Man flies past Airbus full of passengers over Macclesfield

Pilots on a holiday jet were left stunned when a 'flying man' whizzed past their aircraft at 3,500 feet.
The mystery man flew within 100 metres of the plane and left the pilots baffled as to how he was moving through the air, as neither could see a canopy suspending him.
There was also no sign of him on the radar and further checks failed to reveal any paragliders, parachutists or balloonists in the area at the time.

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A) The reasonable explanation - paraglider or something similar that somehow has eluded the initial checks
B) Black ops drill
C) A billionaire turned superhero
D) Some mad scientist's latest project
E) A passenger from the plane who mistakenly opened the exit door when he was looking for the toilet



Note this is the pic from the article, I don't think it's from the actual sighting.

I know It's kind of wrong, but the explanation of him maybe opening the exit door looking for the bathroom just made me look like an idiot in public because I laughed so loud.

Maybe somebody bought some bargain wheelwell seat tickets to the UK and fell out.

a reply to: cleverhans

the photo in the op is a stock photo - as they mention the lack of a canopy i'm assuming they saw 'him' in the upright position

the report says the crew only saw the thing fleetingly - maybe wind blown rubbish interpreted as a person - must have been pretty convincing though as they put in an official report

Looks like Tony Stark is off the wagon again...

Or Sir Richard Branson has a new toy.

a reply to: cleverhans
Well it can't be "C) A billionaire turned superhero" because they are always the Evil ones, possible name "Super Greed"!

Only wish there were footage, otherwise I doubt it.

a reply to: aynock

I didn't think of wind blown trash, but that could be a possibility. I'm also now wondering if it could be a prank using a dummy and a drone, though I don't know if consumer drones can fly at that altitude.

It was me - I had some red bull

odd it happened on friday the 13th too ,bet that messed with the pilots heads too.

www.flylikebrick.com...

How far can you fly? When looking at how well a wingsuit flies, we generally speak about the glide-ratio (or Lift vs Drag). This is a number that indicates the forward distance flown for every meter of altitude that is lost. A wingsuit flown really well, has a glide ratio of about 2.5:1 (so 2.5 meters forward, for every meter you drop). When we skydive, we typically jump from 12.000 ft (4km) and open our main parachute at 3000 ft (1km). So we have a freefall of about 9000 ft (3km). At a glide-ratio of 2.5:1, this means we can cover about 7.5 km of distance. This distance can be even further if we are flying with the wind (downwind). Stamina is also a great factor, as it takes quite a bit of muscle strength to fly a wingsuit to its full capacity. That's why in general, the performance tends to be a bit lower on a full altitude skydive. People get better results on lower jumps, such as those performed within the sport of BASE jumping.

some info on wing suits i guess they can be used up to 12,000 feet so i guess it could have been one of them,but i assumed if they were skydiving the FAA or equivalent would know through logs who was in the area

www.gizmag.com... could have been like this guys contraption from 2004,its basicly wings strapped to the back with small jet engines

Rossy made headlines in 2003 when he flew 12 kilometres for the loss of just 3000 metres of altitude, achieving his feat by jumping out of plane wearing three metre, carbon fibre wings. The former military pilot, 45, who flies Airbuses for Swissair, spent five years developing his wings for his flying man project but went one better with his 'jet-man' project by adding two kerosene-powered jet engines to his original wing design to become the first man to fly like a bird: horizontally. At 7:30pm on June 24, 2004 Rossy dropped from 4000m over the Yverdon airfield. After opening the wings, he glided to 2500m, ignited the engines and waited 30 seconds for them to be able to stabilize and begins to open the throttle. At 16m, he achieved horizontal flight for more than 4 minutes at 100 knots (115 mph).

not sure if this guy could get even remotely close to the altitude required but one of the only other flying things ive seen comparable to the wing-suit

www.youtube.com... could be these guys too as if they were testing with remote control again (hence why it could have looked funny or like an enclosed cockpit)

came up empty on anything else but a tiny plane that could fit the description from ops article

a reply to: cleverhans

Oh cr*p, the governments at it again! It will be put down to terrorists, they are suicide bombers coming from the sky.
They have came out with stranger things. Shut down the borders and anyone wearing a turban incase they are using it as a turban engine....take offffffffffffffffff.

Interesting story. Are they sure they had taken off and just on the run way? :p

originally posted by: cleverhans
a reply to: aynock

I didn't think of wind blown trash, but that could be a possibility. I'm also now wondering if it could be a prank using a dummy and a drone, though I don't know if consumer drones can fly at that altitude.

Your post reminded me of something. Remember that thread where the chappy turned his dead cat into a flying helicopter? Maybe he's moved to the UK and been up to his old tricks again!

Someone check where his neighbours are.

Jeeze that suddenly puts the flying people films from mexico of a while back in better perspective....though they may or may not be related.....

Maybe it was the " moth man" every one sees right before a disaster.....I seem to recall a story about that on ATS.

originally posted by: SoEpic
It was me - I had some red bull

that just makes u a liar

like redbull

www.abovetopsecret.com...

So Epic Fail i guess

just sayin

on topic. did they look for a red stain on the ground in the vicinity of the sighting?

originally posted by: Another_Nut
did they look for a red stain on the ground in the vicinity of the sighting?

I was wondering the same thing!

But I also thought of the old Superman movie marketing: "You will believe a man can fly!" Personally, I kind of like living in a world where maybe, just maybe, some guy is flying around 3500 feet up whizzing by airplanes, with no equipment. Where do I learn how to do this?

a reply to: ikonoklast

O trust me I'd love to believe there is some dude jetsetting without a jet....

But I'm gonna check for stains first

Look for a new 1,750 page rule from the FCC soon spelling out:

1. Distances that flying people must keep between their body and aircraft in flight.
2. Warning lights and markings that must be affixed to the flying person.
3. The type of flight plan that must be filed.
4. Fines and punishment for people who deviate from the above guidelines.
-cwm

Crap, did the guy have a big red beard ? If so, it was probably Great Uncle Coy. We told him to stop doing that in the daytime. This is why you can't have nice abilities.

Flying humanoid? D.B. Cooper? Goku? Aliens dropping off an abduction victim? So bizarre!