Looking out of an airplane window offers passengers a mesmerizing view of the vast and shifting landscapes beneath them, often sparking awe and wonder.
One might think that for pilots, who fly the same paths over and over, the sky would have little left to surprise them.
But in 2022, Dustin Maggard, an experienced pilot, was taken aback when he saw a strange red glow lighting up the sky, a phenomenon he had never seen before.
Considering how the passengers might have reacted to this unusual sight only enhances the mystery and excitement of Maggard’s extraordinary encounter.
Speaking to CNN, Maggard shared his bewilderment: “We had no idea what we were looking at.”
“We were making jokes about being in the middle of some sort of military exercise or some sort of alien invasion.”
The unusual sight sparked a mix of speculation and jokes among the flight crew, who were all seeing something like this for the first time.
When Maggard posted the images on Reddit, the online community buzzed with excitement.
The comments quickly filled with a variety of theories, humorous takes, and wild speculation about what caused the mysterious red glow.
References to popular culture were inevitable, with one commenter quipping, “Dustin’s trying to open up a portal to the upside down – It is literally a watergate.”
Some commenters joked about the glow, suggesting it was a marketing gimmick for the TV series “Stranger Things,” while others humorously blamed it on aliens, with one person, identifying as a “History Channel watcher,” proclaiming, “That’s aliens.”
Amidst the swirling speculation, CNN reached out to an expert to clarify the mystery.
Neil Jacobs, a weather modeling specialist, offered a rational explanation, attributing the red glow to commercial fishing boats hunting Pacific saury.
These boats use extremely bright red LED lights that can even be seen from space.
“They were commercial fishing vessels that were fishing for Pacific saury using very bright red arrays of LED lights.”
“You can literally see them from outer space,” Jacobs clarified.
This explanation dispelled the more imaginative theories, revealing a much more mundane origin for the glow than some might have wished.
Notably, this was not the first time such a phenomenon had been observed.
A similar incident was recorded in late August 2014 on a flight from Hong Kong to Anchorage.
As the aircraft flew over Alaska, both passengers and crew were taken aback by a sudden, brilliant flash of light from the ground, reminiscent of an extraordinarily bright and brief lightning strike.
A passenger described the event as distinctly unusual, noting it differed from any thunderstorm, meteor, or lightning they had previously seen.
Roughly twenty minutes after the initial flash, a deep red/orange glow appeared, deepening the enigma.
Speculations about the cause of this spectacle varied greatly, including possibilities such as fishing fleets using intense lights, the natural marvel of bioluminescent algae, or secretive military activities.
