
UFOs spotted off Irish coast under investigation - dmmalam
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-46181662
======
evilturnip
I'll also put my tinfoil hat on, since I've had a long fascination with
anamolous phenomenon. I still think the jury's out on what exactly is going
on, but one thing that's consistent worldwide is that balls of light are
associated with UFOs, bigfoot, poltergeists, etc.

My rational mind doesn't really believe in all of this, but if it did, I think
I'd take Jacques Vallee's theory seriously. Jacques Vallee is an astronomer
and computer scientist (involved in early ARPANET) who's studied the
phenomenon since at least the 70s. Here's a fun paper:

[https://www.scientificexploration.org/docs/4/jse_04_1_vallee...](https://www.scientificexploration.org/docs/4/jse_04_1_vallee_2.pdf)

He essentially argues that the UFO phenomenon is neither extra terrestrials
nor merely misidentified aerial craft. It's something even stranger!

Also, if you find that paper interesting, here's one of this books (one of the
most well-known in the anomalous phenomenon field):

[https://www.amazon.com/Passport-Magonia-Folklore-Flying-
Sauc...](https://www.amazon.com/Passport-Magonia-Folklore-Flying-
Saucers/dp/0987422480/)

~~~
minota
Interesting. A possible explanation for some strange and poorly understood
phenomenon accompanied by bright lights could be "earthquake lights", bright
lights that appear in the sky around the time of an earthquake.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIEwKrvepH8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIEwKrvepH8)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKMTSDzU1Z4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKMTSDzU1Z4)

Not to say that it applies to this particular case. Just goes to show that
there is much to this natural world we don't understand yet.

~~~
joshuaheard
I have been through several earthquakes and have seen power pole transformers
spark and explode as the oil inside splashes about and is ignited by the
electricty. This could be a possible explanation for "earthquake lights".

~~~
xattt
This is the most plausible explanation. I’ve seen this effect during ice
storms.

------
minota
Transcribing the interesting bits from 18:15

Man A (ATC?): There's nothing showing on either primary or secondary

Woman A: Ok, it was moving so fast. [Inaudible]

Man A: Alongside you?

Woman A: Yes, it was rapidly [inaudible] bright light and then it just
disappeared at a very high speed. I am still wondering. Didn't think it was
likely collision course. Wondering what sort it could be.

Man B: Meteor or another object. Some kind of re-entry. Seem to be multiple
objects following the same sort of trajectory. Very bright where we were

Woman B (ATC?): Ok, that's copy, so what's the direction it was going in.

Man B: Virgin 76 [inaudible] saw that NRS 11-o'clock position two bright
lights.

Woman B: Roger that's copy, thank you.

Man C: So that wasn't just me?

Man B: No. Yeah, very interesting, that one.

Man B: Virgin 76. I saw two bright lights 11 o'clock. Seem to bank over to the
right and then climb away. Speed at least Mach [inaudible]

Woman B: Okay, we're passing that on, thank you.

Man D (or is it Man A?): [inaudible] 94 Shannon.

Man D: Just to let you know that other aircrafts in the area have also
reported the same thing. So we're going to have a look and see.

Man E: Speed was astronomical. It was like Mach 2.

Man D: Roger, OK. Thank you.

~~~
smaili
I know meteors seems to be a common theory, but do they normally travel _that_
fast?

~~~
eof
What I want to know is, do they tend to "bank and climb away"

~~~
Gustomaximus
Do meteors ever dip into the atmosphere, light up, and skip away? Like a
skipping stone?

~~~
philipkglass
Basically, yes. Here's one famous example:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1972_Great_Daylight_Fireball](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1972_Great_Daylight_Fireball)

[http://www.phys.ncku.edu.tw/~astrolab/mirrors/apod_e/image/0...](http://www.phys.ncku.edu.tw/~astrolab/mirrors/apod_e/image/0903/earthgrazer_ansmet_big.jpg)

------
Fuzzwah
Actual link to the tweet that has all the actual content:

[https://twitter.com/IrishAero/status/1061669444093730820](https://twitter.com/IrishAero/status/1061669444093730820)

Direct link to the audio:

[http://archive-server.liveatc.net/einn/EINN-High-
Nov-09-2018...](http://archive-server.liveatc.net/einn/EINN-High-
Nov-09-2018-0630Z.mp3)

Side note; including a screenshot of a tweet with out a link to it, is pretty
lame.

~~~
hughes
Relevant portion of the audio is within the 18-21 minute range.

~~~
rladd
Starts at 17:51

------
matthewwiese
Since we don't usually get UFO threads on Hacker News, I may as well brush the
dust off my tinfoil hat...

What's always puzzled me about UFO sightings is the preponderance of "bright
lights" being what people report seeing. If some extraterrestrial being came
to visit, why make itself known? And in such an obviously unnatural way, too?

One immediate counterargument I can think of is that it's good camouflage. Who
needs difficult shit like invisibility when we can just pound the earthlings'
pupils with light so they can't see us well! Nevertheless, has always made the
skeptic in me raise my eyebrows recursively.

~~~
ken
Even if we assume that "UFO" means "space alien", it doesn't seem puzzling to
me.

Answer 1: selection bias. Obviously the only ones that people see at night are
those which have lights. We aren't going to hear about the ones that people
_don 't_ see because they're dark.

Answer 2: alien apathy. You've flown a million light years to spy on some
great apes who aren't even sure you exist. Who cares if a few of them get
flashed with bright lights, while you're looking around? They don't even have
flying saucers yet, so it's not like they could chase you.

~~~
matthewwiese
From a rational standpoint, I generally subscribe to the selection bias you
(and Scriptor in a separate reply) raise as #1. However, for the sake of
discussion, let's operate under the assumption these sightings are
legitimate/noteworthy.

Personally, I grew out of bothering ant hills when I was about twelve.
Nowadays, I pleasantly observe from high above. So why wouldn't aliens do the
same?

In this case, your second theory fills in the gaps. _But_ , one would assume
some species capable of this technology would also have cultural norms about
not interfering with less developed groups. Much the same way we (generally)
try not to interfere with primitive tribes around the world.

I suppose, then, that the comparison could be made to the Sentinelese firing
arrows at aircraft out of fear and suspicion. The aliens (in my opinion
rightly) assume we would do the same to them because they are so foreign to
us.

~~~
andrewflnr
> one would assume some species capable of this technology would also have
> cultural norms about not interfering with less developed groups

I would assume nothing of the sort. It's not as if humans even really conform
to that norm. It's a pretty recent trend, at best. With aliens of unknown
evolution/history, all bets are off.

~~~
matthewwiese
Very faint point which I predicted the keen HN audience would be quick to
contend. My reasoning to assume so is a wholly intuitive instinct that all
ultra-high technology societies converge in their moral and ethical norms to a
common limit. That to have survived the gamble of existence long enough to
reach such a point, this civilization almost certainly needed to adopt a set
of values wherein the "Prime Directive" incidentally coincides. Though I
concede that it betrays my personal beliefs more than any tangible insight.

For example, my hippie confidence does nothing to explain the likes of the
Zerg or Tyranids, that's for sure. :)

~~~
slededit
Human ethics vary amongst groups and cultures - even highly advanced ones. I
don't see any evidence to suggest a convergence on a "one true" moral code.
For a brief period western values seemed to take over due to the west's
influence, but that is waning today rather than increasing in momentum.

------
pubby
A few months ago I was walking alone in the park when I saw a bright light
moving in strange patterns in the sky. It scared the pants off of me.

For about a day my mind was nothing but paranoid thoughts. I had fear that I
had seen something that I shouldn't have. That not only extraterrestrial life
was real, but that they knew of my existence and would be coming for me. Or
perhaps they were coming for all of us. I was a mess.

And sure, it was probably a drone. Or a plane. Or a shooting star, etc. But
was it? I couldn't shake the thought that it wasn't.

It sounds hilariously silly now, but at the time it really screwed with my
mental state.

~~~
sockgrant
Had that same feeling years ago. Went out to a dark place to see the stars.
Ended up seeing a light jumping around on the horizon. Then there was a bright
white flash that lit up the whole field and forest, but not like lightning. No
shadows, no source of light. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, no thunder. It
wasn't lightning.

Pretty scared, I kept watching the jumping light on the horizon. A few minutes
later the white flash again. I ran back to my car.

I had the same ridiculous thoughts as you. "what if they know I saw?"

It freaked me out for a long time. The way the light was moving.... Too fast
to see the movement even, it was here, then there. I watched it bounce around
for at least a full half hour, it wasn't a satellite or a meteor.

~~~
chris1993
Similar lights in the Australian desert appear related to inversion layers
refracting headlights over the horizon
([http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s818193.htm](http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s818193.htm))

~~~
midrus
That's what the Men in Black would say.

~~~
jmts
Or in this case (if you check the researcher's surname), the Ministry of
Magic.

------
cmroanirgo
A lot of people typically have a "Where's the proof?" wrt UFOs. However, there
is Dr Steven Greer who in 2001 fronted a 'Disclosure Project' in which many
people from positions of authority (eg FAA chiefs, Tower operators, Military
pilots, etc) stated quite clearly on National Press Club in Washington their
testimony on UFO's. [0]

Since then, he's been often quoted as saying that there's such an abundance of
proof that it's embarrassing. He has video and other testimonies from world
leaders, and often sits down with heads of state advising them, and now has
hundreds of testimonies from verifiable people in the military industrial
complex testifying to the authenticity of their existence, as well as the
massive deliberate misinformation systems put into place to control the UFO
'story'. [1]

I'd recommend watching his documentaries, Sirius and Unacknowledged [2][2b]

[0]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClhNHIEPCKE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClhNHIEPCKE)

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJVg1HBlWA4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJVg1HBlWA4)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShZMgbXNSBs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShZMgbXNSBs)

[2] [http://siriusdisclosure.com/](http://siriusdisclosure.com/)

[2b] Sirius: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5C_-
HLD21hA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5C_-HLD21hA)

edit: better links

~~~
nradov
That's all just circumstantial evidence subject to interpretation, not
_proof_.

~~~
cmroanirgo
I can't disagree, but at what point can sworn testimonies be allowed? 100,
200, 500? What about their 'respectability'? To dismiss such a mountain of
evidence is unwise, I feel.

There are also hundreds of government documents on his website, discussing
various et issues.

Most of the testimonies talk about how there is a systemic coverup going on.
What if they can provide proof, but due to high classification, it can't be
provided, except to Congress? This was ultimately what the disclosure project
was about in 2001. Most of the testimonies attest to that fact.

~~~
nradov
What specifically is unwise? I don't see any negative consequences of being
skeptical.

And the notion of some grand government conspiracy is just ludicrous on the
face of it. No secret could be kept that long by so many people without some
more reliable evidence leaking out.

Appeals to authority in terms of the respectability of various witnesses are
meaningless. A more plausible explanation is that they simply misinterpreted
what they experienced, possibly primed by the ubiquity of aliens and
spacecraft in popular fiction going back almost a century. Look how many
people have been wrongfully convicted of crimes based on sincere but faulty
eyewitness testimony.

~~~
cmroanirgo
Skepticism is all well and good, but it can go too far if it's just a blanket
denial. Dr Greer himself states that he's skeptical of 95% of what he's seen,
but still states:

"we have 3500 cases where ET vehicles have landed and have left physical
traces. We have 4000 cases where they have been tracked on radar and seen by
pilots" ~ Unacknowledged doco.

> A more plausible explanation is that they simply misinterpreted what they
> experienced

If you watch 'Unacknowledged' you will see:

\- multiple US Presidents hint at, or directly acknowledge their existence.

\- Men who've walked on the moon, testifying.

\- Top US government officials, air force pilots, etc, etc who've actually
interacted with them, and and seen them stored in bases in the US.

\- There was even a British Lord in there.

\- Various government records (also available online).

> the notion of some grand government conspiracy is just ludicrous on the face
> of it

Yes it is, but doesn't mean it isn't happening. Apparently $100M dollars a day
is spent on US military. $25B is unaccounted for each year. (The actual
numbers may be out of date, but the scale of them is correct, from memory).

> No secret could be kept that long by so many people without some more
> reliable evidence leaking out.

This statement is directly addressed in 'Unacknowledged'

------
lend000
Do any airlines have high-def video cameras on planes? Seems like something
that would be financially feasible with modern technology and would provide
very useful data for unexplained phenomena like this. I imagine I'm not the
only one who would pay to subscribe for a streaming service for airline
footage, even when there aren't UFO sightings to examine.

~~~
LolNoGenerics
Can you imagine that it is very boring most of the time?

~~~
toss1
You might be surprised at the popularity of "Slow Television" [0], which
televises the long journeys of trains, cruise ships, etc. It is apparently
quite popular in Norway and growing elsewhere. Add some potential UFOs to the
mix, and who knows where it might go?

[0][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_television](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_television)

~~~
zero_iq
I remember in the 90s tuning into "space night" on a German satellite channel
when I got home from the pub. Just continuous video feeds from low earth orbit
with electronica/chillout playing over the top. Was really relaxing to have on
in the background.

I can imagine working from home with something like that on in the background
and occasionally looking up to "see where we are now" \- would give me some
sense of travelling and seeing something new, rather than just feeling like
I've been stuck at home coding in front of my laptop all day.

~~~
toss1
that sounds awesome! I wonder if there's anything like that available now.
Anybody have any links?

~~~
fatfox
I’m a big fan too, so here are a couple of links:

[https://youtu.be/5rmjunOOseQ](https://youtu.be/5rmjunOOseQ)

Official BR video library (not sure if it works from abroad:
[https://www.br.de/mediathek/sendung/space-night-
av:584f4cc13...](https://www.br.de/mediathek/sendung/space-night-
av:584f4cc13b467900117c477d)

And wiki:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Night](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Night)

------
motohagiography
It it were aliens, they are probably making contact with the cephalopod
population under the sea to see if they have developed technology yet, and in
this planets case they've found another monkey hominid infestation in one of
those rare millennia before its civilizations manage to collectively off
themselves.

~~~
HillaryBriss
Maybe the aliens want to communicate with the cephalopods anyway simply
because their brains and consciousness are more interesting than ours.

I mean, maybe. I don't know. Could be. I've never talked to one.

~~~
motohagiography
The cephs are better suited to space travel owing to their ability to survive
cryogenisis, replication of their memories and intelligence throughout their
bodies, no need for gravity, ability to breed i large numbers and transmit
information to offspring. Hominids are a peculiarity of adapting to a given
planet, where the cepholopods are adaptable to more common environments in the
universe.

------
adetrest
Audio: [http://archive-server.liveatc.net/einn/EINN-High-
Nov-09-2018...](http://archive-server.liveatc.net/einn/EINN-High-
Nov-09-2018-0630Z.mp3) (skip to 17min40s)

~~~
ronnier
Would love a transcript if anyone happens to find one. I have a very difficult
time making out what is said, I'm not sure how they understand each other.

~~~
minota
Yup, just did it. I had to run over it a few times and transcribe it to catch
what they were saying. Even then, there are still some bits I could not
comprehend though. Wonder if Amazon/Google Transcribe can do a better job?

------
snek
Are the archives just really low quality or do ATCs and pilots possess
superhuman abilities to understand super low quality audio

~~~
i_am_proteus
As someone who operated marine VHF ("bridge-to-bridge") professionally for
years, I'll say that these recordings sound perfectly intelligible. I imagine
ATCs and pilots have a similar culture of "get the point across as fast as
possible, but not so fast that it is no longer unambiguous." Especially
airband, where everyone in each area tends to guard and use a single
frequency.

~~~
Casseres
US Air Traffic Controller here. We have what we call "phraseology". The FAA
Order 7110.65 prescribes how to say what we say.

It makes for safe and efficient transmissions. If there's a set way of saying
something, then pilots don't have to guess what we mean if every controller
says it in a different way.

------
KirinDave
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
Iridium 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
They 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.

------
blocked_again
These sightings are all most all the time reported in the United States which
probably means this is some sort of advanced military aircraft testing.

The reason why none of the incidents can see the thing clearly is that because
when seen clearly its just another plane and nobody reports that.

------
PuffinBlue
I saw one not too long ago. Two white lights in the sky spaced close enough
and moving so as to be obviously 'connected' to each other.

It was perfectly still night in the UK. I outstretched my hand and finger and,
I forget the details exactly, but the finger just about blocked out the pair
of lights I think.

A quick call to my father in law (pilot) and some info on joining the landing
pattern at Boscombe Down, added to the lack of red/green lights so not
normally a craft expecting to interact with other traffic, and a little
investigative intuition seeing as the lights were moving so slow as to almost
be gliding - and I find the Zephyr high altitude long endurance surveillance
aircraft.

[https://www.gov.uk/government/news/mod-buys-third-record-
bre...](https://www.gov.uk/government/news/mod-buys-third-record-breaking-uav)

A bit of trigonometry showed with a wingspan of 35m (I think that was it) and
the angle of my finger outstretched, put the craft at about the height it
should be for following the standard approach path into Boscombe Down.

So with a little knowledge it was possibly to determine with a high degree of
likelihood what this 'UFO' was.

I suspect that virtually all reports can be attributed to similar terrestrial
origins with experimental aircraft and using the 'extra-terrestrial' card is
just a convenient way of covering that up.

EDIT - I should add I saw it because it was I think the night SpaceX launched
and landed a reusable rocket maybe for first time? Or perhaps it was reused
rocket with reused dragon cargo capsule to ISS. The path I think was going to
take it over the UK anyway, so I was out to see if it would be visible, having
watched the launch a little earlier in the evening.

Note to Royal Air Force - don't land the slightly secret plane when many
people is likely to be looking up!

------
infradig
Not to put a downer on speculation but probably military jets that lit the
afterburners and zoomed away. My first thought was F-111s, but since it seems
they were radar quiet, maybe stealth planes.

~~~
mothsonasloth
I think you mean F-117 nighthawk, which was decommissioned.

~~~
radiorental
'decommissioned' means different things to different people

[https://www.businessinsider.com/air-force-f117-nighthawk-
ste...](https://www.businessinsider.com/air-force-f117-nighthawk-stealth-
aircraft-still-flies-after-retirement-2018-7)

------
newnewpdro
Isn't the most likely explanation for these sightings secret military aircraft
testing/missions?

There's been a number of credible UFO sightings lately, some even by military
pilots and captured on video.

If you consider how long it's been since there's been a major breakthrough
publicized in the air superiority department, and how advanced technology in
general has become since the days of the SR-71, we're long overdue for some
next-level aircraft likely to be kept under wraps until required to win a
conflict.

------
ramgorur
Why all these sightings are never accompanied with sonic booms? If something
is moving that fast through the atmosphere, there must be a sonic boom. Or is
there any way to suppress this? At least theoretically?

~~~
andrewflnr
I do remember reading about an airframe designed to produce two sonic booms
that cancelled each other out.

~~~
partiallypro
NASA is actually working on this, if I remember correctly. They want it to be
a "low boom," apparently it's still a work in progress.

[https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/nov/6/nasa-
quiet-s...](https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/nov/6/nasa-quiet-sonic-
boom-tests-rattle-galveston-texas/)

------
sublimation_19
For anyone fascinated with the hype around UFO sightings, "The Resonance of
Unseen Things" [1] is an interesting read focusing on the structure of the
stories and their connection to people's social and economic lives. It
approaches the UFO believers subculture from a sympathetic viewpoint and tries
to understand. Great ethnography.

[1][https://www.press.umich.edu/8373560/resonance_of_unseen_thin...](https://www.press.umich.edu/8373560/resonance_of_unseen_things)

------
macawfish
Carl Jung wrote about UFOs as something of a collective hallucination, a mass
psycho-spiritual phenomenon. Not in the sense that they are "unreal", but in
that they tap into an extraordinary dimension of our collective awareness.

I suggest checking out "Flying Saucers: a Modern Myth of Things Seen in the
Sky."

------
madeuptempacct
I am guessing most people browsing this are suddenly intrigued by the topic.
This is the most interesting incident ever, by far:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976_Tehran_UFO_incident](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976_Tehran_UFO_incident)

~~~
yesenadam
What makes it so interesting?

~~~
inawarminister
Probably because of >During the incident, two Iranian Air Force F-4 Phantom II
jet interceptors reported losing instrumentation and communications as they
approached the object. These were restored upon withdrawal.

>One of the aircraft also reported a temporary weapons systems failure while
the crew was preparing to open fire.

These were explained away in the wikipedia article, but who knows the truth...
Hidden away in another language.

------
Geee
There is also a possibility of these bright balls of light actually being
terrestrial lifeforms of some sort.

------
jrgoj
I saw the Black Triangle UFO [1] in Duluth, MN about 10 years go. It went from
a low altitude hover to a slow glide across the night sky. I was standing
almost directly under it in a parking lot. I thought it was a strange pattern
of new streetlights for a few moments until it started gliding. Always
wondered what that was.

[1]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_triangle_(UFO)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_triangle_\(UFO\))

------
sriku
Ball lightning?
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_lightning](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_lightning)

~~~
darkhorn
[https://youtu.be/hxiDA3tVjRA](https://youtu.be/hxiDA3tVjRA)

[https://youtu.be/hF-kuB9pBT0](https://youtu.be/hF-kuB9pBT0)

[https://youtu.be/6ioN-3UWYrY](https://youtu.be/6ioN-3UWYrY)

[https://youtu.be/7n79gnbab_o](https://youtu.be/7n79gnbab_o)

[https://youtu.be/WlX-cEsnILc](https://youtu.be/WlX-cEsnILc)

~~~
PuffinBlue
Two of those were obviously insects, probably fireflies. One even goes in
front of the tree in the parking lot. The others were just a blurred mess.

This one:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlX-
cEsnILc&feature=youtu.be](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlX-
cEsnILc&feature=youtu.be)

...isn't ball lightning, it's that weird ice crystal thing:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ0laC2FksA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ0laC2FksA)

I'd love to see an actual ball lightning example if anyone has one though, it
would be amazing to see!

~~~
darkhorn
This is something else
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5cqazajP1Q](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5cqazajP1Q)

------
hanoz
Misjudging distance seems to be a very frequent suspect in tales of the
unexplained. "The light moved at an extraordinary speed" \- it moved at an
ordinary speed, close to you. Likewise "through the distant moors it stalked -
a panther!" \- a pet cat.

------
Apocryphon
Perhaps it'd be more interesting for both casual observers and conspiracy
theorists alike to assume modern UFOs are not extraterrestrial spacecraft, but
clandestine earthly government aircraft.

Maybe they turn on the bright lights to pretend to be aliens, to throw off the
scent.

~~~
thekingofh
Popular ideas in UFO circles are that there was a crash, the govs have the
tech, and the craft we usually see are replication vehicles attempting to test
out what we gathered from the real one that crashed years ago.

------
ainiriand
I saw 1 meteor over Dublin this weekend. It was on Sunday at about 23:30 and I
was looking towards Ursa Major. I've seen a few by now to know that it was
just that, a meteor. White and bright, moving fast and disappearing.

------
olivermarks
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_fighter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_fighter)
historical perspective

------
themodelplumber
I haven't read/heard any comments about possible sound (sonic boom or other)
from these lights, whatever they were. Anybody know differently?

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axilmar
A more down-to-earth explanation for the lights could be spherical lightning
bolts or spherical clouds or a combination of these two things.

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egfx
Well this lends some credibility to a comment I posted just about a week ago.
It got a lot of push-back understandably but being an eye witness myself. I
know the phenomenon is true. It was in no way a meteor because it moved in
erratic directions, up, down, left, right, and figure 8's. Is this from outer
space though? It's been happening for at least 25 years.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18367198](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18367198)

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vorticalbox
Bright lights moving at "Mach 2" and no reports of hearing a sonic boom?

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yters
Could be the angels, demons, djinn of most folklore.

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torgian
I still feel like if UFOs really were able to one: fly here and two: mess with
us, they would just kill us off and take our planet. Or enslave us.

It's what we would probably end up doing.

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nickphx
could be the USAF's unmanmed high orbit XB drone

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mothsonasloth
Russians probing NATO airspace along the Atlantic?

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el_don_almighty
We're here for your Lucky Charms!

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js4ever
TR3B

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el_don_almighty
We're here for your Lucky Charms

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remir
A couple of years ago, I heard of a case where a guy was flying a small plane
over James Bay in Québec in around 1978 and he saw what he thought were 5 fuel
tanks on the ground, around 60' in diameters each. This was strange since this
is in the middle of nowhere and these weren't even there a couple of days
before and no road is leading to this place.

As he approached the location, the "fuel tanks" started moving in formation
and flew upward at an impossible speed. They looked like fuel tank from above,
but they were circular crafts.

Keep in mind, 5 objects of this size, moving at this speed would have
displaced a lot or air, but there was no disruption, no noise.

There's some big hydro electric dams in this place and apparently these crafts
are often seen hovering above the power lines.

~~~
gnulinux
It's all nice and cute we're wearing our tin foils in this thread sharing
interesting stories and papers. But

> I heard of a case where a guy

seems maybe a bit too shallow. Not trying to be an asshole but I do wonder
what's the credibility of this guy.

