UFO Spotted by two aircraft over New Mexico

I find it strange the second set of pilots didn't break out a phone to record what could be coming their way when they were given a heads up by atc.

Don't quote me on it but I'd imagine mobile phone use in commercial airline cockpits is prohibited, or similar to what drink driving is to us folk, taboo. Not good practice. Emergencies only perhaps. There have been numerous incidents in the last decade caused by mobile phone use in the cockpit, a prime example although not commercial was an RAF flight I think, the co-pilot was facebooking and dropped his iPhone and it lodged into the control stick of an Airbus or such and sent the cargo plane in a nose down dive for 20,000ft, injuring crew, until he could remove it.

And of course the 8 billion road accidents down to using phones at the wheel. Kind of good evidence to keep a passenger jet cockpit sterile especially when in flight Don't think I'd want my pilots using their mobiles whilst they're flying, even if it is automated flight. Would you?? lol Cab drivers can just about get away with it but professional pilots, haha... hopefully not!!! But they certainly do take photos on the tarmac, and other people (maybe a guest to the cockpit) are known to do it. But crew? Not likely, at least, I'm sure in some companies its policy even if in others it isn't. My point is I'd say they are being professional by NOT doing such things, which is probably best.

Professional pilots - military or civilian - watch the sky a whole lot more than those of us always on the ground. They are trained on and begin and end their journeys from airports, which have varying collections of different types of aircraft. By simple experience and familiarity, I propose they are more qualified than non-pilots to discern whether something in the sky is unfamiliar. Not saying they are infallible, of course.

Absolutely. They are among, if not our best, witnesses. With that said, it's a shame they still refer to it as a "UFO". Because I agree on the point that these people are skilled sky watchers. They know how things move. This testimony gives good insight into that fact, that they can perhaps tell a stationary thing from a moving thing. And the description of light also goes a long way. There's a very high chance this is not a balloon and is in fact a fastwalker. I just wish professional pilots were..hmm..more trained on this terminology. That probably isn't going to be fed to them by their company, or by radar operators.

But it is a "handle", an identifier that is stronger than just "UFO". It's more along the lines of identifying a make and a model than just saying "UFO". Maybe a civilian program (god forbid, TTS) will educate them to the terminology a little and they'll start to use that term to identify the lit objects that move quickly in (in this case opposite) direction. Cos from the ground that thing is a fastwalker. It's called a fastwalker, not by us UFO nuts, by the freaking US military lol. Not a very catchy name but a name nonetheless, and a lot of aviation protocol trickles down from military protocol (from whence that term came lol). You have a Cessna, which is a fuselage wings and a propeller, you have a Huey helicopter which is a box with rotors on top, and you have a fast-walker, which is a ball of light/generally circular or ellipse shaped lit/glowing object that moves quickly (and seems sizeable, lets say the size of a shipping container for arguments sake).

I find it a bit ill-informed (though I don't think that's quite the right word, will edit this if i remember the word I'm looking for lol) is all especially when pilots are literally top of the intelligence food chain lol but hey, it sells more papers to say the word "UFO" that's for sure. Well, hats off to the first pilot that ever uses that phrase "fastwalker", particularly when they are convinced it's moving and not performing like a balloon, over ATC that gets released publicly in my lifetime, lol. I think then we can actually move forward and progress on the pilot sightings front when they themselves give that particular type of encounter its military/more accurate definition. Until then, this was a very cool excerpt. Thanks for sharing!

a reply to: markymint

They haven't been able to say so definitively yet, but the EgyptAir flight that crashed near Greece in May of 2016 is believed to have suffered a cockpit fire, caused by the First Officer plugging in his iPad or iPhone to charge near his seat.

Airplane mode...

a reply to: reject

Doesn't maher a damn bit of difference if the battery catches fire.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Can today's (weather) balloons be all very brightly lit up, doesn't show up on radar, and fly into the wind?

a reply to: reject

Yes. They carry radar reflectors to track them. Balloons are naturally non-reflective on radar. Some of them have lights on them I believe.