What could this have been??

[Jeff N]

I live in the Mt Druitt area of western Sydney.

Of an evening, several commuter aircraft pass over my house en route from(presumably) the Hunter Valley region heading towards Bankstown.

On Tuesday night of this week, around 10pm to 11pmish, a reasonably large jet aircraft flew over quite low on this same flight path.

It sounded different to any other jet aircraft that I know of, and also had two very bright wingtip lights blinking in a wig-wag fashion.

I didn't get outside until it had already just passed overhead.

Anybody got any clues as to it's identity??

[Peter Agatsiotis]

Hi Jeff

I live in St Clair and also see/hear the late night freight commuters heading to Bankstown.

I think what you saw was one of the Toll Express ATR-42's which goes into Bankstown every weekday quite late.

Peter

[NickN]

Except an ATR-42 is not a jet aircraft.

Is jeff sure it was a jet not a turboprop?

[Sarmad Al-Khozaie]

It flew over my place that night heading for Richmond.

[NickN]

C-17?

[Darren J]

I also heard this at Baulkham Hills, also noticed yesterday an Air Fiji 747 flying low over Chatswood heading north/west quite low with gear down...possibly heading towards Richmond?? We were in R405 and lost sight of it whilst dodging a fixed wing who didn't want to talk to anybody on the comms.

[Grahame Hutchison]

The Webtrack replay for 2145 on 17/3/2009 shows a Merlin or Metro approaching St Clair from the south and then turning east and tracking over Blacktown.

There was nothing else in the area between 2130 and 2330.

[Jeff N]

On that basis, that would probably be it.

I was watching the idiot box at the time and basically heard the noise of an unusually low aircraft going directly over my roof.

When I raced outside (as you do!), I saw it heading in a south easterly direction. The wingspan, judging by the wingtip lights, was wider than your normal commuter plane, but it was low so that would exagerate things a bit.

The engines sounded like those of a jet, but I suppose a turbo prop can still have a similar sound after it has passed over.

It looked as though it was heading directly towards Bankstown.

One telling sign would possibly be the bright white wingtip lights which blinked in an alternating fashion.

[Mick F]

Jeff, those are called strobe lights, and aircraft from Cessna 152's right up to Boeing 747's can/are equipped with strobes, ;).

Mick

[Jeff N]

It wasn't so much the fact that it had lights on the wingtips, but rather that it had white ones that blinked slowly in an alternate fashion.

Given the array of wingtip light colours and blinking patterns, I thought this might have narrowed it a bit.?.

[Jeff N]

As a second entrant into this thread.....

I was in Fairfield this arvo/evening, and noticed an aircraft flying at an unusually high altitude (complete with vapour trail). It was travelling in an east to south easterly direction, and was certainly not about to drop out of the sky and land at Mascot.

Anybody got an idea of what it was, it's origin, and it's destination??

[Lee G]

Jeff,

I think it is SQ281 SINAKL. It's a 777 and according to the schedules departs SIN at 0845 and arrives AKL at 2345 which puts the timing about right.

Ops Sun,Mon,Wed Fri Sat.

I've also seen an MH twin (I think a 777 as well ops AKL to KUL pass over head about 1400-1500 on some days as well.

Hope this is accurate and helps out.

[NickN]

Lee would be right, both MH and SQ 777's overfly Sydney in that sort of direction.

[Jeff N]

Thanks for that Lee and Nick.

I'm surprised that any international airline would have the gall to fly over Sydney without actually landing here !!!:D