A mysterious fiery red glow photographed by a pilot as it passed above clouds over the Atlantic Ocean has drawn comparisons to the ‘Watergate’ – an underwater portal to the nightmarish parallel universe, the Upside Down – in Netflix’s hit show Stranger Things.
The three eerie images, taken on July 22, were posted on Reddit in hopes of solving the mystery and included a note saying the pilot “says he’s never seen anything like it.”
There, they sparked a frenzy of theories and comments, ranging from comparisons to scenes from the latest series of Netflix’s hit show Stranger Things, to others suggesting it was most likely a fishing boat using large panels of red LED lights. to attract shoals of saury fish.
However, without further investigation, the cause cannot be determined with certainty. For now, the pilot remains anonymous and there is no indication of how low he was flying or where over the Atlantic Ocean he saw the mysterious scene.
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Stranger Things: Pictured is one of three images taken by a pilot of an eerie red light through clouds over the Atlantic Ocean
The images were posted on Reddit with a note that the pilot had never seen anything like this before. Commenters on Reddit immediately compared the mysterious scene to the latest Stranger Things series, where an underwater portal to the Upside Down nightmare opens beneath the lovers’ lake in the very unhappy town of Hawkins. More sensible commentators said it was most likely caused by a fishing vessel using red lights to draw schools of saury fish
Saury fishing uses hundreds of massive LED lights around the perimeter of fishing boats to attract fish, allowing them to be easily scooped up in nets. It is most commonly found in the Pacific Ocean, but the Atlantic saury is found from the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canada to Bermuda.
Although LED is the preferred option for fishing boats due to its higher efficiency and lower weight, the fishing boat below could use another lighting solution such as High Intensity Discharge (HID). Its intense glow through the clouds suggests the use of HID, which would explain the volume of light leaking upwards in the photos.
Sawfish are attracted to bright, red lights. Vessels that are large are able to attract thousands of fish that simply vacuum.
However, Redditors made the most of the opportunity to offer theories ranging from the end of time to aliens. Among the most popular was the Stranger Things comparison, where a portal opens in Hawkins’ Lovers Lake in season four.
Do not suck! Commenters on Reddit took the opportunity to compare the eerie red glow to the Upside Down portal (pictured above from the fourth season of Netflix’s hit show Stranger Things). Others speculated that it was the end of days or caused by aliens
Fishing vessels like the one pictured use red light panels to lure schools of saury fish. Many commentators have speculated that this is the likely cause of the eerie photos
One Redditor wrote, “Dustin tries to open a portal upside down – it’s literally a watergate,” referring to one of the scenes.
While another feared the red glow could mean the end of days, one Redditor shared: “Don’t worry, it’s just the pits of hell staring at you.”
This isn’t the first time pilots have reported strange sightings. In 2014, Dutch pilot JPC van Heijst said he and his co-pilot flew above glowing clouds south of Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula for five hours on a 10-hour flight from Hong Kong to Anchorage, Alaska in a Boeing 747-8.
Van Heist explained to PBase that they saw an intense lightning-like flash shooting vertically upwards, followed by a deep red and orange glow 20 minutes later.
However, what caused the eerie red glow beneath the clouds could not be confirmed. The pilot who took the pictures has remained anonymous
A more recent incident was filmed in 2020 by another pilot who was also flying over the Pacific Ocean. The images were captured while the aircraft was southeast of the Sea of Okhotsk
Redditors also speculated that the red light was from a fleet of fishing boats
The experience left van Heist confused because it was completely unexplained.
There were no thunderstorms along their route or weather radar, suggesting the lightning did not originate in a storm, and the subsequent glow is also a mystery. Similar lights have been spotted from squid fishing boats, but van Heist says it “wouldn’t make sense in this area”.
He said: “The closer we got, the more intense the glow became, lighting up the clouds and the sky below us in an eerie orange glow, in a part of the world where there was supposed to be nothing but water.”
The only reason the pilots could think of was that a volcano had erupted under the surface of the ocean 30 minutes earlier, but no ash cloud followed, and although there were several volcanoes on their route, they were not warned of any new activity – despite that this does not necessarily include unseen underwater volcanoes.
A more recent incident was filmed in 2020 by another pilot who was also flying over the Pacific Ocean. The images were captured while the aircraft was southeast of the Sea of Okhotsk.
The three photos, also shared on Reddit, show the same glowing lights poking out from under the clouds, and most of the comments point to fishing boats, but possibly a foot away.
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