"As I was moving relatively slowly" quoting from your post, it sounds like
you were in your car driving. The APPARENT relative movement of an aircraft
being observed from a moving vehicle changes drastically if either the
aircraft or the car change relative headings. That could make it appear as
if the forward motion of the jet had stopped.
As for then "it continued climbing" is hard to explain. Perhaps you just
thought it had stopped climbing due to the apparent stoppage of any forward
movement.

--

Darrell R. Schmidt
B-58 Hustler History: http://members.cox.net/dschmidt1/
-

"DM" wrote in message
...
Yesterday I saw a cargo jet (a major air express company) come to what
seemed like a dead stop in midair as it was making its ascent. After about
20 - 30 seconds of hanging without dropping out of the sky, it continued
climbing and apparently did not crash. There's been nothing about it in
the local news but I've still been very concerned. Could someone here
explain how such a thing is possible?

Some details: the temperature was about 50 degrees F, the sky was mostly
clear, and the time was around 0645. I was traveling by car at about 40
MPH on a street that is parallel to a regular flight path. From this
street it's common to see 3 or 4 planes per minute either climbing or
descending; the airport is about a mile or two away from this particular
street.

As I was moving relatively slowly compared to the how fast the jet should
have been moving, I noticed that I was gaining on it. I quickly eyeballed
the area for tall buildings and other geographical reference points so I
could be sure that I had a good perspective and wasn't just "seeing
things". The object was either not moving or it was moving *very* slowly,
and it was not a helicopter. For a few seconds I was stopped at an
intersection looking at this hanging plane and at the people in the other
cars around me. No one else seemed to be paying any attention to it
besides me.

The main reason this bothered me so much is because had the plane fallen,
it would have landed less than a half mile from where I and about 30 other
running cars were, in addition to several warehouse-type buildings and
auto repair garages, plus a 6 or 8 lane freeway filled with morning
traffic. Since the plane had just taken off and was probably full of fuel,
and was still low enough for its markings to be readable from the ground,
the crash probably would have been extraordinarily disastrous.

I've done a lot of Googling to try to get an understanding of what I saw
and really haven't learned anything meaningful. I'm hoping someone here
can explain how a "regular" jet--versus a specialized military jet--can
apparently stop in midair and not drop from the sky. As a daily traveler
near a major metro airport, I'd really like to be reassured that this is
not a common occurrence.

Debbie