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II was out the front of a house auction in Melbourne Australia a couple of weeks ago when I noticed something red in the sky. It descended from the clouds, no sound, and happened fast enough that nobody else around me saw it.

My first thought was a flare, but the altitude doesn’t add up. It looked too high to have been fired from the ground, and flare guns aren’t easy to get hold of here anyway, Australia has tight firearms laws.

That leaves a military flare dropped from a plane, but I was close to Melbourne Airport, and that airspace is tightly controlled. Dropping a flare that close to active flight paths seems like a serious risk. I checked FlightRadar24 straight after and there was nothing showing in the area.

Has anyone seen something similar, or have a theory I haven’t considered?