My fiance and i just saw what appeared to be a commercial airliner hanging motionless at low altitude over the city. We pulled over into a parking lot to ensure it wasn't some sort of optical illusion. It appeared to be hovering and as we watched jerked and started to move slowly to the north. It was low enough for us to be able to see the windows and engines clearly. We saw exhaust coming from the far engines obviously moving away from the craft while it did not move.

The craft almost seemed to be scaled down. Not quite sure how to describe that. It appeared stationary for at least 3 minutes (2 of which we were driving in the opposite direction) another minute while we were stationary. When it began to move it was almost with a jerk, almost like something was holding it back and flew slowly in a northeasterly direction. I should mention this is near no airports. The craft was white with a red tail and possibly a red stripe down the side. We live in the middle of the United States and not near a military facility and there is rarely any UFO activity seen here. Is there anyone out there who has experienced this?

Could be a harrier
those things stop, start, go forward backwards where freaking weird lol

If it's possible, could you give a general location of said object?


Here's an interesting one.

hovering





[edit on 15-4-2009 by phrankie79]

I have seen similar optical illusions where the plane appears to just hover. There could have been a strong headwind, that actually could have caused the plane to temporarily not move forward. I mostly think it was probably an optical illusion though.

If the head wind is fast enough, a plane can appear to be standing still.

Just my .02 dollar's worth.

Yep - I've seen this a number of time - it's seriously cool!

It is an optical illusion.

1) you said the aircraft seemed 'smaller' - very probably it was further away than you thought - that helps, and the air could of been particularly clear, that goes with

2) the aircraft is in a strong head wind - smaller light aircraft can almost have zero ground speed but enough air speed to fly - a jet liner moves a lot faster, but a head wind will affect it.

3) Ground referance (or other referance) if you have nothing close to the aircraft to compare it with it can seem stationary - same deal with people who insist the moon is 30% bigger when it's on the horizon - it's cos you can compare it to buildings and trees etc.

4) The best one is your own movement - you said you were in a car - that really helps - I saw 2 A-10s 'hang' when on a moterway - sweet!

So a perfect combo of those factors usually does it...

Of course others on this site will tell you it was a disguised UFO

Yeah I live not far from the local airport and I see this quite often. Size doesnt matter (on this occasion anyways ). It's when a plane is coming into land it looks as though its at a standstill. But trust me its not!

reply to post by Furnace_Man

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this was visibly a commercial airliner. Quite low, which is what initially drew our attention. It was over Southeast Springfield, MO. I originally was driving and turned to look at as looking back to the road. I thought I would pull over and see it was somehow a very realistic looking inflated object tethered to the ground. It was not.

reply to post by Now_Then

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don't want to discount your input, but i have lived here over twenty years. The airport is over 20 miles away, with a small craft airport maybe 5 miles. This was a very clear look at what appeared to be a commercial jet just above 2 -3 story buildings (if that gives you an idea of altitude) pointing to the north and not moving - long enough for me to drive 2 blocks, pull over into a parking lot, park and look at for another 30 seconds before it appeared to "jerk" and fly slowly at the same low altitude to the northeast.

My uncle is a pilot and I have many times watched his personal aircraft fly into the nearby small craft airport never at this low altitude and never appearing to hover.

I'm going with the powerful headwind thing. Also if the wind subsided somewhat abruptly that would explain why the plane suddenly appeared to jerk when it started moving. Because it had all that power behind it keeping it from being moved by the headwind.

Edit: Come to think of it, I have been on about 3 commercial flights where I remember looking out the window and it seemed like the plane was traveling far far too slow to be staying up in the air, and each time these were flights where the pilot explained about strong air currents and turbulence and asked up to keep our belts on. I remember actually being very freaked out. I'm a nervous flyer lol
It's usually close to right after take-off, and about 10 minutes later or so we've reached an altitude relatively free of the turbulence and then are free to take belts off.
Maybe this is similar to what happened, I dunno.

[edit on 15-4-2009 by phoebeflakes]

We had some harriers visit us on base one time. Freaking cool, hit up the airshows in your area, They may have a demo of them.

Yes planes stand still after they land. Also why are ya talking about planes in aliens and ufos forum?

The plane described in the OP sounds kinda like a Janet flight out of Area 51........White plane with red stripe and tail......

Now that is interesting.

It also reminds me of the mysterious Janet flights that travel from Mccarran airport in Las Vegas to Area 51.

The Janet flights presumably transport the employees of Area 51 to and from the base.

Did the plane you saw look like this?
See the plane in the upper right

Here are many Janet aircraft

YouTube Link

Here is some information on Janet flights

YouTube Link

[edit on 15-4-2009 by Studious]

[edit on 15-4-2009 by Studious]

My last post in....


www.abovetopsecret.com...

this thread was going to be essentially what you just posted. My experience happened in the time frame of 1998-2000 in Baton Rouge Louisiana. On my way to work, I noticed exactly what you are describing, pull over on the side of the Freeway and watched it for 20 minutes. (Tell me about headwinds). On reaching work, I tried calling all 3 phone numbers listed for the Baton Rouge Airport with no answer for FOUR HOURS. I finally gave up and called one of the local news stations and the guy I spoke to tried using the "Traffic Cam" on the state Capitol but by then, there was nothing to see. This was no headwind stopping a plane, it "was not" farther than I thought. It was simply a passenger aircraft, (From eyeballing, something like a 707?) sitting frozen in mid-air for no apparent reason. I have seen Harriers at Air shows. This was nothing like this. There was no jet sound, no movement, nothing. Incidentally, at least 30 other cars pulled over to view this spectacle. No, I don't think it has anything to do with aliens or Ufo's, I think it has something to do with other dimensions or some kind of rip in space time. YMMV.

reply to post by Zenagain

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Did the aircraft you saw resemble the aircraft the OP mentioned?

Obviously people on these planes would be talking about this unless they had no memory of it. This leads me to believe that if this was not an illusion these people might not be civilians on a regular commercial flight.

[edit on 15-4-2009 by Studious]

[edit on 15-4-2009 by Studious]

Having never flown, myself, and only weeing passenger aircraft either in the air or in movies, no, it didn't appear scaled down in ny way. Just like a Boeing 707 or the type sitting in mid air. As for the people "on" it? If there was some strange time displacement thing going on, (Why else would it be sitting still in mid air), then I can't imagine how they would have noticed anything wrong. More interesting to me is the fact that the airport for a city of 500k people didn't or wouldn't answer any of the 3 numbers for it for 4 hours...before I gave up. And this was on a weekday between 4pm-9 pm.

I mean what markings did it have?

As for why the airport would not respond I can only speculate.

I've seen this a few times myself. I was amazed the first time but assumed it was just an optical illusion.

As for markings, being as how I was seeing a multi-ton aircraft sit, (Not hover) but SIT in mid air kind of distracted a bit from the markings, but as I remember, they were blue and red. That's the best I can give you.


Incidentally, I don't want to turn this thread into one about my sighting, I was just flat stunned to see the title of this thread in the FIRST place.

[edit on 15-4-2009 by Zenagain]

Don't worry I'm merely trying to figure out if a connection exists between the sightings.

If people are all reporting aircraft with similar markings performing near impossible maneuvers, It would suggest a correlation between the sightings.

To lemaster and Zenagain was the aircraft Southwest Airlines?
See This Picture

If only one airline has this phenomena occur that would be interesting.

Janet planes have no marking on the tail thus not fitting lemaster's description exactly. However Southwest airlines does have a red marking on the tail and a red stripe along its length. Southwest planes are also blue and red fitting the description Zenagain stated.

(I know, I'm probably reading into this too much.)

I have seen various commercial planes flying for various airlines appear to hover in mid air. The ones I saw I assume were optical illusions however.