I just saw the scariest thing ever.

[TM2 Dinobot]

Okay, I was outside earlier at about 7:30 at night. I look up in the shy, and there's a plane up there circling. A big passenger liner, probably a 747 because it had 4 engines. I could tell from the contrails. I live near an international airport, so it's no big deal. However, living near an airport, I am very familiar with standard flight patterns. This guy was not in a holding pattern. The circles were too tight and he was gaining altitude with each pass. I could see all this because he was leaving massive contrails in the sky.

He came in from the south, an unusual approach vector to begin with, but he appeared to be wanting to land. Then he circles not once, but twice. On his third pass he stuck his nose in the air and opened all four engines for all they were worth. I could literally see him shoot across the sky, up higher, circling again. He passed the usual flight altitude of 35,000 feet and kept climbing, turning back south.

By this time I've got my family out there watching it. With this being 9/11 and all, We figured something was going down. As high as he was, we could see his passes getting wider, crossing over Austin and as far south as Corpus Cristy, half way to the border. Then he turned back again, coming north, higher still. There's no way I would have been able to actually measure it, but my dad and I both figured he was pushing the altitude cap on that plane, 45,000 feet or so.

It circled one more time, far out, but by that point the stars were out and it was very dark. I was only able to still see him because of how high he was, and the light reflecting off of his contrails and the plane itself.

I have no idea what happened. it was the most unusual activity for a plane I've ever seen. Like I said, I know holding patterns and I was a pilot for a while, so whatever he was doing was not normal. One thought that I did have was it could have been something like SpaceShipOne, but whatever it was, it was just WEIRD. I took some pics with my phone, but I am unsure how they came out at night. I checked he news and the chat feeds, and I couldn't find anything. I have no idea what was happening but the whole thing lasted for about an hour.

EDIT: uploaded some pics. Ignore the bright think in the last pic. It's glare from the moon. I out lined the flight pattern in red. The "whirl" is up and to the right out of frame.

Edited September 13, 2010 by TM2 Dinobot

[TBT!]

It was a UFO...

T.

p.s. DRUGS are bad...

[mini nugget]

maybe superspiderpiggy would have an opinion on this being a u.f.o, does certainly sound strange and coincidental with it being 9/11 and all

all i can say is i'm glad it wasnt me who saw it cos i wouldve thought it was the end off the world

and t.b.t drugs dont take photos

[NorthRaider]

As someone who also lives very close to an airport, I can sort of relate to the eeriness of this. That is just plain freakin weird, the only other explanation I could think of was that maybe this was a stunt pilot? (Albeit probably a very hopped-up n00b one who set out to pull off some random craziness on 9/11 or something )

[Captain Minimate]

I also had some weird sky-related happening. Here in Hong Kong, we had horrible typhoon/rain recently and according to a guy in the news who took photos of the lightning on his iPhone (which was simply flashing-- no sound, not much rain), there was a "UFO-looking" thing.

http://hk.dv.nextmedia.com/template/dv_cha...;av_id=14436281

Just ignore the Chinese if you can't understand it.

[buttheadsmate]

Until you've experienced the sight of Unidentified Flying Objects ,Crop Circles & their ilk you may remain sceptical of their existence or actuality. Once you have seen these 'unexplainable' phenomenon & explained them to yourself without being influenced by 'outside' interpretation you will begin to enjoy them . I do.

Edited September 12, 2010 by buttheadsmate

[TM2 Dinobot]

http://www.khou.com/news/local/Officials-N...-102705414.html

Gee, would have been nice of them to put that on the news. You know, BEFORE HAND.

[karamazov80]

TM, are you really gonna buy that cover story?

[TM2 Dinobot]

TM, are you really gonna buy that cover story?

Are you be facetious?

[Aapje]

Dont do drunk driving apparently doesnt apply to airplanes

[buttheadsmate]

I wouldn't have thought that that stunt was too clever an idea when you consider the sensitivity of that date. Everything gets 'explained' & I'd accept that most UFO sightings are just that....... sightings of inexplicable flying objects . As you may have guessed I've experienced more than a few odd sightings in the sky in my lifetime & nobody could ever explain them to me .