NUFORC Sighting 77215

Occurred: 2010-08-14 21:15 Local
Reported: 2010-08-14 20:35 Pacific
Duration: 8 minutes
No of observers: 3

Location: Caledon (from Brampton) (Canada), ON, Canada

Shape: Light
Characteristics: Aircraft nearby

String of 12 pulsing lights travelling from west and fading out northeast over Caledon, ON

My eldest daughter, son and I were having pizza at our kitchen table at about 21:15 EDT this evening when I saw two bright lights flying in tandem from the west toward the northeast over Caledon. I have worked in aviation for over 20 years and have seen a lot of aircraft so I asked them if they wanted to see something interesting. As we walked outside we noticed two more behind these, then two more seemingly flying in pairs but fairly evenly spaced overall. The moon was partially obscured in the western sky but there were few clouds and the winds were calm.

The string of lights were yellowish-orange in colour, somewhat like the sodium street lamps in our neighbourhood. They were slowly pulsing and as they travelled at what would appear to be aircraft takeoff and climb speeds (200-300 knots), they turned to a more northerly course and faded out. There were no visible beacons or other lights on the objects (what caught my attention in the first place). I ran inside to get my phone to see if it could record the event on video, but the quality was too poor to detect the lights and only recorded our commentary.

As I came back outside we watched in amazement as the count increased to eight, then ten and finally twelve with about six visible at any one time (the others had turned north and faded out in sequence). We noticed that they appeared to be climbing from the Georgetown area to the west and did not all follow the exact same course, some turning north before others did. I observed one passing behind a cloud and then emerging again just before fading out completely and none of them ever stopped pulsing, they just appeared to dim as they got farther away. I thought they must be helicopters to have maintained their formation so I asked my daughter to run in and shut off the air conditioning but there was no detectable sound so they may have been too far away.

I could see no other aircraft in the immediate airspace, but saw one to the south heading north (presumably from Pearson International Airport) that may have observed them. After the last light faded away, an aircraft flew overhead with the familiar beacons of a passenger jet and it was obvious to all of us that these lights in the sky appeared to be something different.

Posted 2010-08-24

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