NUFORC Sighting 132414

Occurred: 2017-01-31 18:40 Local
Reported: 2017-02-01 18:00 Pacific
Duration: 3 minutes
No of observers: 1

Location: Mechanicsburg, PA, USA

Shape: Light
Characteristics: Lights on object, Electrical or magnetic effects

Four orange yellow lights side by side in a slight 15 degree angle slanting to the right.

Sighting 6:40 pm 1/31/17 Mechanicsburg, PA I was driving east on US RT 11 locally called the Carlisle Pike at about 6:40 pm I noticed unusual lights in the sky to the right South of my location about 50 degrees off the horizon. The lights where four orange yellow lights in a downward sloping angle about 15 degrees. The lights appeared to be round. It was well above the tree line but too low for a commercial aircraft unless it was landing in Harrisburg, the location seemed off in regards to a plane landing and the lights were solid not flashing as planes normally do. The lights appeared to be stationary and not moving as a plane would. It's important to note that the Moon was behind me and that while Venus is currently just to the right of the moon and Mars just above the Moon forming a triangle this was not in the area of the sky where this sighting took place.

Mechanicsburg is in the middle of the Cumberland Valley part of the Great Appalachian Valley just west of Harrisburg PA. Two major highways pass by Mechanicsburg to the South the Pennsylvania Turnpike and just to the North interstate 81. I reference this because the Turnpike is used as guide into Philadelphia International by planes coming from the West, it's also the flight path of the local medivac helicopter from its base in Carlisle, PA. There is a large amount of air traffic that flies high over my neighborhood daily.

As I drove I tried keeping my eyes on the object and the road as traffic was flowing steadily for post rush hour so I didn't have an opportunity to pull over. I made sure to note the time and reached for my cell phone to try and get a picture. When I opened my camera app on my iPhone the camera app malfunctioned giving me a screen of green bars horizontally and up and down. During the process of closing the app restarting the app and driving the lights disappeared.

Mechanicsburg is home to the Naval Support Activity Mechanicsburg, a 806 acre facility with over 150 buildings, including a Department of Defense rail yard including Nuclear Cask railroad cars. The area of the light anomaly was over the area occupied by this installation.

I'm a special education teacher by degree and career. I teach children with learning disabilities in a neighboring school district. I am fascinated by paranormal topics, but never thought I'd be writing a report about an observation I would have.

Posted 2017-02-03

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