NUFORC Sighting 127375

Occurred: 2016-05-12 21:20 Local
Reported: 2016-05-12 22:45 Pacific
Duration: 15 seconds approx.
No of observers: 2

Location: Elsmere, DE, USA

Shape: Triangle
Characteristics: Lights on object

Column of three vertical solid white lights over Elsmere DE which do 90 degree turn to form triangle

The date and time was Thursday, May 12, 2016, at approximately 9-20 in the evening. My wife and I were driving along Kirkwood highway from Newark en route to Wilmington, DE, and were approaching the small town of Elsmere. We were in the vicinity of the VA hospital, when I noticed three solid white lights (i.e. none of them were blinking on/off) in a completely vertical line (like a column) relatively low in the sky directly in front of us, some distance away (perhaps half a mile). They appeared to be stationary or moving very slowly towards us, as we continued along the straight road.

I watched them for around three or four seconds before saying "what's that?" to my wife who was driving the car. A few minutes later (when we were discussing what we had just witnessed) she said she had also seen them before I drew attention to them vocally. My wife and I agreed that the lights were attached to a solid object, which was much larger than a conventional plane.

After a few more seconds, the lights moved slowly to our right, now forming a triangle formation. I had the impression that we had been observing a triangular object with a solid white light at each corner. When we first saw it, it was oriented perpendicular to the ground such that the lights formed a column (in other words it appeared that the object was initially on its side). As we got closer, it banked and assumed a horizontal orientation, such that the three lights were no longer in a vertical column but were in a triangle shape.

The light at the apex of the triangle was furthest from our vantage point as I continued to observe (my wife focusing on driving), the other two lights behind the light at the apex. The object (now in a roughly two o'clock location relative to our car going along the straight section of Kirkwood highway approaching Elsmere) was moving away from us in the direction of the light at the apex.

The whole event lasted approximately fifteen seconds. As the object moved to our right, it very quickly became hidden from our view due to the stores and houses at the side of the road. This was further evidence to us that the object was relatively low in the sky - much too low for a conventional plane. We heard no sound from whatever we saw.

Given the evidence of our senses at the time, we regard the possibility that the three lights were not attached to a very large solid object is very small (much too small to reasonably accept) especially given the revealed geometry we witnessed as the lights moved relative to our car.

Posted 2016-05-20

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