Planes Following Each Other?

(Photo by John Wiley)

Update by John Wiley

I heard unusual jet engine noise over SB this evening, and looked up to see an airliner flying in formation with a smaller plane. Ran inside and got a long zoom camera, and could then see this Delta Airlines jet making slow turns with a smaller jet maneuvering around it. The small jet has something hanging from the nose that I’m guessing was a camera for taking aerial photos with our mountains as a backdrop in the evening glow. I snapped this after the small jet had departed, as the airliner made a steep turn and flew toward LA.

Update by Jessica T.

Yep, we saw it, too. Got some pictures. They came out of the West, banked of the coast of Goleta and headed back went toward Dos Pueblos Canyon. It headed out toward Carp, came back toward Goleta – did that twice. One the second pass, the fighter jet peeled off while the airliner headed back East, then caught back up with it before they both headed passed the ridge line to the East.

Update by Cris S.

Just to share, the plane overhead yesterday was N506DN, an Airbus 350-900 which Delta took delivery of just a few months ago. They were doing air to air shots for promotional purposes. Here is a great video from one of the shots: https://twitter.com/mikeisler/status/958465464174133249 . Specifically, this plane was operating as DL9989, https://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL9989

Photo by Steve M.

Original report by an edhat reader

What was going on with the planes in the sky around 5:00 pm? That was odd. One large plane flying very slowly, being followed by a small plane it seemed like.