# Are foo fighters still seen?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-foo-fighters-still-seen/407729>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 12, 2007, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-foo-fighters-still-seen/407729 "2007-06-12T17:09:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2007, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-foo-fighters-still-seen/407729/1 "2007-06-12T17:09:56Z")

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Foo fighters, as in the balls of glowing gasses following planes. Are these still reported by pilots? Are the reports taken seriously or are you likely to be viewed as a quack if you report one? What are some of the possible explanations (scientific, that is, I’m not interested in paranormal explanations).

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**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2007, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-foo-fighters-still-seen/407729/2 "2007-06-12T17:29:30Z")

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Foo Fighters are still seen, only now they’re called UFOs.

They’re probably not balls of glowing gases (although Philip Klass has suggested that some UFO sightings might be “Ball Lightning”). Most were probably due to the same things that inspire UFO reports – other airplanes, balloons, misidentifications of bright stars or planets, ice crystal haloes and other ,meteorological phenomena, and satellites (among others)

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**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2007, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-foo-fighters-still-seen/407729/3 "2007-06-12T21:25:57Z")

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Well, that’s a little bit of ignorance fought for me. I always thought Dave Grohl was somehow channeling [Carl Douglas](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kung_Fu_Fighting).