‘Call Mulder and Scully!’ cried people watching The French Open‘s Serena Williams‘ v Sloane Stephens match. ‘There’s a plane flying backwards!‘

Yes, it was. What the fuck kind of planes do they have in France? Do the laws of physics not apply in Europe?

The Internet has been in absolute awe, with conspiracy theorists being in their element. Claims have ranged from the simplistic: ‘it’s a weird looking bird’, to the just plain ridiculous, ‘it’s the MH370!!!!!!’ (we will not post those tweets, as PEDESTRIAN.TV does not pander to crazy people most of those people have deleted their tweets now out of embarrassment)

Internet, you crazy:

Did anybody just see the backwards flying plane at the tennis?! Wtf #FrenchOpen pic.twitter.com/sMtjeSVWQd — th@und@d@wg ™ (@thaundadawg) May 25, 2015

A plane’s shadow just moved in reverse across the court in the @rogerfederer vs @Gael_Monfils match at the #FrenchOpen… #gohomeplanedrunk — Ananthapadmanabhan R (@ananth_r) June 1, 2015

@DollarBill1983 explain to me this plane’s shadow going backwards when everyone else was in normal motion #FrenchOpen pic.twitter.com/cwpd64ZBm3 — ClutchMan (@DollarBill1983) June 1, 2015

Can someone explain to me why the plane shadow is going backwards???

#FrenchOpen pic.twitter.com/skYtg9YfrN — Zeb Goodman (@ZebG1996) June 1, 2015

Did anyone see a shadow of a plane flying backwards just now? #FrenchOpen — Erwin J. Badili (@MARDIGUS) June 1, 2015



But, surprise surprise, there is a completely boring and normal explanation.



It’s advertising. Here is the plane that you saw the shadow of:

Image: Julian Finney via Getty Images



It’s an Emirates Airlines advertisement, perched on top of an overhead camera. The camera moves back and forth with players’ movements to capture the game from a bird’s-eye view.

Sorry to ruin all your dreams/alien theories. Turns out the truth is actually out there.

via Fairfax Media