Phenomenon
Conventional aircraft
A crewed aircraft — civil, military or state — misjudged for range, aspect or altitude.
How it presents
- Navigation and anti-collision lighting on optical footage.
- Track correlates with a filed flight path or an air traffic return.
- Infrared plume aft of the airframe.
What this explanation does not settle
Correlation with a track resolves the sighting only when the correlation is documented, not assumed from proximity.
No published file in the archive currently carries this resolution. The page stays as a reference definition rather than being padded with unrelated material.