Unusual Flight Spotted.

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Member for

12 years

Posts: 1

Hey guys,

I've just been really curious about what I seen yesterday and hoped maybe some of you can shine some light on it for me.

I live in Northern Ireland. Pretty much in a very central region. I've lived here all 28 years of my life, with some interest in aviation and have become very familiar with the flight paths above my house. Airliner flights always appear to be at their full cruiser height, appearing only as tiny dots in the sky with their vapour trails going in the usual directions.

Last night at about 7.15pm everyone in my house heard a VERY loud rumble that was almost shaking the windows. I ran outside and to my shock witnessed a large jet aircraft like an airliner flying extremely low and in a very unusual direction (directly north, right over my house). It appeared to be about the size of a 737, it seemed to also be flying at a pretty slow speed. It was so low I could see all the windows on it. Because it was directly above me I couldn't really make out any markings or detail on the side that may offer a clue to what kind of flight this was.

I immediately looked up several live flight tracker websites show all air traffic in Northern Ireland. It showed no flights in my entire area and certainly none going that direction. There isn't really anything north of here apart from the North Pole - maybe the Faroe Islands. I'm not sure.

Anyone any ideas?

Original post

Member for

15 years 1 month

Posts: 479

You say the flight tracker websites show ALL traffic in N Ireland - this is probably NOT the case in this instance.

For example (quote from Flightradar24):

Flightradar24 shows live airplane traffic from different parts around the world. The technique to receive flight information from aircraft is called ADS-B. That means the Flightradar24 can only show information about aircraft equipped with an ADS-B transponder. Today about 60% (about 30% in USA and about 70% in Europe) of the passenger aircraft and only a small amount of military and private aircraft have an ADS-B transponder.

Your mystery aircraft could have been one of the 30% or so passenger aircraft OR a military aircraft. Hope this helps.

Member for

15 years 2 months

Posts: 2,828

It will help abit if you could describe the aircraft - high wing, low wing, engine number etc ?

What are the Google Earth coordinates of your point of observation? What direction did the plane fly relative to you?

Member for

16 years

Posts: 1,059

My first thought was that perhaps it was in trouble of some sort but there is nothing in this morning's news.

Member for

15 years 2 months

Posts: 2,828

Maybe a maintenance flight.