UFO?
I want to say at the outset that I am a hardcore skeptic when it comes to UFO’s. I don’t believe in little green men from outer space who visit our planet in flying saucers. When someone shows me a helmet or glove with "Made in Alpha Centari" on it, I’ll reconsider.
I was out on my back porch. I am out there frequently. I have one airport, KLOU, two miles to the east and another, KSDF, three miles to the west. I see a lot of airplanes. Since aircraft fascinate me, I always try to identify the planes coming over.
I saw a cluster of lights coming in from the south. At first glace, I figured it was a medi-vac coming in to the hospitals downtown, since they often fly that path. It was fairly low to the ground. I noticed first that the lights didn’t seem right. They were mostly red with perhaps a couple of white lights. I expected that any moment I would begin to hear the turbine and blades sound of a chopper but I didn’t. Instead of coming down, the cluster of lights was climbing. It also seemed to be weaving slightly rather than flying straight like a plane would do. I continued to listen for any engine sound and I heard none. It came almost directly over my house and I continued to watch it as it moved past. At about 80 degrees vertical, its forward motion seem to stop and it began to get smaller and smaller, eventually vanishing, as if the thing had suddenly commenced an 80 degree climb out into space. I have watched a lot of airplanes, and I have never seen an airplane or helicopter act like that.
I am puzzled.
Perhaps they were Chines lanterns? They slowly float in the air, silently, before the candle/flame extinguishes. Once that happens it looks as if they just disappeared out of thin air.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0QtdpgT41k
Anything is possible, I suppose, but this seemed more like a powered aircraft given the speed and appearance of guidance.
Approximately 3 years ago, I was walking home from my friends house at the top of the hill. It was about 11.30PM and the area is very dimly lit before proceeding onto woodland to follow a food path. There are always planes flying over the area as there are a few airports in the vicinity. On this particular night, I noticed 5 or 6 lights to the North, heading South. They crossed the river and continued on course. I observed them for approximately 5 minutes.
Like in your case, the lights flew in formation and were completely silent. They climbed steeply when directly overhead and disappeared one after another. I too had considered Chinese lanterns but, it wasn’t the right time of year for any such festival and the lights were not flickering either, as one would associate with a lantern. You would also think that the lanterns would be caught in cross winds or at least be somewhat staggered in their positioning. The lights I witnessed where in perfect alignment, all following one another as if powered and controlled and all ascended at the same point in the sky too.
I’m also skeptical of little green men in spaceships but, what I witnessed was very odd. It was observed by many people in my town and from a neighbouring county, so they must have been airborne for some time.
I had a very similar experience years ago. It was about 4:30 in the afternoon, a bright sunny day. I had left my house to walk the dog. I walked about ten yards when something on my upper left caught my eye. It was a very bright light moving north east…its stopped abruptly then circled back to where I first spotted it. I began to yell for my wife to come and see it! It began to move again northward and as it did it swooped lower and got brighter as it descended. All of a suddenly it arched upward quite fast and then streamed straight up out of site in the blink of an eye. There was no noise. My wife Barbara missed sighting it due to the speed it traveled upward.
True story.
Tom
Skeptic? You will change your mind.
http://www.lex18.com/news/are-we-really-alone-kentucky-called-hotbed-for-ufo-sightings/