Two pilots may have thought they were seeing an underwater version of the northern lights when they spotted this strange red glow coming from under the Pacific Ocean.

The spooky lights were seen south of the Kamchatka peninsula in Russia during a flight from Hong Kong to Anchorage, Alaska.

As of yet, no-one can explain the lights, although the pilots believe they might have flown over an underwater volcano as it erupted.

Dutch pilot JPC van Heijst said he and his co-pilot first noticed a flash of light on the horizon, before flying over the deep red glow 20 minutes later, in what he called the ‘creepiest thing’ he had ever experience in his flight career.


He said: ‘The closer we got, the more intense the glow became, illuminating the clouds and sky below us in a scary orange glow, in a part of the world where there was supposed to be nothing but water.’



The pilots, remembering hearing news of earthquakes in Iceland, Chile and California before they took off, began to worry that they would encounter an ash cloud.

Luckily the plane experienced no problems during the remained of their flight, and Captain van Heijst now hopes the red glow will come with a silver lining.

He told Mail Online: ‘Now I’m just hoping that if a new island has been formed there [from the eruption], at least it can be named after me as the official discoverer.

‘That would be pretty cool!’