Something in the sky

m83

Just went out the back (8:15pm) and saw this in the sky:



I thought all planes were grounded? What gives? Anyone catch a glimpse of it? It looks very low, going by the vapour trail anyway.

LadyMayBelle

I've seen low-level planes flying about, two on Sunday actually. But nothing this high..

Doing a u-turn whatever it was.

It could have been this:

BAW284
Callsign: BAW284
Flightnr: BA284
Reg: G-BNLS
Hex: 400426
Model: Boeing 747-436 (B744)
Airline: British Airways
Lat: 54.0999
Lon: -10.2001
Altitude: 37000 feet (11278 m)
Ground speed: 525 knots
(972 km/h / 604 mph)
Track: 93°
Radar: EINN
From : San Francisco, San Francisco (SFO)
To: London, Heathrow (LHR)

http://www.flightradar24.com/
Click on the plane over Mayo at the moment. 20:43

m83

That's the very one! Thanks a lot, mystery solved

vulcan57

Not sure how this will be allowed to land at Heathrow. They are allowing transitting flights across the UK as long as they are above 20,000 feet.

shanew

BBC are now saying the all UK airports may open from 22:00


Shane

kraggy

But it's supposedly going from San Fran to Heathrow.

From the pic it looks like it was coming towards Galway from the Atlantic then started heading out over the ocean again, only to redirect towards Galway.

Largo

Hi-I was out and about in Furbo around the same time (8ish) on Friday last (16th) and I took this photo. Any ideas what it might be? Looks a bit random to be from a plane-some type of cloud maybe?

Thargor

Yep, pretty sure thats a cloud you've got there alright.

DonalN

Deleted User wrote: »

Doing a u-turn whatever it was.

It could have been this:


http://www.flightradar24.com/
Click on the plane over Mayo at the moment. 20:43

why do they do those loops if they're heading onto Heathrow?

air traffic control - heathrow wasn't open - they had to circle and wait

Edit: or else go to Shannon if it didn't open.

Full thread in aviation and aircraft under soc

Largo

Cheers-that seems to be the consensus alright,funny lookin cloud though.

kraggy

Deleted User wrote: »

air traffic control - heathrow wasn't open - they had to circle and wait

Edit: or else go to Shannon if it didn't open.

Full thread in aviation and aircraft under soc

They wouldn't be looping that large a loop while waiting for an airport to open. Holding patterns are a good bit smaller.

extraice

12 British Airways flights landed in Shannon from 7 pm up 9 pm and then move on to london where there airports open

god some sight with all 747 there

Dunjohn

Largo wrote: »

Hi-I was out and about in Furbo around the same time (8ish) on Friday last (16th) and I took this photo. Any ideas what it might be? Looks a bit random to be from a plane-some type of cloud maybe?

Our best minds are working on it as we speak.

Bozacke

m83 wrote: »

Just went out the back (8:15pm) and saw this in the sky:



I thought all planes were grounded? What gives? Anyone catch a glimpse of it? It looks very low, going by the vapour trail anyway.

Hi M83,

I saw the same thing. The strange thing was it made at least 3 full elliptical circles, possibly more. As said before the circles were much bigger than a typical holding pattern. They also didn't look like typical contrails, since it seemed much thicker and fuller than usual, but they only remained for a few minutes before they dissipated, as you can see from M83's photo, the trails at the front of the photo were just starting to breakup before it even made a semi-circle. Was this contrails or some sort of intentional skywriting? It almost looked like some sort of test.

The Express

Bozacke wrote: »

Hi M83,

I saw the same thing. The strange thing was it made at least 3 full elliptical circles, possibly more. As said before the circles were much bigger than a typical holding pattern. They also didn't look like typical contrails, since it seemed much thicker and fuller than usual, but they only remained for a few minutes before they dissipated, as you can see from M83's photo, the trails at the front of the photo were just starting to breakup before it even made a semi-circle. Was this contrails or some sort of intentional skywriting? It almost looked like some sort of test.

...how did you come up with that one! Skywriting, FFS! :eek:

Bozacke

I've never seen contrails so thick and pronounced, almost looked like they were intentional.

Clemon

Aliens no doubt

Bozacke

Clemon wrote: »

Aliens no doubt

What's with all the f-ing sarcasm. All I was saying was the contrails seemed very unusual. It was defo a plane, not little green men, but highly unusual and it seemed as if the contrails were intentional because they seemed so unusual and if a holding pattern it was huge. It almost seemed as if they were performing some sort of a test.

_Whimsical_

Bozacke wrote: »

What's with all the f-ing sarcasm.

Welcome to boards.ie

I thought you made interesting points tbh.

ScumLord

Largo wrote: »

Hi-I was out and about in Furbo around the same time (8ish) on Friday last (16th) and I took this photo. Any ideas what it might be? Looks a bit random to be from a plane-some type of cloud maybe?

I think your lens is cracked.

Storm 10

Guys if you had logged on to flightradar24.com last night you would have seen that it was a British Airways Jumbo jet on a flight from Canada to Heathrow, Shannon had it placed in a hold over the West Coast as they were waiting for Heathrow to open at 10pm. it was finally cleared to Heathrow at around 9-15, there was another one holding over North Dublin and off the Cork Coast and there were 11 diverted British Airways jets on the ground at Shannon.

A few shots of the aircraft on the Aviation section here: http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055889635

snubbleste

Fella sees plane in sky SHOCKER

Tea 1000

That one was probably the SFA to LHR flight. Just to clear a few things up it was in a holding pattern over the west coast because Irish airspace only opened at 9pm, after which time he proceeded over to the west coast of England/Wales and circled while he awaited UK airspace to open and then proceeded to Heathrow for landing shortly after 10pm, which was when LHR opened.
Holding patterns are usually smaller because typically the aircraft is at a low altitude while waiting in a queue to land, probably travelling at 250mph approx and probably less than 5,000 feet. He was in an unusual holding pattern as he was at normal cruising flight level, approx 35k feet and travelling at around 540mph, therefore the circles would be very large. Normally you don't have to wait for airspace to open!
Contrails vary greatly in appearance and length of time visible depending on conditions.

Dunjohn

Oh sure, we don't mind if they pollute our airspace while they're waiting for Heathrow to open.

Bozacke

Tea 1000 wrote: »

That one was probably the SFA to LHR flight. Just to clear a few things up it was in a holding pattern over the west coast because Irish airspace only opened at 9pm, after which time he proceeded over to the west coast of England/Wales and circled while he awaited UK airspace to open and then proceeded to Heathrow for landing shortly after 10pm, which was when LHR opened.
Holding patterns are usually smaller because typically the aircraft is at a low altitude while waiting in a queue to land, probably travelling at 250mph approx and probably less than 5,000 feet. He was in an unusual holding pattern as he was at normal cruising flight level, approx 35k feet and travelling at around 540mph, therefore the circles would be very large. Normally you don't have to wait for airspace to open!
Contrails vary greatly in appearance and length of time visible depending on conditions.

Hi Tea 1000,

Thanks for the great explanation!! Yes, the plane was very high and moving quite fast and with the large pronounced contrails so high in the sky it was very unusual and almost looked like an air show.

Tea 1000

Bozacke wrote: »

Hi Tea 1000,

Thanks for the great explanation!! Yes, the plane was very high and moving quite fast and with the large pronounced contrails so high in the sky it was very unusual and almost looked like an air show.

Ah ya, he was probably keeping himself amused up there too, having a bet with his first officer as to who could fly the most symmetrical shape or something!
I reckon he was just borderline at the point where he'd burn less fuel by just circling and waiting rather than do what some others did and land in Shannon to wait. He avoided Shannon airport charges too!

Dunjohn wrote: »

Oh sure, we don't mind if they pollute our airspace while they're waiting for Heathrow to open.

They probably emptied the lavatories too up there!

Storm 10

Tea 1000 wrote: »

That one was probably the SFA to LHR flight. Just to clear a few things up it was in a holding pattern over the west coast because Irish airspace only opened at 9pm, after which time he proceeded over to the west coast of England/Wales and circled while he awaited UK airspace to open and then proceeded to Heathrow for landing shortly after 10pm, which was when LHR opened.
Holding patterns are usually smaller because typically the aircraft is at a low altitude while waiting in a queue to land, probably travelling at 250mph approx and probably less than 5,000 feet. He was in an unusual holding pattern as he was at normal cruising flight level, approx 35k feet and travelling at around 540mph, therefore the circles would be very large. Normally you don't have to wait for airspace to open!
Contrails vary greatly in appearance and length of time visible depending on conditions.

Hi Tea 1000

Irish Air Space was open until 9pm last night Aer Lingus from the Canary Islands landed in Shannon around 7pm, I was listening to the comms between the British Airways Jumbo and Shannon and he was told to continue in the hold until appx 9.15 as he could not land in Heathrow until 10pm due to restrications in the UK. 11 British Airways planes landed in Shannon from around 7pm until 9pm

stevecrow74

i was across in ballyvaughan yesterday evening and saw it loop 5 times in the same holding pattern, rather strange that it chose that area to hold before moving along..

Storm 10

stevecrow74 wrote: »

i was across in ballyvaughan yesterday evening and saw it loop 5 times in the same holding pattern, rather strange that it chose that area to hold before moving along..

Pilots dont pick a place to hold, they are told where to hold by Air Traffic Control in this case it was Shannon Airport. In flight if they want to change altitude for say weather avoidence they have to get permission to do so. Every move they make is under Air Traffic Control at all times.