High Altitude Planes in Tow

[Domo]

These caught my eye the other day - there's actually 4 (you can just see the 4th one in the first picture) and they all fall into line.
I live in the South East and not seen this sort of thing before. If only I thought to look on FlightRadar24 which is loaded on the phone I took these with!
So just a bunch of commercial planes or something more interesting?

The first picture (so the direction they're coming from) is facing the South West.

 

[Erich Kriegler]

Demnon aliens

 

[PapaLazaru]

Surely they are all just following the same flight path?

 

[OhEsEcks]

Surely they are all just following the same flight path?

Yep. Flight paths basically work like motorways in the sky for air traffic.

 

[Phantom Shadow]

The second two planes have run out of fuel, can you not see the rope? First plane is pulling them back to the airport to land safely.

or that could be a lie.

 

[Domo]

I'm a bit of a spotter. If it was routine I'd have noticed it before. Just wondered if it was more likely to be military rather than civilian.

Knon1 was never suggesting it was aliens lol

 

[d_brennen]

Heathrow flightpaths would blow your mind

 

[Domo]

Heathrow is about 40 mins drive from here (25/30 miles). That's one hell of an approach!

 

[MrMoonX]

Heathrow is about 40 mins drive from here (25/30 miles). That's one hell of an approach!

That's well within the holding pattern range, 30 miles is nothing to a plane

 

[Domo]

30 miles is nothing to a plane

That's my point. I'd be surprised to see any planes landing at Heathrow while flying so high where we are. We're well within circling distance. I've been on planes and seen Woking on the graphic as we pass over it and you can easily make out houses etc.

Could be heading for Luton, Stanstead, Manchester or some other northern city though! Just thought it was odd to see them in line like that, while at such a high altitude.

 

[Django x2]

Heathrow is about 40 mins drive from here (25/30 miles). That's one hell of an approach!

Plane n00b!! Your decent for Heathrow and Gatwick usually starts around mid France, yes, mid France

There's really nothing to see here. A few planes, flying normally in the sky, leaving vapour trails. Hardly ground breaking, and usually spottable every morning around this time of year.

 

[Malevolence]

CHEMTRAILS!!!!!!

 

[Domo]

Django - my response was sarcasm towards another poster suggesting they were landing at Heathrow

 

[Domo]

CHEMTRAILS!!!!!!

I'd better YouTube those bad boys again - might be some updates!

 

[Illgresi]

Tried to no avail on the FSX thread in Pc Games, might get a view in this thread. Any ideas what's going on here, looking vaguely east from Aberdeen (purposefully high res picture):

Spoiler

and what actually happened?:

Spoiler

Demnons?

 

[OhEsEcks]

Tried to no avail on the FSX thread in Pc Games, might get a view in this thread. Any ideas what's going on here, looking vaguely east from Aberdeen (purposefully high res picture):

Lining up for a particular runway.

 

[dannyjo22]

Knon1 was never suggesting it was aliens lol

It's the latest unfunny ocuk meme.

"Demnon"

 

[abbotsmike]

Couldn't make his mind up which way to go. Or a government conspiracy. Definitely one of the two.

 

[d_brennen]

Django - my response was sarcasm towards another poster suggesting they were landing at Heathrow

I suggested nothing of the sort you should see some of the holding patterns and flights leaving/arriving one after another though. Some impressive ATC going on for sure

 

[Domo]

Actually that's fair cop - I just read your post again and I took it in the wrong context. Sorry