NUFORC Sighting 51874

Occurred: 2006-07-13 22:30 Local
Reported: 2006-08-03 11:29 Pacific
Duration: 30 min - sporadically
No of observers: 3

Location: Pawleys Island (near Litchfield), SC, USA

Shape: Light
Characteristics: Lights on object

Sporadic, orange lights, unlike any common aircraft appear over the ocean

After dinner with my extended family, two friends and I carried folding chairs out onto the beach adjacent to our house. This was around 10:15 p.m. and we set the chairs up to face out over the ocean to get a good view of the moon rising. We sat there for several minutes observing the sky as it was a clear, cloudless night. We carried on a casual conversation as we tried to identify constellations and planets, and two of us even caught a shooting star.

Then, suddenly, around 10:30, I pointed up at the sky because a bright orange light had just appeared. It was stationary for probably 5 seconds and then, almost like a firework, six more (though i'm not sure it was exactly six) orange lights emerged from the first light. In fact, my first reaction was that it was a firework. However, the lights did not descend, but instead remained in a "V-like" formation for a few additional seconds.

My friends and I immediately discussed whether it could be some strange firework, but came to the conclusion that it could not be for three reasons:

1) The small number of lights and their duration were unlike any firework we had ever seen;

2) There was a firework show going on a few miles up the beach, and it was neither as bright nor did the tallest firework reach a quarter of the height of the orange lights; and

3) The lights were directly over the ocean and would have had to been fired from the water.

It was then suggested that it was an airplane, but we didn't think it could be that. Firstly, it didn't move or act like an airplane; the sudden movements and sudden appearance of lights were unlike any airplane I have seen before. And secondly, airplanes have red, green, and white lights while this aircraft had a single, bright orange light.

After several minutes of discussion, some of the lights suddenly appeared again, this time all at once and slightly south of their original position. It did not appear, however, that the lights were all on the same shit as they seemed to move independantly, sometimes blinking and a few of them oscillating a bit.

The final time we saw them was several more minutes later, much further down the beach. They behaved in the same way, but appeared to have picked up speed. They were only visible for a few seconds, and that was the last we saw of them. The event has perplexed me as that same night I witnessed a shooting star, fireworks, a definite plane, and what we thought might even be a satelite- yet this was something completely different than any of those or anything I have ever seen.

Perhaps they were just fighter jets, but it didn't seem like it to me. The unusual lights and the sporadic appearances have left me wondering what the source of these lights might have been.

After this, the moon had risen and my friends didn't share the same interest in the lights as I did and do, so we left the beach, but since that point i have been looking for some explanation.

Posted 2006-10-30