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It also has to do with which Iridium satellite it is.
There are some floating up there that do not have much in the way of attitude control and therefore the orientation of their panels is not what might be expected compared to those that are being used. Check which satellite it is, there is usually a marker of some sort on the information to give an indication of whether the satellite is active or not.
I have also recently witnessed the brightest satellite flare I have ever seen - it was way brighter than -8 and I could not find a prediction for it when consulting various predictive sites for a check of the back catalog as it were. It was spectactular and fairly short. Sometimes the orientation is just so. I can also imagine if I happen to have it cross my eyepiece at that time that I'd need some time to re-dark adapt!
I regularly see satellites cross the eyepiece these days to the point of being annoying rather than novelty. I did a quick check a few times to find out that most of the ones I was seeing were the bits and pieces of the former Chinese satellite that was engaged in an ASAT test. Translating one piece of space junk into many, yeah that is a good idea.
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