How far can you go to satisfy your curiosity? Can you launch an investigation to find out the origin of something you saw from the window of a plane while you are on air? Well most people don’t.
While most people choose to ignore what they saw through airplane window or simply kept them as memory by clicking some photos, a man has gone great lengths just to resolve his curiosity after he saw a giant figure on the ground while on a flight across Australia.
Benjamin Strick, investigations director at the Centre for Information Resilience, started a digital journey just to find out what was that massive figure on the ground of Australia. He even uncovered how it came to be, and who was behind its creation.
Strick has shared his digital quest completion journey via a thread of X posts.
He started resolving the quest by taking a screenshot on his phone of the location he was at. He used flight tracking to pinpoint exactly where he was when he spotted the figure as his phone was in flight mode. Then he used the air traffic tracking app ‘Flight Radar 24’ to trace the path his plane took.
He wrote, “I was recently on a flight across Australia when I spotted this massive figure on the ground. It led me on a digital journey to find out what it was, how it got there and who made it. I’m going to explain a bit more about what it is in this thread, and how I found out.”
“Without internet on the plane, I made a screenshot on my phone of the location (yes it was on flight mode) and later used flight tracking to pinpoint exactly where I saw it. Using @flightradar24, I traced the path my plane took and found the spot!”
Then he sought the help of Google Earth to find the location and zoomed in at the spot. “I zoomed into the area and there it was — this huge humanoid figure etched in the Australian outback. Measuring 2.7km tall and covering an area of more than 1.7 square kilometres, it’s a sight to behold,” he wrote in his post.
Using historical satellite imagery, he traced the origins of the giant figure. He went a bit further and found out when the figure appeared on the ground. He compared different time frames on Google Earth Engine and used Landsat-5 imagery to select a date when the structure appreared. According to his investigation, it appeared between 27th May and 12th June 1998. Zooming in on the satellite images, he observed that the figure was likely created using earth-moving equipment.
He even shared who created the structure and link to his vlog that recorded his journey. Since posting, the thread has gained over 600,000 views and nearly 3,000 likes.
Responding to the posts, one X user commented, “Window seats on planes is the epitome of cool. I could stare outside a plane all day at the world below.” Another user said, “This is giving me hope for my next plane journey!” A third user wrote, “Loved reading this.”
Check the thread here:
I was recently on a flight across Australia when I spotted this massive figure on the ground. It led me on a digital journey to find out what it was, how it got there and who made it.
I’m going to explain a bit more about what it is in this thread, and how I found out. 👇🧵 pic.twitter.com/whPFOE83F2
— Benjamin Strick (@BenDoBrown) September 18, 2024