Many passengers often wonder what pilots can see outside during long overnight flights.
However, before we delve into what pilots can see, let’s first understand the lighting system on the aircraft. From the ground, we can spot the powerful LED lights of the aircraft at an altitude of 35,000 feet (approximately 10,000 meters). These are not headlights but rather beacons designed to help other pilots detect the aircraft in the sky. At this altitude, aircraft do not use traditional headlights, according to the Telegraph.
Tim Sanders, a pilot and flight instructor, stated: “Many times when I fly over the ocean at night, there’s nothing outside the windshield but darkness for hours on end. When pilots learn to fly, we have to rely on flight instruments, navigation sensors, and weather sensors (primarily radar) to replace normal vision at night or at other times when we are above the clouds.”
The aircraft has a complex lighting system.
Do aircraft have headlights?
While aircraft do not have headlights in the traditional sense, they are equipped with many lights, each serving a different function.
The most noticeable lights are the landing lights, which are used on approach when landing at an airport. They are positioned in various locations on different types of aircraft, from the wings to the fuselage.
This lighting system not only assists pilots in landing at night but also makes the aircraft “shine” more visibly to anyone nearby. Some pilots will flash the landing lights on their final approach or when they have deployed the landing gear to alert the air traffic control tower.
Other lights on the aircraft include red and green LED lights on each wing to signal to other aircraft at night which direction the aircraft is turning – green to the right, red to the left. There are also anti-collision lights on the top and bottom of the fuselage that flash orange-red. These lights are activated as long as the aircraft’s engines are running.
The night sky outside during the aircraft’s landing.
What can pilots see from the cockpit?
Working above the clouds in near-total darkness at night, many people think that the visibility from the cockpit is limited. However, according to Ron Wagner, a former U.S. Air Force pilot who is now a commercial pilot, there is a lot that they can see.
“On clear nights heading east around Oklahoma City and Tulsa, I’ve seen the lights of Dallas (290 km) and Houston (800 km) in one direction and Kansas City (600 km) and St. Louis (900 km) in another direction, all at once,” he shared.
In addition to the city lights below, pilots also observe various weather phenomena, from storm clouds and lightning to the aurora borealis.
Wagner mentioned: “What gives me chills in the jet cockpit at night is when we see St. Elmo’s Fire dancing across the windshield.”
“Sometimes it appears to come into the cockpit and dance on the glare shield. There’s something instinctively strange about seeing electric lights dancing at night,” he added.
St. Elmo’s Fire is similar to lightning and often appears at night, typically seen only by sailors of old or today’s pilots, rarely visible from the ground.
Pilots sometimes also pass by other aircraft, separated by only a few hundred meters.
They are trained to “land by instruments” when they perform approaches and landings in minimal visibility conditions, often due to severe weather, relying solely on the information and position provided on the cockpit displays.
