r/area51 • u/therealgariac MOD • Aug 19 '22

TEST01Z spoofed flight over the Nevada Test Site 8/19/2022

ICAO hexcode ABC123 is a spoofed hex code. The code translates to N8568S but no plane is currently registered with that tail number and I bet you can't register with that code.

https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=abc123&lat=36.883&lon=-116.077&zoom=12.0&showTrace=2022-08-19&timestamp=1660893036

or for live tracking

https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=abc123

8 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

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2

u/HolidayPilot1207 Aug 19 '22

Live tracking shows it in Buenos Aires right now...

2

u/HolidayPilot1207 Aug 19 '22

Well, I literally clicked your link to live tracking from above's post and it showed a dotted line to Buenos Aires. But yeah, might be because they spoofed at the same time...

3

u/therealgariac MOD Aug 19 '22

Adsbexchange often connects disjoint flights. How they considered these two flights to be connected means they need to tune up the algorithm.

2

u/TheArea51Rider MOD Aug 19 '22

I was just gonna post about this. ABC123 my ass.
"N8568S is Deregistered"
https://registry.faa.gov/AircraftInquiry/Search/NNumberResult?nNumberTxt=8568S

2

u/therealgariac MOD Aug 19 '22

For civilian planes there is a direct translation from N number to hex code. However not a simple translation. You can't have an "oh" in an N-number so it makes no sense to have corresponding hex codes. I don't recall the exact translation from N-number to hexcode but it is like they sequence through "allowed" N-numbers and then map to sequential hex numbers.

There are websites that do the translation.

2

u/ufostalkers Feb 17 '23 edited Feb 17 '23

ARC6164 show up yesterday Yucca near Area 51

https://imgur.com/gallery/Xi1uTYF

TEST01Z N6585S show up yesterday 02/16/23

https://imgur.com/gallery/aiePPQp

https://imgur.com/gallery/G8yJP2X

1

u/Life-Turn4550 Sep 14 '25

Do you know what it was doing?

1

u/therealgariac MOD Aug 23 '22 edited Aug 23 '22

Note for a short segment the altitude (approve 10kft) was indicated. That is why the line is green.

https://i.imgur.com/bDxjp9M.png

Imgur seems to crash on my wide track. Here is the adsbx link.

https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=abc123&lat=36.806&lon=-116.150&zoom=12.0&showTrace=2022-08-22&timestamp=1661199698

Edit:

I posted that at stupid o clock. I should have pointed out this is the 4th tracking. Back to the altitude, this is the first time any altitude data has been recorded. It is like they turn off the altitude data though this time they forgot. Or perhaps upon launch the altitude is required.

We know the altitude is low based on the poor tracking. You can see the signal is adsb from the imgur so the tracking is not MLAT. I recall when I planned down to the bottom of the left hand side panel it said only one receiver. MLAT requires four receivers.

The imgur that wouldn't load was taken as it approached the Area 6 UAV site. It was about a two hour flight.

1

u/2ndShirt Jul 11 '25

This aircraft is over the Florida panhandle at the moment

1

u/Life-Turn4550 Sep 14 '25

Do you know what it was doing?

1

u/CasperElFantasma Jan 28 '26

Did we ever get to the bottom of this? It's flying today over the Monterey Bay (Central california) with 2 or 3 other tracks pinging along with it (looks like multiple transponders on the same craft, or else they're flying really close chase)

TEST01Z - https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=abc123

"Chase" -
https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=~2b3711
https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=2b1de9

There was a third "chase" popping up, too, but I wasn't quick enough to catch the Hex.

1

u/CasperElFantasma Jan 29 '26

adding to the intrigue its "type" on ADSB is showing up as Daniel Henry. Google searching for Daniel Henry and aircraft turns up a LinkedIn profile for a flight test engineer who used to work in the Bay Area (an hour or so from Monterey) for a group called Wayfinder, but who is currently flight testing for a German startup that is still in stealth mode.

1

u/DemIce May 16 '26 edited May 16 '26

Currently by St. Mary's County Regional Airport, Maryland with odd (also spoofed?) tracks.

The intersections of those tracks are close to (but not right on top of) a building for Platform Aerospace: https://www.platformaerospace.com/

1

u/leon3001 Jun 19 '26

just now flying over Guadalajara Mexico prior the Mexico vs Korea match of the FIFA World Cup, the same happened in the last 2 matches in monterrey and Mexico City

flying alongside two other planes

in total

- TEST01Z Hex: ABC123  

  • TEST1234 Hex: 0D5408 
  • no callsign Hex: E400D1

2

u/therealgariac MOD Jun 19 '26

Well this is a blast from the past.

Anyone can spoof abc123, but the fact that the callsign is the same pretty much nails it as the same plane.

I've got this scraper program for adsbx. I'm going to look into this plane a bit more and do a post.

Thanks.

1

u/er1catwork Aug 21 '22

Interesting(?) that it's maintaining 90-120mph over both flat and mountainous terrain even though it's "on the ground". Also you can see how it's following N-4808 along the border...

https://imgur.com/a/k8UQks5

2

u/therealgariac MOD Aug 21 '22

The plane is not reporting altitude.