- Passenger on Brussels flight SN2589 captured a blazing meteor during takeoff on March 8, 2026
- The meteor flashed and exploded in a bright burst about 50 km above Earth’s surface
- Witnesses across Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, France, and Luxembourg reported the event
Air travel often offers breathtaking views of glowing sunsets or city lights twinkling below. But for one passenger departing from Brussels, the view outside the airplane window became a once-in-a-lifetime spectacle when he captured a blazing meteor on his camera.
In a post shared on Instagram, user Denis Maltyzov wrote, "I'm still a bit shaken while writing this. 8 March 2026, during takeoff on flight SN2589 from Brussels, I suddenly noticed a very bright object in the sky not far from our plane. At 18:53, it flashed and then seemed to explode in an intense burst of light. I was filming a time-lapse through the window, so the moment was actually captured on video."
He said he had thought something had exploded near the aircraft for a few seconds. "I fly quite often, but this is the first time in my life I've genuinely felt scared on a plane. A little later, the captain mentioned that it might have been debris burning up in the atmosphere," he continued.
The dramatic sight, later reported by witnesses across Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, France and Luxembourg, is believed to have been a small asteroid burning up high in Earth's atmosphere. The event is now being referred to as the 2026 Koblenz meteor.
Sharing an update, Denis added, "Scientists say it was most likely a small asteroid a few meters wide entering Earth's atmosphere and breaking up about 50 km above the ground. Fragments of the meteor apparently fell in Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany, and one piece reportedly punched a hole through the roof of a house in Koblenz, fortunately without injuries. The event is already being referred to as the 2026 Koblenz meteor."
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"So what I saw from the airplane window was most likely a meteor entering Earth's atmosphere. A rock that travelled billions of kilometres through space and burned up right in front of my eyes," he concluded.
The meteor was first observed on Sunday, March 8. The European Space Agency Planetary Defence team estimated the original object was up to a few metres in diameter before it disintegrated in an air burst at an altitude of about 50 kilometres.
