NUFORC Sighting 87997

Occurred: 2012-03-23 00:20 Local
Reported: 2012-03-24 08:31 Pacific
Duration: 1 minute
No of observers: 1

Location: Chapel Hill, NC, USA

Shape: Unknown
Characteristics: Lights on object, Aircraft nearby

3 white lights in a triangle formation pointing down with a green light below the white lights. No strobes just solid lights.

At approximately 12:15-12:20am I witnessed 3 white lights in a tight triangle formation pointing down. Below the lights there was a smaller solid green light. There was a slight gap between the white lights and the green. This was on NC HWY 54 westbound just after exiting from I-40 on the Durham-Chapel Hill line. The object descended very smoothly without any lateral movement from an approximate altitude of 1000 ft. or so (rough estimation). I lost sight of it once it became obstructed by trees. As it did so it became one solid white light. The sighting lasted just under a minute. The object appeared to be about a mile to my southeast. At the time of the sighting there was a conventional smaller airplane several thousand feet up to the west-southwest of the object.

I am a meteorologist and storm spotter so I am quite familiar with sky observation and explainable phenomena. This was clearly an object under some form of intelligent control and not weather related.

Posted 2012-05-13