Saw a plane just frozen in mid-air today. What’s going on?
Posted by Hackerman07@reddit | aviation | View on Reddit | 25 comments
Today on my way to work I saw a plane just stuck in the air and not moving at all.
I only had about 10 seconds to watch before buildings blocked my view, but it seriously looked like it was hovering or frozen mid-flight. Has anyone else ever seen something like that? What could cause a plane to just pause like that?
alzee76@reddit
You didn't see what you think you saw.
ThatPeacefulWarrior@reddit
You need to stop patronizing people, it's very uncool. You sound like the teacher in school nobody liked.
alzee76@reddit
Buy a dictionary. You clearly don't know what that word means. While you're on your way to the book store, consider why you'd say I "need" to stop doing something just because you.. think it's uncool. Bluntly: Your opinion about my "coolness" doesn't matter.
To anyone.
MrDontPlay06@reddit
I believe you.... It's hard to explain unless you witness it....I just saw one today driving 10 mph and stopped car completely and made sure I wasn't tripping.... Google said it's a optical illusion lmfao
ThatPeacefulWarrior@reddit
So that makes three of us so far. It's going to be fun when the nay sayers will wake up one day, to realise we were just trying to warn them. For most of them, sadly, it will be too late. Stay safe brother.
ThatPeacefulWarrior@reddit
Yes mate, I saw one above Frankfurt on 09.03.2026. I was driving eastbound down the motorway at relatively slow speed, as there was traffic. The plane was about 100-150 meters away from me, so I was very close. It was simply frozen in midair, hovering about 50-100 meters above the ground. Pretty unreal, as you know having witness it yourself. I had seen videos of this a few days before and I was like 'meh, OK, if you say so, it's interesting...'. But seeing one with your own eyes shifts the whole perspective. I looked it up online and incidents are mostly scrubbed. Yours is the only comment I have seen so far. So yeah bro, they are desperately trying to explaing things away, with trolls posting videos saying it's paralex effect and bull like that. Yet you can't tell that crop to someone like us, who have seen it with their own eyes.
I wanted to get off the motorway and exit at the next junction, so I can take pictures. I didn't, as I was in a bit of a rush. I now regret it.
Personally, I think 'someone' is trying hard to make people snap out of the Matrix dream state they are in, by shocking them with things like this. Well, looks there are 2 people awake right here :-)
CriticalSentence7381@reddit
時間が止まったんだった思う!
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Cold_Flow4340@reddit
it must have been a very large plane to give that effect. The larger the plane, the slower it appears to be moving. Optical illusion.
jakinatorctc@reddit
It's a common illusion but the plane was moving
It is possible though for a small plane to remain airborne but not move at all relative to the ground if the airspeed is high enough
BabiesatemydingoNSW@reddit
I did that during my PPL training, and when I started instructing, I used it to demonstrate MCA to students.
EducationalCookie196@reddit
I live on a ridge line that gets some strong winds, and every once in a while I see a small, under-powered plane struggling to make it up and over, and sometimes they seem to pause for a second when they get blasted by the strongest wind going over the top. The local hawks have it down to a science, floating perfectly still except for the most subtle wing adjustments, watching for something to eat.
ky7969@reddit
Flee the country, you’ve seen too much.
FelisCantabrigiensis@reddit
Your brain.
Seriously, you saw an optical illusion because of how you were moving, changes in angle of view, how the aircraft was moving, etc.
You can't have a fixed-wing aircraft remain above a fixed point on the ground for more than a few seconds of aerobatics unless it's a few special cases of aircraft with very low stall speed in a strong wind (Fieseler Storch, replica Bleriot, and a few others) where the aircraft is flying fine, but not faster than the headwind it experiences.
Rubber_Knee@reddit
You've already gotten a lot of good possible explanations for what you saw.
I just want to add that it is actually possible for a plane to "hover" over one spot if the wind blowing against it matches it's air speed. As long as the air moves over its wings fast enough to create the lift it needs, then it will stay up there.
shikkonin@reddit
A few options:
Kruse@reddit
Optical illusion.
Is this your first day on the planet?
lochiel@reddit
Cuts in FAA staffing have been causing some delays
Typical_Walker3@reddit
Probably looking at C-5, they only go about 5 MPH (hence the name).
captainmongo@reddit
Oh don't be ridiculous!
It's 5 knots.
LGO_from_KDCA@reddit
Pilot needed to stop to take a break perhaps. Or maybe ATC told the airplane to stop and wait for conflicting traffic to pass.
ThaDollaGenerale@reddit
Sounds like you were also in a moving vehicle.Parallax -https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallax
ObservantPotatoes@reddit
There is an ongoing pilot strike currently. Most just left their workplace mid shift, leaving people stranded