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Hi,
I have a question I hope someone can help me with. About 4 years ago, I was jogging near my home in Suffolk County, Long Island. It was night time and I saw what I initially thought was a helicopter with a large spotlight, about two miles from me. This is pretty common around where I live, so initially I thought nothing of it.
The only thing that caught my attention is that as it got closer, there was absolutely no noise. As I jogged further, I noticed that the aircraft began to get closer to me... It's search light was panning a strip of wooded area that separates the center of the blocks in my development (large power lines run for miles - the strips are not developed due to restrictions on high voltage power lines).
As it got closer, it became apparent that it definitely wasn't a helicopter. I turned around and began to jog toward the aircraft in an effort to see what exactly was going on. I stood around for a minute and watched it fly almost directly above me (the pilot even spotlighted me - probably inadvertently). It was very dark, and I don't have a knowledge of planes, but it was definitely a military style / jet fighter looking wing design. If I were to guess, it was moving very slowly as it passed me. It took about 10-15 seconds to get from one pole to the next, which I could easily do in my car. It was only about 300-400 feet up, as it was above the very high power lines but still pretty big to my eyes. It felt like I could almost throw a rock at it and hit it, although that may have been an optical illusion if the place was bigger than my eyes thought it was.
There was almost no noise, and all I heard was a loud hum. Now keep in mind that this is in a residential neighborhood, at night. The noise was so low that no one came out of their houses, and the people inside probably wouldn't have heard anything.
Now, ever since that day I was convinced that I saw a "harrier jet"... but I recently told one of my friends this story and they didn't believe me. They said Harrier jets are extremely noisy. He also said its an extremely dangerous thing to be doing for no good reason. I've googled it, and apparently this is true - they are loud and hovering/low speed flight is extremely dangerous even for skilled pilots. Are there any other planes that could fly at this speed - slow enough to search for things with a spotlight? Any idea what this might be?
PS: we used to have grumman near where I live, and their airfield is supposed to be inactive... but when I went skydiving near there, it looked like there were still some things going on there. Could this be a new type of craft that was being developed?
I have a question I hope someone can help me with. About 4 years ago, I was jogging near my home in Suffolk County, Long Island. It was night time and I saw what I initially thought was a helicopter with a large spotlight, about two miles from me. This is pretty common around where I live, so initially I thought nothing of it.
The only thing that caught my attention is that as it got closer, there was absolutely no noise. As I jogged further, I noticed that the aircraft began to get closer to me... It's search light was panning a strip of wooded area that separates the center of the blocks in my development (large power lines run for miles - the strips are not developed due to restrictions on high voltage power lines).
As it got closer, it became apparent that it definitely wasn't a helicopter. I turned around and began to jog toward the aircraft in an effort to see what exactly was going on. I stood around for a minute and watched it fly almost directly above me (the pilot even spotlighted me - probably inadvertently). It was very dark, and I don't have a knowledge of planes, but it was definitely a military style / jet fighter looking wing design. If I were to guess, it was moving very slowly as it passed me. It took about 10-15 seconds to get from one pole to the next, which I could easily do in my car. It was only about 300-400 feet up, as it was above the very high power lines but still pretty big to my eyes. It felt like I could almost throw a rock at it and hit it, although that may have been an optical illusion if the place was bigger than my eyes thought it was.
There was almost no noise, and all I heard was a loud hum. Now keep in mind that this is in a residential neighborhood, at night. The noise was so low that no one came out of their houses, and the people inside probably wouldn't have heard anything.
Now, ever since that day I was convinced that I saw a "harrier jet"... but I recently told one of my friends this story and they didn't believe me. They said Harrier jets are extremely noisy. He also said its an extremely dangerous thing to be doing for no good reason. I've googled it, and apparently this is true - they are loud and hovering/low speed flight is extremely dangerous even for skilled pilots. Are there any other planes that could fly at this speed - slow enough to search for things with a spotlight? Any idea what this might be?
PS: we used to have grumman near where I live, and their airfield is supposed to be inactive... but when I went skydiving near there, it looked like there were still some things going on there. Could this be a new type of craft that was being developed?
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