Not a drone nor a bird. What's that "thing" seemingly orbiting over Homs, Syria?

March 1, 2012 Bizarre

David Cenciotti

While seeking for new interesting footage from Syria, to update the yesterday post about the weapons being used by the regime against the opposition in Homs, I stumbled upon this video.

Something seemingly “solid” seems to orbit in the smoke coming from a burning building (an oil pipe according to a comment) at Homs. Most probably it has nothing to do with a drone (too low, it would be operating inside the smoke cloud where visibility is poor, and so on) and it is not even solid.

An optical illusion caused by a strong light? Thermal convection? Anything else that can be scientifically explained?

What’s your opinion?

Syrian Mohajer 4 drone spying on the clashes at Homs, Syria (theaviationist.com)
Special feature: all the weapons used by the Syrian regime on Homs. (theaviationist.com)

About David Cenciotti

David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.

Mark says:

March 2, 2012 at 12:03 AM

Looks like the reflection of light off the smoke of sunlight being reflected off something on the ground. A rotating dish or something similar.
M Brueschke says:

March 2, 2012 at 12:18 AM

Really could be a compression artifact. How many times is that video compressed? Once at the camera, then to the satellite, then again to You Tube?
AG-1 says:

March 2, 2012 at 12:48 AM

Parachute from some kind of munitions?
Andy says:

March 2, 2012 at 2:07 AM

I think it’s a bird between the camera and the smoke.
Jonathan says:

March 2, 2012 at 3:21 AM

Could easily be something extraordinarily light being buffeted around in the updraft caused by the smoke. Something similar to a mylar balloon, for example.