NUFORC Sighting 84236

Occurred: 2011-09-29 21:20 Local
Reported: 2011-09-30 10:36 Pacific
Duration: 20 to 25 minutes
No of observers: 2

Location: St. Stephen, SC, USA

Shape: Unknown
Characteristics: Left a trail, Aircraft nearby

10 to 12 lights followed by jet fighters over Berkely County in South Carolina

We are located just south of St. Stephen, SC, 29479, about 3 miles. We are located about 30 miles northeast of Charleston, SC.

On the evening of September, 29, 2011 at around 9:20 in the evening, on a very clear night with no moon in the sky, my wife and I witnessed some events that seemed to correspond to each other. As we looked from our driveway to the north, which would be towards St. Stephen, there was nothing in the sky. As we turned to go inside I happened to turn back and saw about 10 to 12 blinking lights. Their location was in the sky at a NNE direction about 45 degrees up. They had the illumination somewhat brighter than a normal star. We hurried to the fence, away from the main road so as not to be hampered in our viewing by any traffic that may come toward us on the highway.

As we watched them in a group, a falling star was witnessed by both of us. It was larger and slower than a regular slit of a glimpse a usual falling star gives you and had a long tail that was orange in color and much wider than a regular meteorite. Its trajectory was about 90 degrees when we spotted it and went to about 30 degrees before it disappeared. It was traveling from south to north. Whatever fell through the sky seemed to dissect the blinking lights. It was almost as if they were signaling for something to come in. Then they broke apart in formation with about 8 heading towards the coast, which would be towards the east and four heading towards the west, above and to the north of Lake Moultrie which is towards our west. We followed those lights because the other 8 would have been obstructed quickly from view because of a forest to the east of our viewing position. After the four blinking lights heading towards Lake Moultrie went out of site, less than a mi! nute passed and we suddenly saw two Air Force jets at full throttle heading in the direction of the four that had just flown out of sight. We definitely heard the two jets with afterburners at full thrust. We never heard anything when it was just the 10 to 12 blinking lights in the sky. The jets were coming from SSE which is the direction of Charleston’s Air Force base and flying rapidly towards the NNW.

After the jets went out of sight and sound, we looked back to the original spot in the sky where we had seen the original lights blinking, and we saw another falling star, exactly like the one I explained falling in exactly the same area we had seen the first one. Immediately following that, I was looking off in a westerly direction towards Lake Moultrie when my wife exclaimed that she saw another falling star streaking towards where the four blinking lights had headed off towards Lake Moultrie. That one was about 20 degrees in the sky heading from the north when she saw it towards the north- north east.

The entire episode lasted for a total of about twenty minutes ending between 9:40 to 9:45 pm, Eastern Standard Time.

Posted 2011-10-10