Can the lights of flying airplanes be seen on the ground?

Answer 1

Yes, and no, depending on the time of day and where you are. In fact, sometimes the lights can make the airplane disappear to the naked eye in daylight hours.

Having worked at an airport for a significant portion of my life, a good deal of what you can see of an aircraft's taxi lights, landing lights, flashing beacons and navigational lights depends on depends on how dark it is outside and how clear the atmosphere is. The size of the airplane helps, as larger aircraft often have higher intensity lights.

If you're in position to see the final approach to the airport, it's possible to tell the make, and sometimes model, of the aircraft on final approach a few minutes before it lands.

The navigational lights for aircraft allowed to fly at night, a green light on the right hand tip of the right wing and a red light on the left wing as well as a white light somewhere on the aft end of the aircraft, are difficult to see until it's on top of you or you're on top of it.

In cruise flight, it's possible to see the flashing beacons of jets that are at altitudes of 40,000' from the ground on a clear night. All that's really required to see the beacons is the patience to look for a star that is moving across the sky and blinks with an observable frequency. (If you're high enough in the mountains, it's also possible to see satellites.)

Preparing for landing at night, the aircraft will turn on landing lights as well as taxi lights, which can help you identify the make and model of the airplane at a distance of 6 or 7 miles. You can see farther out if you have binoculars.

Landing lights are usually positioned on the wing of the aircraft, and taxi lights are usually on the somewhere on the nose or nose landling gear. Typically, there's a flashing or rotating beacon on the top of the tail and most modern aircraft have another rotating or flashing beacon somewhere along the belly of the fuselage.

In cruise flight, the beacons are often the easiest to see at night. Although required only for night operations, for safety's sake, most pilots operate the flashing beacons from the time they begin the engine start until they shut the engine(s) down.

Many charter lines, such as FlexJet and NetJet, require the use of all lights day or night, appropriate to the phase of flight. Most branches of the military seem to as well.

During World War II it was discovered that it was difficult to see an airplane coming towards you during daylight hours if it had lights along the leading edge of the wing and nose of the airplane. Having seen Gulfstreams (and a B-52) seemingly appear out of an empty sky, I can assure you that it works; you can't see them until they're on top of you.

So, back to my openig sentence, yes and no. It is and is not possible to see the lights of an aircraft in flight from the ground.

Happy Spotting.

Answer 2

If you mean do the lights on the airplane shine on the ground than no, except for planes equiped with spotlights. If you mean the blinking lights on the plane, can you see them from the ground, than yes. If you mean the lights inside the cabbin, you can see them from the ground with binoculars. Sometimes when the planes bank while they're coming into the airport, you can see the lights in the windows without binoculars.

Answer 3

The strobe lights on the underside and tips of the plane are designed especially to do just that- its a safety precaution. They're specially made so that they can be seen long distances, mainly for other plains and airports (which are on the ground.) So they can be seen from the ground most of the time. :)

Answer 4

Yes you can see the landing lights of the big airliners if you park on the top floor of the garage and watch the planes land.
If a plane is low enough you can see the light coming out of the cabin windows as well, if the captain has the main cabin lights on that is!

Answer 5

It's usually possible to see the running lights of a plane that's overhead, presuming it's dark and there aren't any clouds. That's essentially what running lights on any craft, either air or water, are for - to make them visible to other craft in the area, and avoid collisions.

Answer 6

Yes it possible to see the navigation lights, beacon's and the strobe and sometime even the tail/logo light can be seen during dark hours.

Answer 7

absolutely. airplanes has navigation lights, anti collision lights etc that can be seen on the ground

Answer 8

....... the outside lights yes ...... navigation lights, anti collision light, strobes, over wing lights, logo lights all are seen ..... up to 20 - 30 miles I guess.

Answer 9

Yes you can see them best at night

Answer 10

yes