The UFO Phenomenon

Scientists solve issue of airline pilots mistaking satellites for UFOs

By T.K. Randall
January 9, 2025 ·  1 comment

Pilots are mistaking more and more satellites for UAPs. Image Credit: CC BY 4.0 John Christian Fjellestad They say that pilots make for some of the best witnesses when it comes to the UFO phenomenon, but even highly trained professionals can make mistakes from time to time.

With stories of pilots observing unidentified objects during flights becoming increasingly common in recent years, the potential for mistaken identity has also become a much more serious problem.

For example, in a list of 69 reports of airline pilot UFO encounters published by the Federal Aviation Administration for the first quarter of 2023, more than a third were due to Starlink satellites.

When pilots do come across something unexplained, it can be disorienting and there are concerns that such encounters can potentially even jeopardize the safety of the flight.

Surprisingly, satellites are one of the most common causes of mistaken identity because pilots have no reliable way to check what they are seeing against the current positions of known satellites.The more satellites there are, the most problematic this is likely to become.

Now in an effort to solve this problem, scientists headed up by mechanical engineer Douglas J. Buettner of the University of Utah have come up with a means with which to effectively simulate the exact locations of satellites so that pilots can be warned about potential sightings in advance.

The system works by analyzing the satellite's appearance and position from the perspective of the cockpit which should, according to the team, provide a way to "warn aviators and the public about satellites that could be visible in unusual or novel illumination configurations."

Their work has also made it possible to corroborate satellite sightings after the fact.

"In the implementation of our approach, we were able to closely match the apparent speed in degrees per second traveled by the object between the two photographs taken by one of the pilots," they wrote.

Source: Popular Mechanics | Comments (1)

Tags: Plane, UFO