Incredibly low flying commercial jet 29/6

[Yoyoman]

Dear members,

I live in Bierges, near Wavre. What I saw yesterday was something I had never seen before and I couldn't believe my eyes! In the middle of the day, above our garden, a commercial jet passed on top of it, and it was so low that I litterally saw every detail from its bottom very clearly. I have spotted a lot of planes in the past, and based on them, my estimation is that its altitude was somewhere between 500 Ft and 1000 Ft. Its heading showed that its final destination was EBBR runway 02-25. the typical noise of a low fly-by plane was very impressive with the loud whistling sound. Our neighbours saw it too. When I checked Flightradar immediately after it had disappeared, there was no trace of it, that could have told me what its exact altitude was.

Has anyone else seen this plane yesterday?

[Homo Aeroportus]

I seem to remember that arrivals yesterday were on the 01, none on 25L/R at least around mid-day.

When RWY01 is in use for arrivals, no aircraft is to overfly your position at low level. Even traffic from the (South)East is routed well North of Bierges for a left hand down to near Waterloo before aligning with RWY01.

On the map below, the red dot is Bierges.

What you saw was probably an aircraft on approach to RWY04L at EBBE, Beauvechain, the blue dot on the map.
Maybe a MIL version of an airliner, coming from the West and aligning on the 04L, blue dotted line, a bit offset (EBBE is Notamed for the TACAN to be off). That would explain the ghost on FR24.

I understand the difficulty to appraise the altitude of an aircraft flying above you head, especially if it is an unusual sight but it seems unlikely it was at 500-1000 ft AGL.
Check with the priest at Grez-Doiceau if the spire of the church is still there.

As you know, aircraft follow usually a 3° approach angle. This is roughly 1 in 20, i.e. at 150m (500ft) you are about 3000m from touch down. I check Bierges to be at +12km from EBBE.
In aviation units (as we are all still metrically challenged ), the rule of 3 is a fair estimate. AT 1000ft above field elevation, you are at about 3 nm distance.

Cheers,

H.A.

[mill100]

What would be very usefull is an exact time, approximate heading.
And some details you easily saw.
Given wind it's further hardly likely the aircraft was in for 25 (and 02 is 01 in the mean time)

[luchtzak]

Could that be the BAF A321 on her way to Ursel ?

[KriVa]

Judging an altitude from the ground without reference point is always very tricky. My guess would be an arrival for RWY 01 performing a visual approach at around 2000ft.
Not unlikely, especially if it’s not very busy, which is usually the case just after midday.
500-1000ft sounds highly unlikely for a large aircraft at that location.
That being said, extra details would help, such as details about the aircraft.

[BRUflyer]

It was indeed the Belgian airforce A321, who apparently made a scenic flight over Belgium before heading to Ursel. It flew at the same low altitude over Leuven as well.

[Yoyoman]

I thank you all for your nice and interesting replies (all of them!).

I especially would like to thank you because I was shocked because of what I saw, and hugely frustrated as well because I didn't take any picture, perhaps enabling me to start to understand what it was! But as you know, it all happens so fast!

Now it makes absolutely sense to me: I don't know the exact time, it was somewhere in the middle of the day, I have no pictures, but its heading was for sure, close to 270°, and when drawing a straight like we would arrive at Ursel indeed, as its final destination. The knowledge that it was a MILITARY plane explains it all because it happened in the past that other planes flew as low as that one above our house and they were always MILITARY planes. It's only, THIS one, it looked like a civil commercial passenger jet while I didn't know the army had ALSO such plane, and that's definitely the one I saw (I saw pictures from the BAF A321 and that's what I saw indeed).

However, while I'm so happy, that you have finally been able to help me solve this mystery, my curiousity is still not entirely satisfied. My guess was that this plane was flying at an altitude of between 500ft and 1000ft, probably closer to 1000, but in the end, how close could I possibly have been from its actual altitude. Have optical illusions really been able to play tricks with me, while I have spotted so many low flying planes in the past near airports? Do you have any idea, how low it was possibly flying above our garden, BRUflyer?

[Trainferry]

If we can believe Radarbox, you should be right with 1000ft:

https://www.radarbox24.com/data/registr ... #857927699

You can reply the flight, actual height is shown.

[Yoyoman]

Thank you so much Trainferry, this is awesome