How often do we feel curious enough to investigate something we find while gazing out of a plane window? Almost never? But, Benjamin Strick, investigations director at the Centre for Information Resilience, is not like us. In a series of X posts, he recounted how he noticed a massive figure on the ground during a flight. This sparked his curiosity, leading him on a digital quest to uncover what it was, how it came to be, and who was behind its creation. See the post: I was recently on a flight across Australia when I spotted this massive figure on the ground. It led me on a digital journey to find out what it was, how it got there and who made it. I'm going to explain a bit more about what it is in this thread, and how I found out. 👇🧵 pic.twitter.com/whPFOE83F2 — Benjamin Strick (@BenDoBrown) September 18, 2024 In subsequent posts, Strick explained how he got to know everything about the structure. He started his conquest by taking a screenshot on his phone of the location he was at, for the phone was in flight mode, and later used flight tracking to pinpoint exactly where he was when he spotted the structure. He then used the air traffic tracking app ‘Flight Radar 24’ to trace the path his plane took. Without internet on the plane, I made a screenshot on my phone of the location (yes it was on flight mode) and later used flight tracking to pinpoint exactly where I saw it. Using @flightradar24, I traced the path my plane took and found the spot! pic.twitter.com/ge4pgP50mr — Benjamin Strick (@BenDoBrown) September 18, 2024 Next, Strick went to Google Earth to zoom in on the area. “I zoomed into the area and there it was — this huge humanoid figure etched in the Australian outback. Measuring 2.7km tall and covering an area of more than 1.7 square kilometres, it's a sight to behold,” he wrote in his post. Next stop: @googleearth 🗺️ I zoomed into the area and there it was — this huge humanoid figure etched in the Australian outback. Measuring 2.7km tall and covering an area of more than 1.7 square kilometres, it's a sight to behold. Here's the location: -29.527084, 137.465400 pic.twitter.com/kcYVaTF5En — Benjamin Strick (@BenDoBrown) September 18, 2024 Using historical satellite imagery, he traced the origins of the giant figure. By comparing different time frames on Google Earth Engine, he narrowed down when the figure appeared using Landsat-5 imagery, dating it between 27 May and 12 June 1998. Zooming in on the satellite images, he observed that the figure was likely created using earth-moving equipment. In another post, Strick revealed the creator of the massive figure and shared a link to a vlog documenting his journey to uncover its origins. Since posting, the thread has gained significant traction, amassing over 600,000 views and nearly 3,000 likes. Responding to the posts, one X user wrote, “Window seats on planes is the epitome of cool. I could stare outside a plane all day at the world below.” Another user said, “Loved reading this.” A third user commented, “This is giving me hope for my next plane journey!”
