A sceptic, and the founder of the Metabunk forum. In one case after another, Mick West offered the ordinary explanation. For the Chilean Navy infrared video, published in January 2017, he and forum members matched flight tracking data to the footage and named Iberia flight IB6830. For GIMBAL, he argued the object was infrared glare from a distant jet's engines, with the spin caused by the camera's gimbal mount. He explained GOFAST as parallax. He also judged the Nimitz Tic Tac video consistent with a distant plane, though his analysis dealt with the video, not with what the pilots saw.
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Pro earlyMetabunk contributor who suggested a tall tale, perhaps sparked by a bolide or a hillside bonfire
Pro earlyMetabunk analyst, supported the timed exposure explanation
Metabunk participant; exposed the separate S66-54585 hoax image
Sceptic who commented on the 2026 release
Metabunk administrator who led an online discussion of camera and film artifact explanations
Sceptic who argued for a thrown object on Metabunk
Metabunk founder who produced a stabilised version of the clip
Sceptical analyst (Metabunk) who proposed a distant plane explanation for the video
Metabunk sceptic, proposed ship mast navigation lights
Contrail Science author who proposed the sunlit contrail explanation
Pro earlyMetabunk founder who listed the case among hairless animals mistaken for chupacabras
Metabunk founder and sceptical analyst
Skeptic on Metabunk who suggested pelicans
Sceptic who started the Metabunk thread proposing radar-reflector balloons
Metabunk founder who led the IB6830 identification
Skeptic investigator (Metabunk); argues GIMBAL is camera glare and GOFAST is parallax
Skeptical analyst who found the object consistent with a large balloon
Metabunk analyst; proposed a balloon explanation
Metabunk analyst who proposed bokeh for the pyramids and balloon, glare or plane for the sphere
Metabunk founder who reviewed footage of the lights
Pro earlyMetabunk analyst, proposed a large balloon
Led the Metabunk analysis proposing a nearby business jet
Skeptical analyst who attributed the unknowns to limited data
Metabunk analyst. Argued that parallax from the circling drone explains the path
Sceptic who identified the phantoms as flies (Metabunk, Skeptical Inquirer)
Metabunk founder; proposed center-pivot irrigation strobes using ADS-B flight tracks
Pro earlyContributor to the Metabunk Starlink analysis
Metabunk; sceptical analyst who favoured a balloon but doubted the lighting-balloon match
Metabunk analyst who argued for a slow-moving soft target such as a balloon
Analyst who concluded most sightings were aircraft or drones
Pro earlyMetabunk sceptic who listed red flags in the clip
Analyst who argued some reports matched stars, aircraft or satellites