Weird flashing pattern of plane(?) at night.

[Charles]

It was a little past eleven when I went outsight today (april 18).

The sky is almost entirely clear. Only some clouds can be discerned because of illumination of a setting moon somewhere or the remnants of solar light. I hear the deep rumbling sound of a plane flying over (my location is near a NATO radar). Right above me, I see two blinking dots. Separated more than one centimeter (less than an inch) at arms length, I see that they blink in unison. Almost every two seconds, I see a short flash of very white light and short in duration (like the flash of a camera) and than complete darkness (two seconds! And than complete darkness). One is in front and the other flash is on the back as I estimate from the direction. I've never seen such identification. Few minutes later, and as it moves towards the east, now almost 30 degrees above the horizon, I hear another plane right above me. I than realize that the previous one made more noise and almost had twice the speed as this entirely regular one. Also, this latter one creates a short contrail that I can still discern in the nightly sky while the weird one didn't. So maybe it was simply flying at lower altitude, but such weird identification.

Was that the transport for his royal highness himself, or what?

So, does anybody know about such flashing pattern? It was moving towards the East.

I would very much appreciate any information on this; it can be so crowded up there with that radar nearby, and I am not a spotter.

 

[Barry]

Hi Charles

I saw something similar a couple of months ago and had completely forgotten about it until now. I thought at first it was your standard airplane lights but on closer examination they were two white lights (instead of the usual red/green) but the strange thing was that they flashed brightly and then there was complete darkness for a couple of secs, then again, etc. The effect was quite eerie as I couldnt make out the shape of a plane at all, the white lights didnt seem like they were two wingspans apart either. I dont know a great deal about aviation practices, so it could have been a military application or something - but it was most strange.

 

[Vulcan59]

Hi guys,

An aeroplane has two white strobe lights on it's wing tips and another white strobe light on it's tail. Depending on whether the aeroplane is coming at you, or it's heading away from you you will see the white strobe lights. If it's heading towards you, you should see the two wing tip strobe lights flashing once(double flash) whereas if it's heading away from you, you should see the tail strobe light flash(single flash). The interval between flashes for both wing and tail strobe is around 2 seconds or thereabouts.

Hope this helps. Regards.

 

[Charles]

An aeroplane has two white strobe lights on it's wing tips and another white strobe light on it's tail. Depending on whether the aeroplane is coming at you, or it's heading away from you you will see the white strobe lights. If it's heading towards you, you should see the two wing tip strobe lights flashing once(double flash) whereas if it's heading away from you, you should see the tail strobe light flash(single flash).

Exactly, and that is why I've never seen anything like it.
First it was above me, and than it was evidently heading away from me. All the time I saw two big flashes of light, one on the front of the flight path, and one beyond.
Also, the flashes were not like the typical dots (like a point source). They clearly gave the impression of two white disks.

The ONLY thing that told me it was an airplane was the rumbling sound.

It felt eerie, like Barry said, but still very much of this world (3D? technology).