NUFORC Sighting 81266

Occurred: 2011-05-14 17:30 Local
Reported: 2011-05-15 08:48 Pacific
Duration: 20 seconds
No of observers: 1

Location: Aventura, FL, USA

Shape: Oval

8 oval objects traveling in a loose formation at approximately 500mph

This was in daylight, and they were definitely "solid" objects.

There were exactly eight of them, and they were in two groups of 3 each, and then there were 2 more trailing behind. They were traveling pretty much due north, and I spotted them when they were due west of me. Unfortunately, they were actually at their CPA when I first saw them, and so the best part of the sighting was right at the beginning.

The sky beyond them was a pale yellow, and consisted of a smokey overcast back-illuminated by the sun, which was fairly low in the sky. (We've been having huge brush fires out west in the glades, and so for the last three days or so, the sky has been a brownish overcast most of the time, and you can smell smoke most of the day...) The objects themselves were between 1 and 2 miles away. (It's hard to estimate the distance because they were just silhouetted against the sky, and there were no buildings or mountains or anything to use as a gauge.) Similarly, the altitude was between 2000 and 5000 feet by my best guess. If they were 1 mile away, then they were at about 2000 feet. If they were more like 2 miles away, then the altitude was probably about 5000 feet. (If they were any farther than that, then they were HUGE. But by the way they were moving so deftly around each other, I got the impression that they were only about 30-40 feet in diameter.) Their color was indeterminate, and as they were silhouetted against the yellow sky, they appeared black or dark gray.

Their speed was MUCH faster than any aircraft would be normally traveling at that altitude. Of course, if they were high and far enough away for 500 mph to be a "normal speed", then their size would have been in the neighbourhood of several hundred feet across. There was also no sound whatsoever. And if by some chance they were propelled by air-breathing engines, then there would have definitely been a substantial sound made by eight aircraft at that approximate distance, moving at that approximate speed. As it was though, there was no sound whatsoever. They moved completely silently, and with a sort-of "slippery" type of motion.

They were not travelling in perfectly straight lines. But instead, they were zig-zagging slightly, which was causing their relative positions in their loose formations to change substantially as they moved across the sky. Each of the groups of three remained "intact", although the relative positions of the various crafts within each group seemed to change, almost as though they were "trading places" with each other within the formation.

The total length of time of the sighting was about 20 seconds.

There were dark, ominous clouds to the north, and about halfway through the sighting, the background changed from pale yellow to a bluish-gray color, and they became harder to see at that point. They were not only getting farther away with each passing second, but there was much less contrast between them and the background sky once they left the pale yellow area.

I am a former airline pilot with approximately 12,000 hours, and I've flown equipment ranging from Cessnas to Boeing 727's. I have 20/10 distant vision, and I am absolutely certain that the objects I witnessed were not helicopters, balloons, blimps, birds, floating debris carried by the wind, or any type of fixed-wing aircraft.

Posted 2011-05-29