NUFORC Sighting 82912

Occurred: 2011-07-31 23:00 Local
Reported: 2011-08-02 23:58 Pacific
Duration: 4 minutes
No of observers: 2

Location: Kenosha, WI, USA

Shape: Light
Characteristics: Lights on object

Two red light/balls buzz Waukegan to Kenosha and disappear to the east over Lake Michigan

On Sunday night, July 31, 2011, just before 11:00 p.m., my wife and I were seated in chairs, hers facing south, mine north, on the dock in front of our boat at the Kenosha Marina, Lake Michigan, WI. We were generally just appreciating the beautiful evening, and looking at all the bright stars we could see overhead. Both of us commented on how unusually clear the night sky was.

Kenosha underlies takeoff and arrival routes from both Chicago and Milwaukee airports, plus the smaller airports of Waukegan, Kenosha, and Racine. I personally am an Airline Transport Rated pilot with more than forty years of flying experience in many different types of aircraft, with over 20,000 flight hours, flying corporate jets the past 32 years. I spend a lot of time watching the sky for aircraft and take pride in how many types I can identify as they pass overhead.

Shortly before 11:00 p.m. my wife commented, "You should look at this airplane." I said, "I really don’t feel like twisting around to look at another airplane." She said, "You really ought to look at this."

I turned around in my chair and looked to the south. What I saw was a bright red ‘light/ball’ low in the sky moving south to north toward us at what appeared to be a fairly low altitude at a high rate of speed.

I jumped up from my chair to get a better view.

In a matter of just maybe 15 seconds, the red ‘light/ball’ grew rapidly larger. This ‘light/ball’ had none of the normal aircraft navigation, strobe, or recognition lights normally found on aircraft.

Suddenly, the ‘light/ball’ made a sharp right turn to the east over Lake Michigan and accelerated at an astonishing rate as it climbed out of sight in to the distance.

The entire time of observation was approximately 45 seconds.

My wife said, "What was that?" I said, " have absolutely no idea. I’ve never seen anything like it."

Stunned, we both returned to our chairs and sat down.

Shortly, she said, "Here comes another one."

I jumped up out of the chair, turned around and observed what appeared to be the same type and color object repeat the same maneuver. I grabbed my cell phone and took two pictures. One in "normal"; the object appears to be a small bright dot between the sailboat masts.

I then zoomed in max, and as expected it was very shaky/blurry, but the red color of the object is obvious.

Because I do not know the size of the objects it is difficult to estimate the distance they were from us. They appeared to be several miles away. It was a quiet night, but we heard absolutely no sound from the objects.

Posted 2011-08-07