Posted on 01/29/2009 6:59:01 PM PST by nickcarraway
MYSTERY surrounds the discovery of what appears to be an aircraft sitting on the ground in the middle of nowhere in the Simpson Desert.
An Alice Springs man discovered the "plane" yesterday, which he estimates to be about 128km southeast of the outback town.
The man, who preferred not to be named, said he had been making a routine check of the region using internet-based satellite images available on Google Earth.
Alice Springs Airport general manager Don McDonald said it was not uncommon for images of planes to be found on Google Earth and that the image may be of a plane in flight.
Aviation authorities last night could not rule out that the aircraft might be military in origin.
But a spokesman for the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said it had received no reports of an incident in the region.
The Bureau's aviation safety director Julian Walsh said: "There is nothing missing or overdue in that area."
Mr McDonald said many planes have their image captured by the satellite's roving eye as it moves over the globe.
In addition, some of the images can be many months old.
"There's lots of airplanes operating in the skies above Alice Springs," Mr McDonald said.
"I'm aware that Google Earth's photogrammetry does capture these images from time to time."
"However there were significant differences between the Simpson Desert image and images of other planes that had been captured mid-flight," said the man responsible for yesterday's discovery.
He said that images of planes in flight normally leave what experts call an artefact, a second ghost image caused by the satellite's camera taking a number of photos in quick succession.
This can cause a bluish ghost image of the plane, usually to be found somewhere close to the first image.
"There is no such evidence of an artefact, or a shadow of the plane," the man said.
A close examination of the image also failed to find an obvious shadow of the aircraft anywhere on the ground - which would indicate the plane was in the air - despite the picture having been taken in bright daylight.
The Rescue Co-ordination Centre Australia examined the images late yesterday and a spokeswoman said it was hard to tell whether the craft was on the ground or in the air.
But she said the image was being treated as one of a plane in flight.
"It's quite clearly an aircraft ... all of our inquiries have led us to believe there is no indication there has been no rescue incident in the area."
But she said: "We're still looking at it. Were not dismissing the information provided."
“heck with the image of the plane, whats that big white circle around it.”
Crop circle, errr, sand circle.
I miss those commercials.
No one goes in or out of that airspace without the US/Australian military knowing about it, and if you do, there is a real possibility of the Australians shooting you down. You will at least be forced to land and most likely be arrested.
coordinates?
Me too. The guy who did the voice overs always reminded me of actor John O'Hurley doing his J. Peterman voice...the way his voice would rise high at times.
A good ad campaign is one where we remember the product years later. And that Foster's was a good one because now I want a Foster's and I don't have any.
LOLOLOLOLOL.
That does not surprise me at all.
I lived in NM for many years and traveled Southern NM and South Eastern AZ. Had lots of friends at the Labs. Ham friends of mine mostly, some MARS types. I ran a Navy MARS station for 20 years.
There were several no-fly zones around White Sand and Alamogordo. They have been that way since WWII.
Lots of other strange critters in the desert too.
You heard of Crop Circles, Well this is the Desert version.
Nice landing.
Yeah I loved the EA-6B when I was in, made the fillings in my teeth rattle when she went to full power on the cats.
The beer is okay but you get drunk at the first sip. But as you jugalug you get more and more sober until your finally exclaim, "Th.th..th..at's all folks!
(LOL deprived!) and it's late Friday in Aussie Land!
Did you buy that one?
WOW, it turns out there are alot of planes that our 118 ft in lengh, google it...
Thanks for the ping!
Once again, obvious signs of an ancient and highly intelligent civilization.
...heh heh heh
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