Patterns of flashing lights on commercial airliners—what do they represent?

[annehere]

A friend lives in the corridor where planes come into LAX, and we sat on the deck one night (in food comas after a huge meal) watching them fly over.

I found this cool page that describes what each of the flashing (or steady) lights on the plane is for, but I haven't yet been able to find out if the flashing patterns represent anything.

Some of the flashing patterns appeared to be sequential, and some appeared out of sequence, looking almost random.

Can anybody tell me if the flashing patterns identify the model, or the airline, or maybe does each individual plane have its own "pattern"? Or doesn't it mean anything at all?

[Guizmeaux]

I wish that they did have a meaning, but I'm afraid they don't. I can categorically state that they have no meaning at all.

The variances in strobes are exactly that - variances.

There is one exception - landing lights. These don't necessarily define the plane as such, but are used as signals from time to time. The most common is repeated flashing with a period of 2s or so, which is done by an instructor. The meaning is "I am being landed by a student so please GTFO of the way."

The same signal is done (unofficially) for pleasure flights and it means "I HAZ A HAPPY!!!" (No, really it does).

Lastly, the same signal is used by helos and it means roughly, "I'm not moving very fast so you might not realise this, but I am actually landing so you might want to duck". This is generally used in places where a helo might not be expected, or where there is human traffic expected on the apron.

[silenus]

Hijack: Guiz, as near as I can translate, your title means: "All of my pizzas are completely flying horse."

How close am I?

[Q.E.D.]

Well, you got "all" and "completely" more or less correct.

[Guizmeaux]

Hijack: How close am I?

Not so far off. "All my dominoes are completely sticky".

I feel bad about talking about myself in this thread, so here's something relevant to airliner signals:

The international signal for "my situation is all messed up and I'm hurt and need help but cannot tell you by radio" is to leave your flaps drooping while taxiing on the apron, in the same position that they were while you were landing. So: 737 wandering around the concrete at flaps 30 is telling everyone that they might need a firetruck cuddle.

I hope this compensates. :smile: