SIGHTING: LAKEVILLE, MINNESOTA (UNITED STATES)

Witness Testimony

"At approximately 10:12 pm I was walking past my bedroom window. I am a sky watcher and we live south of the MSP airport. I enjoy watching aircraft land. I noticed a strange formation of aircraft traveling from the west to the east. This is a typical flight path for some aircraft on approach to the airport. However the close proximity of the aircraft together was not a typical. The formation of the lights was 4 leading in a diamond formation with two trailing the main group. As they traveled I was expecting to see navigation lights as they approached. However there was no red, green, or white navigation lights present. The lights were also much more Amber than most aircraft I have observed. From my position I could also see what appeared to be an airplane departing from MSP. The lights appeared to turn and headed north, I was able to see the Big Dipper in the sky and from my position they disappeared where the lower left star in the pan would be. Two of the first four disappeared then followed by the other two a few seconds later. The two trailing lights did not turn but continued east. I was not able to see the flight path. Assuming this was the end of the sighting i went downstairs just to see if I would be able to see them again on the eastern part of my house. I was no longer able to see them, however upon looking west again I noticed another light following the same path as the previous. I tried to get my phone ready to record but the light turned north and was gone before I could do so. I then began to fi out this report and I then observed the 8th light. I did capture some video but the light was pretty dim and I was not able to zoom very well. I will add what I did capture to the report. The last light also turned north and vanished. None of these lights had any visible navigation lights as I mentioned. The aircraft that I could see on actual approach to MSP have very visible lights. The craft traveled at roughly (although a little slower) the same speed as the air traffic to the airport. "