SIGHTING: ANDERSON, INDIANA (UNITED STATES)
Witness Testimony
"Okay. wth did i just see? i can't even make up a plausible explanation. i live in anderson, indiana, about 50 miles roughly northeast of indianapolis international airport. tonight [july 8, 2018] has a clear but dark sky, with the stars and a few planets clearly visible. i was looking south tonight about 22:20 edt, and i noticed a pair of (what i presumed were) aircraft, heading north. soon, there was third. i was wondering who whould be flying formation at night, and to what end, so i watched. they seemed to be going fairly slowly, gaining altitude as they headed north, then slowly turned to their left. before my view of their flight path was obscured by trees, they were headed west, and seemed to be gaining altitude as fast as they were covering the ground. before they vanished, though, a fourth, identical-looking light appeared. let me describe what i saw: the light was red and bright, and it headed towards me. from my point of view, it was shining a gold beam that tapered from the red lkight source to what i assumed was a wingtip. as it got closer and (i'm still guessing) climbed, the gold part of the light disappeared and the red light became fainter, as it faded to white. (there shouldn't be any red lights on the starboard wing, and i saw no green or strobes, in any event.) over the ensuing minutes, there were more, flying the near-identical path, appearing from behind the trees south of me, heading closer and climbing, as they turned west. note that i didn't lose sight of them because of sightline obstructions; they simply faded from bright red to faint white, and disappeared into the blackness. they started close together (hence my notice of "formation" flight), but the intervals widened until i could see only one at a time; then the time interval kept increasing, until the sky was clear of one before the next appeared (about 2 minutes). the intervals seemed to increase slightly after that. by the time the tenth one was doing this, i had gone outside to get a better view of the sky. walking up and down the sidewalk gave me a little better piece of sky to watch, but trees will be trees. i tried to get video, but i don't have any equipment that will capture this. i tried my phone anyway, but there was nothing on which to focus. from the time i noticed the first two, then three -- all in my frame at once -- to the time i saw the last one, just under twenty minutes had elapsed, and i had seen nineteen of these things. they weren't on any glidepath or departure route i've ever seen for ind, and their spacing precludes their being airliners, in any event. i'm unaware of any airshow acts with nineteen or more aircraft. i don't know why the only light i saw was red (with the gold leading edge or whatever it was), with no green or strobes evident. oh, and fwiw (because it's not unusual), i didn't hear anything. (note: i do hear the occasional f-16, f/a-18, or a-10 at what i estimate to be that distance, and kaid, our local field, is close enough that i hear all the traffic that comes this way.) someone in this group has an explanation. what did i see? no drinking or medication jokes, please. i'm not doing that (though i may start soon!). and this is not a quiz; i'm really stumped. thanks."
