NUFORC Sighting 116377

Occurred: 2015-01-01 00:00 Local
Reported: 2015-01-01 01:53 Pacific
Duration: 3 minutes each
No of observers: 1

Location: Eugene, OR, USA

Shape: Light
Characteristics: Lights on object

Went out to watch the fire works at midnight. Saw the usual aerial fireworks but then saw 2 bright red lights traveling from the west and then turning in a wide arc to the south. At first I thought they were fireworks gone awry and waited for them to explode. Neither of them did. That attracted my attention as being odd. One was above the other. After about 3 minutes first one then the other faded and disappeared several miles southward. Went out an hour later (at 0:54) to have a smoke and saw a red light come from the west from the direction of Florence, Oregon followed by 6 others. As they traveled in my direction, they all appeared to be moving very fast. They appeared to be traveling high above the oregon coast mountain range. I have always watched the weather coming in from the coast ( we live 60 miles inland) and have a pretty good idea of what the weather is going to do here in the Willamette valley based on my observations of cloud activity wes! t of us. I've seen a lot of jets in the area but none of them flies from that direction or that fast. All of the red lights disappeared at the same point several miles toward the south. All of them followed the exact same trajectory and faded quickly and disappeared at the same point in the sky.

I have lived less than 2 miles from the Eugene airport for the past 23 years. I have seen private airplanes, private jets, commercial jets, cargo jets, navy sub killer aircraft conducting touch and go training flights, and a wide variety of military jets taking off after re-fueling on north to south trajectories. I know all of the trajectories for all of the aircraft that fly over or around my home and, at times, what time of day I can expect to see particular airlines. I am can distinguish the difference between night time aircraft lights and landing lights between fixed wing and jet aircraft. I also know the sound that all of them make.

Tonight I neither heard nor saw anything I have ever experienced. There were none of the usual stro! bing lig hts, throbbing engine sounds, or jet sounds. I have also seen military jets climbing at night. Their after burners have never looked red. What I saw and heard were bright red lights that fluctuated minimally and felt, but did not hear, a slight bass hum.

Conditions were clear, 23 degrees F, no clouds, and a bright half moon in the sky. I have never seen any thing like this in my 55 years on the planet.

Posted 2015-01-07