Pilot stunned by mysterious red glow over the Pacific that he's never seen before
Callum Jones
Featured Image Credit: Dustin Maggard
A pilot was left stunned by a mysterious red glow over the Pacific Ocean that he had never seen before.
As a passenger, it is perfectly normal to look out of the window and be amazed by the scenery.
However, with the amount of times pilots fly over certain fly paths, you would not expect the same reaction.
But in 2022, pilot Dustin Maggard was left shocked after notching a strange red glow in the sky - so we find it hard to imagine what the passengers' reactions would have been.
Advert
He told CNN: "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."
As you'd probably expect, when the images were shared on Reddit the comments section went into overdrive following the post with anyone making predictions on what the glow could've been.
One wrote in reference to Stranger Things: "Dustin's trying to open up a portal to the upside down - It is literally a watergate."
Another said: "Just another Stranger Things PR stunt."
While a third said: "History Channel watcher here. That's aliens."
Thankfully, CNN spoke to an expert who actually had a sensible answer.
Weather modelling expert Neil Jacobs said: "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."
So not quite the Upside Down, then.
It's actually not the first time the phenomenon has been spotted as in late August 2014, a flight from Hong Kong to Anchorage witness a similar phenomenon.
The flight was over Alaska when a passenger explained, as reported on JPC Van Heijst: "Suddenly, a long way off in the distance ahead, an intense light flash shot up from the ground, just at or beyond the horizon.
"It looked like a lightning bolt in a faraway thunderstorm, but a lot more intense and of a much shorter duration, as though something had exploded.
"I have seen countless thunderstorms, shooting stars, lightning bolts and stars but never a flash like this. And strangely enough, it was just one single flash, and we did not see any other flashes afterwards, which would be expected with a thunderstorm."
About 20 minutes later, the passenger noticed a 'deep red/orange glow'.
The possible explanations, again, range from a fishing fleet, bioluminescent algae, or even military activity.