Lights on airliners [closed]

We frequently holiday in Mallorca and more often than not see a strange light display on the odd airliner coming overhead, This is something like 2 octagonal light formations on the underside of the aircraft. Does anyone know anything about this?

aircraft

Best Answer

Any aircraft must have these lighting systems:

Navigation lights: red on the left wing tip and green on the right wing tip. Other aircraft or ATCs can determine the direction by looking at those.
Strobe lights: a strong flashing light to help aircraft avoid collisions in low visibility conditions.
Landing lights: if the aircraft is certified for night landings it must have landing lights which are strong lights at the forward usually to help pilots see terrain and runways.
Logo lights: usually at the tail to show the airlines logo at night, sometimes at the belly of the aircraft (as in A380).
Wing lights: to help pilots do their ground checks and to increase visibility in general.
Rotating beacons: usually used on ground to let ground personnel know that engines are running.

Now what you saw must be a combination of all of the above. Some aircraft look like a moving party at night, I remember the MD90s for example having a funny lights system if all lights are on.

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Why are lights turned off on airplane?

The "dimming of cabin lights" only happens when it is dusk, dawn or dark outside the aircraft. This is a safety measure, and is to ensure your eyes are adjusted to the gloom enough to see the floor lights leading you to safety along the aisle in the event of a crash or emergency evacuation.

Do planes turn off their lights at night?

To help passengers adjust their vision, airplanes dim their cabin lights when taking off and landing at night.

Do planes fly with lights on at night?

\u201cDuring nighttime takeoffs and landings, you dim the lights so that you have some night vision going on.\u201d Dimming cabin lights during the day, then, is less necessary, but does conserve some engine power as the plane hurtles toward flight.

Do wing lights stay on during flight?

The position lights (red on the left tip, green on the right tip, white at the trailing edges of the tips) are on at all times. The strobes also are on at any time airborne.

LIGHTS on Airplanes explained by \

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Images: Anna Shvets, Alfonso Escalante, Blue Sky, Heorhii Heorhiichuk