NUFORC Sighting 84884

Occurred: 2011-09-18 00:30 Local
Reported: 2011-10-26 14:11 Pacific
Duration: 10-12 minutes
No of observers: 1

Location: Troy, OH, USA

Shape: Light
Characteristics: Aura or haze around object

Pulsating red light over Troy, Ohio on 18 Sept 2011.

Shortly after midnight on the morning of 18 Sept 2011, I was driving south on Interstate 75 heading toward Dayton, Ohio. As I approached the city of Troy, I noticed a red pulsating (maybe "flickering" is a better word) light that appeared to be almost hovering over the interstate. I first thought it was a light on a cell or other type of tower, but the closer I got I noticed it seemed to be moving slowly to the east. I'd estimate the altitude of the light to have been no more than a couple thousand feet as I drove under/by it. There was no apparent noise associated with it, and I'm sure it wasn't a conventional aircraft or helicopter.

As I recall, the weather that night/morning was fairly clear, with just enough haze to allow the red light to illuminate the haze around it with a dull red glow. As I continued south, I continued to observe the light in my rearview mirrors until I eventually lost sight of it. I'm unsure if the light extinguished, if it left the area, or if I lost sight of it due to the terrain as I continued south.

Total time of my obersvation was probably 10-12 minutes.

I made a point to check the newspapers and TV news the next day in Dayton (about 20 south of Troy) to see if there was any mention of the light, but found none. My thought was it was probably a Chinese lantern, but then I noticed the Sept 25 sighting in Dayton on the NUFORC data base that sounded almost exactly like what I'd seen.

Posted 2011-12-12