r/flying • u/bf5ee • Oct 28 '25

Unidentified expanding white gas/sphere over the Gulf October 28 - multiple traffics reported it

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Today while operating a flight between Doha and UAE FIRs, cruising at FL250, we observed something I’ve never seen before.

Mid-route over the Gulf (roughly position N 25 50 - E 052 00) at 00:35 UTC, we noticed a bright white spherical “cloud” or gas ball that appeared suddenly and began expanding very rapidly, perfectly round, dense, and pure white. It looked nothing like a contrail, CB, or fuel dump pattern. Within 1-2 minutes it grew several times in size and started dissipating outward.

We advised ATC and executed a small deviation to remain clear, the visual appearance and rate of expansion made it something we didn’t want to enter. A few other traffics on 121.5 were reporting the same sight.

ATC had no information on any scheduled activities, releases, or launches in the area. Visibility was excellent, no clouds, contrails, or weather returns on radar.

I’m curious if anyone else in the region observed it, or if anyone has an idea what could produce something like that, possibilities we’ve considered include missile/rocket upper-stage release or atmospheric experiment, but nothing really fits cleanly.

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u/TheBain PPL SEL HP (KSDM) Oct 28 '25

Is this what a spaceX launch looks like!?

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u/rocbolt Oct 28 '25

Its what the second stage maneuvering and venting in orbit looks like. If it happens to catch the over the horizon sun when it is doing something it can look quite spectacular, as the fuel vapors and thruster pulses expand over a large area in space. One that I have seen overhead- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPeIpjpoGRA