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Old Nov 30, 2011, 5:53 pm
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Off shore lights, Sea of Japan

Flew from ICN - SFO last week (wow, what a beautiful airline, food, service in Business...!!!).

In the sea of Japan, I saw a bunch of symmetrical lights on structures of some kind. It was dark, so I have no idea what those are. Oil rigs? Windmills?

Any clarification would be appreciated, thanks

RRZ
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Old Nov 30, 2011, 6:38 pm
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Originally Posted by rrz518
Flew from ICN - SFO last week (wow, what a beautiful airline, food, service in Business...!!!).

In the sea of Japan, I saw a bunch of symmetrical lights on structures of some kind. It was dark, so I have no idea what those are. Oil rigs? Windmills?

Any clarification would be appreciated, thanks

RRZ
*cough cough* It's called the East Sea not the Sea of Japan. Since Asiana is a Korean airline it will have many Koreans on this thread so I'm sure some of them won't be happy with this.
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Old Nov 30, 2011, 6:45 pm
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Glad you liked Asiana. My fave!

They were probably shrimp boats....
There's a lot of them, and they have really bright lights on them.
I was flying home to Seoul years ago (upstairs on a beautiful NWA 747), and the flight attendants mentioned them.

There were so many lights down there in the darkness, it felt like they were stars and we were flying upside-down.... Of course, they also served a lot of vodka upstairs on NWA.......
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Old Nov 30, 2011, 11:59 pm
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It will be either oil platforms or fishing boats.

There are a number of offshore oil facilities in this area, but you can generally tell these because they nearly always have a gas flare.

As you didn't see any flare, then most likely it's fishing boats as the previous poster said. They use very bright lights to attract the fish (or maybe shrimps).

I remember being in a small fishing port in Taiwan and seeing hundreds of boats covered in strings of lightbulbs - I thought they were getting ready for Christmas, but my Taiwanese colleague educated me otherwise.


Asiana are also my favorite airline - by a country mile.
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Old Dec 1, 2011, 9:42 am
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Here's a photo:

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Old Dec 1, 2011, 10:15 am
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Originally Posted by rrz518
Here's a photo:

Fishing boats for certain.
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Old Dec 1, 2011, 4:52 pm
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Talking

Originally Posted by Doug_1970
Fishing boats for certain.
OR..... were they flying upside down?
Asiana serves Chevas Regal, you know......
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Old Dec 1, 2011, 10:22 pm
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There are also a number of lights in the sea in order to protect against intrusions from North Korea. I live in Korea myself and the whole seafront is fortified with guard towers many kilometres south of the border on both sides of Korea.
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Old Dec 1, 2011, 11:02 pm
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I second what ErasmusEBS said.

First time I went to South Korea and went to the beach (near Seokcho), was surprised to see the beach completely fenced off with bunkers, security cameras and guard towers (they're also along the highway between Seoul and ICN). Then I read about incursions by North Koreans, and then I wasn't so surprised anymore...
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Old Dec 2, 2011, 8:59 am
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Originally Posted by ErasmusEBS
There are also a number of lights in the sea in order to protect against intrusions from North Korea. I live in Korea myself and the whole seafront is fortified with guard towers many kilometres south of the border on both sides of Korea.
What made me think these lights were structures was the fact that there seems to be a ridigidy of placement; i.e. they are somewhat linear (or a pattern of some sort). Look out at the leading edge, there is almost a perfect line.

FWIW, the aircraft made a southerly turn after departure, then turned east directly towards Tokyo (and crossed over Tokyo)
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Old Dec 2, 2011, 9:16 am
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Originally Posted by ErasmusEBS
There are also a number of lights in the sea in order to protect against intrusions from North Korea. I live in Korea myself and the whole seafront is fortified with guard towers many kilometres south of the border on both sides of Korea.
Maybe I stand corrected. I've flown into Seoul many times at night and never seen these lights, but I've only flown in from the North and West, never from the East. So, maybe they are only on the Japanese side?
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Old Dec 2, 2011, 9:38 am
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Here is the location of the aircraft at the time of the sighting of these lights:

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Old Dec 3, 2011, 1:00 am
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Originally Posted by rrz518
Here is the location of the aircraft at the time of the sighting of these lights:

Nah. Dem errr skrimp boats. They are only there certain times during the year (at least when i see them). They are also on the China Sea side of Korea and you can see lots of them when approaching ICN in the winter time....

When I see them, it makes me hungry......
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Old Dec 13, 2011, 9:19 pm
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Was flying CA from PVG to HKG mid afternoon in October and had an incredible view of Seoul as we flew over at 30K+ feet. Even more spectacular was watching an air show (no not that air show) going on below with an aerobatic team doing their loops and bursts with coloured contrails marking the paths of their fighter jets! Unfortunately my camera was packed in the overhead and the person next to me in the aisle seat was sleeping so made getting it impossible.
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Old Dec 18, 2011, 11:54 am
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Originally Posted by rrz518
Flew from ICN - SFO last week (wow, what a beautiful airline, food, service in Business...!!!).

In the sea of Japan, I saw a bunch of symmetrical lights on structures of some kind. It was dark, so I have no idea what those are. Oil rigs? Windmills?

Any clarification would be appreciated, thanks

RRZ
Originally Posted by Jimgotkp
*cough cough* It's called the East Sea not the Sea of Japan. Since Asiana is a Korean airline it will have many Koreans on this thread so I'm sure some of them won't be happy with this.
+1. East Sea.
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