NUFORC Sighting 12474

Occurred: 2000-03-28 22:40 Local
Reported: 2000-03-29 00:00 Pacific
Duration: 00:00:20
No of observers: 2

Location: Hammond, LA, USA

Shape: Light

Two elongated, flickering lights travelling east to west at high speed, circled around to the south and vanished. No sound apparent.

At approximately 10:40 PM on March 22, I observed two bright lights (estimated twice as bright as any of the visible stars. The lights were travelling almost due west and directly overhead when first observed. they were elongated in the direction of travel (estimated 3:1 ratio) and were situated one behind the other. I estimate they were separated by about 4-5 degrees of arc. They appeared to be flickering rapidly (several times per second). There also appeared to be a very thin line of smaller or dimmer lights connecting the pair. This, however, could have been an ionization trail or optical afterimage. The lights maintained the same relative distance as they moved from overhead to about 45 degrees above the western horizon in approximately 10 or 12 seconds. The lights then swung in a wide arc to the south and vanished behind a cluster of tall pine trees. During this "swing", they appeared to move into a side-by-side orientation, rather than the fore-and-aft arrangement when they were travelling west. At the point where I lost sight of them, they appeared to be about 30 to 35 degrees above the southwestern horizon. During the entire episode, there was no sound. Weather conditions in the area were thin scattered clouds (elevation unknown) and little wind. I believe the objects were below the clouds, as they did not appear to dim when passing one or two of the clouds. My first impression was that these were a pair of Air Force fighters on a night training mission. However, there was no sign of the normal red and green marker lights, and absolutely no sound. My wife also observed this phenomenon. After considerable discussion, I decided to report this to you.

((My apologies for the date error in the report I just submitted. I grabbed the wrong date off the calendar. The 03/22/00 date should be 03/28/00.))

NUFORC Note:

Should read March 28

Posted 2000-04-01