UFO over Yorkshire, UK (14/05/2020)

i've been periodically checking various subreddits in the last few days looking for updates on the crash in Mage (with varying degrees of luck), and today i came across this little doozy. It's only a pinprick of light so it's gonna lose points from some commentators, but it's a clear video that is reasonably steady, focuses on the object the whole time, doesn't cut away in the middle of the encounter, and shows what seem like some fancy maneuvers (90* turns, sudden acceleration, sudden stopping). basically most of the stuff we hope for.

i'm not sure if it's possible to embed videos from reddit here so you'll have to go check out the video on reddit
have at it!

a reply to: continuousThunder

I thought it looked like a reflection on a window until the end and it was shown to be apparently outside

a reply to: continuousThunder

Excellent video.

I'm about as stumped as when I saw something similar myself. Ball lightning perhaps?

a reply to: continuousThunder

Great Video..hard to debunk that one!

Is there any history that goes along with the video or is it just this with no background? No other collaborative video from adjacent properties? I dig the video but unfortunately there will be no way to ever know what it was if it is real.

Now THAT, is pretty frigging cool!

Let me guess though...drone...right?

Not that hard. It's probably a Phantom 2, 3 or 4. No qualms with the footage which is good quality, steady etc. But in some ways that just makes it even easier to identify. Here's a video for comparison



Allow it to gain some height in the video and you'll see the 4 lights begin to blend into one. In this video it's being flown quite eratically. In the OP's video, the flight characteristics are much more atypical for a drone flight. Take it up, hover about a bit, go forwards and then back to where you came from. The dipping light is probably the most interesting part, but when you accelerate a Phantom it will for a moment or two tilt to an angle where the lights may not be visible. Not sure about the 3 or 4 specifically but some of them have a sport mode, which does create quite unnatural fast acceleration, a "zipping" effect.

There's a few frames where a Phantom's green/red flash appears visible, but that does need further scrutiny. But clearly Reddit has made up its mind and it looks like this thread will go the same way. If only more people owned them they'd understand how they operate and are flown and OPs video looks a LOT like a pretty regular drone flight. Take it up high, look over a few areas, then move back. You may feel that when it's stopped it's as if it's "scanning" or whatever but the reality is those are moments where the drone operator will be using the camera specifically, rotating it, tilting it, leaving the drone in position. In the vid it appears to be fighting against the wind, which pushes it back, and adds that extra tilt when it accelerates forwards (into the wind) and tilts so the lights disappear momentarily.

It really is very explainable. And it's only 3 mins of video, keep in mind you can keep a Phantom 3 in the air for about 15 mins and a Mavic Pro for 30 minutes. We do live in a world of consumer drones nowadays, shame people are still somewhat oblivious to it. There are true-FO's that look a bit like this out there, certainly, but this checks 9 out of the 10 "is it a drone" boxes. And if you don't own a drone, don't watch other people fly them and don't have a grasp on their operation - how can you know?

Let people have fun over drone/quadcopter footage, sure. We're still in a world where people know less about them than more. It could even be a police "social distancing" drone cos they're pretty uppity about that stuff up in the northern counties at the moment. Could be a local PD checking out a gathering/party etc. I mean you read enough threads on here about how anal the british police can be sometimes...a lot of the time. Regardless, it's hard to tell if people actually want the truth these days or just some pretty pictures. It looks, acts and flies like my drones so I'm going with what I have experience with on this one. But believe what you want to believe

a reply to: TheAlleghenyGentleman

there's also this, which was OP's only other contribution to the thread.
Doesn't give any collaboration but does give location and a little context, as well as speculation from the guy who filmed it that it might be a drone, except his friends reckon it was too fast.
Which, hey, let's face it, is definitely the most reasonable debunk.
Really doesn't seem like a drone to me (too fast, too stop-start, too bright while the sky is still so light) but i can definitely understand people going with that as a safe explanation.

a reply to: continuousThunder

That just has no useful info besides the guy’s name who filmed it. The video isn’t bad but shows nothing of use. Other eye witness accounts would be the only way to even consider validating this as anything of merit unfortunately.

a reply to: markymint

Whatever is in the video flies behind the clouds which is upwards of 16000 feet I think.

DJI Phantom Drones are limited to 500 feet from what I've read.

Also, would one even be able to see a drone at that altitude?

a reply to: continuousThunder
That looks very similar to what I saw the other night-on the night of the 16th at approx 12.00am I saw what I thought was the ISS but I thought it looked bigger and brighter than usual.
I rushed in to check and found the ISS was over southern europe at that time(I am in Wales UK),so it wasn't the ISS I saw.

As far as I know the ISS is still the brightest man made object in space,so I have no clue what it was that I saw.
It moved in an arc across the sky as the ISS does,but it was noticably brighter and bigger looking.

I have nothing to add.

This video..

a reply to: continuousThunder

It looks to me like a drone.
And I'm not just some everyday boob on the internet saying that either. lol.
I fly/build/assisted in the development of commercial drones.
I also fly multiple drones a day, full time at work.
I have 2 Phantom 4 pros. One of which is the RTK unit.
I have 3 Phantom 3 pros.
And an Event38 fixed wing.

The object's movements are very typical of a drone flight.
As well in a couple of frames, I was able to see flashing from the green lights.
I keep my green flashing lights off (on a DJI Phantom) and just use the red lights for craft orientation.

When the pilot moves the drone forward and takes their thumbs off the direction stick, the drone will abruptly slow down and come to a stop.
However, there is a slight drifting that takes place even after the pilot has stopped sending commands - which I can see in the video.

As for it being a solid light, when all four orientation lights are lit up, the higher the drone is, the more washed out the colour gets, until its just one bright light.
Then add in the reflection from the white body of the drone, and you got a full-on glowing object in the sky.

I'm not saying its 100% a drone, but I am at least 95% sure (need to leave a little room in there)
If this video came into MUFON, I would close it out as a drone.

a reply to: Wide-Eyes

The pilot is limited by law to 400 feet unless they have an SFOC (In Canada anyway. Its different in a lot of countries)

But the Phantom 4 pro will go 9 km.
There is no altitude limiter unless you have a geofence active.

a decent enough clip and filmed until the object went away. S&F for that. sadly though, short of a very close-up view (oh for a Nikon P-1000), it is inevitably going to be dismissed as a likely drone. which it might be, or not. but as it stands there is simply not enough detail to make a concrete identification. cheers nonetheless

At first I was going to blame Venus, a bright star or another planet. Then the thing takes off and a pretty good clip and remains bright very bright. So although it does nothing really out of the ordinary that a high end drone could do, now if it zipped off at much higher rate of speed I would believe this to be the best video of a UAP, unfortunately it doesn't so occam's razor...

a reply to: Fisherr

thanks for the embed! i didn't think of trying to track it down on youtube.

watching it again another day later doesn't make it any less compelling imo

a reply to: RoScoLaz5

thank you! i completely agree. i'm skeptical that a drone could pull off moves just like that, but as you say, short of good hard up close footage it will be dismissed, and fair enough.
I think these borderline cases are very useful though, i think it's good to see that people are seeing things in the sky that confuse them and adding to the body of work trying to figure the phenomenon out

The commentary makes me think this is fake. The narrative is chosen to convey a story and based around well-known suggestive and persuasive techniques. It's formulaic.

As to the movie itself. There is no real sense of scale, but I think it's smaller and closer to the camera than is perhaps convenient.

a reply to: paraphi

it's interesting you should say that, a lot of people on the original reddit thread found the audio to be the most compelling part. I will admit i haven't listened to it all, i tend to have music playing while i browse the internet, and since ufo footage is often dubbed with cheesy music and manic overdubs i'm rarely in a hurry to pause my death metal voyages for them. i did catch the last minute-odd and it just seemed like a pretty normal modern family seeing something odd in the sky and reacting about how i'd expect them to. the kid constantly talking about jupiter is cute, i was absolutely that kid.

i also disagree about the lack of scale, i think the way the perspective shifts so you can see the clouds converging towards the horizon at the end gives.... well, not precise or fantastic sense of scale, but enough to put beyond reasonable doubt that it was close. And either not small, or incredibly bright. idk, just how it seems to me.