SIGHTING: JOPLIN, MISSOURI (UNITED STATES)

Witness Testimony

"Roommates where outside smoking, when one called me outside to view 3 lights in a triangle formation flying very fast west to east. they crossed the moon but did not cover it, so they appeared to be separate. they were in formation and stayed equidistant from each other perfectly. we then noticed more lights, they appeared like stars moving quickly through the sky. most of them went west to east, but some moved northwest to south eastward, or north to south. i downloaded a satellite tracker app to see if thay is what they were, but it showed no satellites in the area at the time, the satellites that were in the area were few and far between. we witnessed 28 individual lights moving at the same speed. most of them came in pairs. as soon as we saw one, we could easily figure out when the next one would show up. this happened over the period of an hour. my wife, 2 roommates, me and my son all saw them. i attempted to record them on my phone, but the night view wasnt great. it is also important to note that we saw increased air travel at the time as well. we witnessed 6 or 7 airplanes going in the same direction, and as far as i know we are not near a heavily traveled flight path. helicopters also showed up a few times and were flying low. not sure if they are related, but it made comparing the lights to the planes easy, as the planes were much slower. this all happened in my backyard, where usually light pollution makes it difficult to notice things in the sky, however last night was the clearest i have ever seen the sky. overall the experience made us all question our beliefs and scratch our heads. it should also be noted that my roommate is an amateur astronomer and grew up with telescopes and knows just about every constellation, and has seen satellites on several occasions, and knows what they look like."