fact that it did not have the usual red blinking lights one would normally see a plane in the night sky use. Nor did it have any blinking lights at all. Usually a normal plane flying this low would even have visible lights on the perimeter of the wings, but these lights were illogically scattered with different levels of intensity. Even weirder, it barely made any noise in reference to how low it was flying. Had there been cloud cover, this aircraft would have been flying below the clouds, and there was barely audible detection of any air moving whatsoever.
To put this in perspective, it was flying in an East-West direction in what appeared to be an ascent, and was flying very low in my northern horizon. Making sure I wasn’t crazy after the aircraft had passed out of my sight in the western direction, I gazed off in my southern horizon as well as directly above me, and as always, there were normal-looking commercial jets flying in the distance at much higher altitudes than this one, blinking lights and all. The sky was so clear, I even saw an orbiting satellite without any difficulty. Even when a plane is descending to land at either airport, they NEVER fly as low as this aircraft. There aren’t even airstrips near me that are equipped for this size of an aircraft to be flying that low, the closest one is 30 miles away. There were no helicopters flying in the sky at the time of the sighting.
Because this is in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have certainly had more helicopters and fewer planes than normal. Also, we have had significantly less road traffic, and I even believe there is slightly less light pollution because of the quarantine orders. Because of these factors, there is less room for visual and aural error.
I was just astonished to see something so asymmetrical, low-flying, and silent.
On the clear, star-lit evening of April 22nd, 2020, I observed an unidentifiable aircraft while I went outside to feed my horses at exactly 22:00. Because my home is near two mid-sized airports (30 miles and 62 miles, respectively), there is a high volume of air traffic in the night sky I am familiar with identifying.
This one was different. It was similar in shape to a typical regional commercial jet (~70-seater), but had a much wider cylindrical barrel with wider wings which had a sharper angle in reference to the rear of the aircraft. It had MANY continuously-shining yellow lights on the ventral surface, moreso on the left side than the right, and specifically had one brighter light towards the left side. The front end of the aircraft did have some red lights on both the right and left sides, but not on the wings.
What confused me was the fact that it did not have the usual red blinking lights one would normally see a plane in the night sky use. Nor did it have any blinking lights at all. Usually a normal plane flying this low would even have visible lights on the perimeter of the wings, but these lights were illogically scattered with different levels of intensity. Even weirder, it barely made any noise in reference to how low it was flying. Had there been cloud cover, this aircraft would have been flying below the clouds, and there was barely audible detection of any air moving whatsoever.
To put this in perspective, it was flying in an East-West direction in what appeared to be an ascent, and was flying very low in my northern horizon. Making sure I wasn’t crazy after the aircraft had passed out of my sight in the western direction, I gazed off in my southern horizon as well as directly above me, and as always, there were normal-looking commercial jets flying in the distance at much higher altitudes than this one, blinking lights and all. The sky was so clear, I even saw an orbiting satellite without any difficulty. Even when a plane is descending to land at either airport, they NEVER fly as low as this aircraft. There aren’t even airstrips near me that are equipped for this size of an aircraft to be flying that low, the closest one is 30 miles away. There were no helicopters flying in the sky at the time of the sighting.
Because this is in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have certainly had more helicopters and fewer planes than normal. Also, we have had significantly less road traffic, and I even believe there is slightly less light pollution because of the quarantine orders. Because of these factors, there is less room for visual and aural error.
I was just astonished to see something so asymmetrical, low-flying, and silent.
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Off
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Clifton Springs
USA
2-3 minutes
2-3 minutes
42.97
-77.15
chevron
NY
Occurred : 4/22/2020 22:00 (Entered as : 04/22/20 22:00) Reported: 4/22/2020 8:45:42 PM 20:45 Posted: 5/15/2020 Location: Clifton Springs, NY Shape: Chevron Duration: 2-3 minutes Characteristics: There were lights on the object, There were aircraft in the vicinity or aircraft chasing the object
Low-flying, asymmetrically-lit, silent pseudo-airplane flying on a clear night.