Lights in the Sky near Brighton

Earlier this evening, sometime around 18:00 , I was driving North along the A23 out of Brighton, UK, when i spotted a very bright light in the sky. At first i just wrote it off as an aircraft flying straight towards me, but then it suddenly burst into 4 or 5 small lights in a line for a second, and then disappeared completely. Unfortunately I couldn't pull my phone out quick enough for a pic, so this description is the best i can give. There was partial cloud, wth stars and a half moon visible.

I have had a couple of theories as to what it may be:

1. Several aircraft were flying in a line towards me, then one broke away, revealing some others which also then turned, flew behind trees/into a cloud or something, and therefore disappearing. I would think this is quite possible.

2. A hercules deploying chaff or flares - it was vaguely reminiscent of this, but highly unlikely in this area.

3. A firework - well, i've never seen a firework anything like this before.

So therefore it remains Unidentified. Anyone else got any other ideas?

think f16 or other fighter planes on a nightly exercise.. you might see it often if you look at some movies ect. one after one going to one side.

Thats pretty cool minimi, thats not far from where i live too. I didnt bother checking the skys today because it was so overcast, dang. From reading your description id be inclined to think this is a decent UFO here. Considering the only 'normal' explanation would be some fighter planes on exercise, they'd have to be exactly behind one another and perfectly in line with you for you not to make out multiple objects to start with, also if they just 'dissapeared', it would suggest sophisticated technology here. Also I believe the RAF only exercise their fighter jets over remote wales and scotland areas, not down south. And finally I dont beleive they exercise for formation flying in the first place, thats just for top gun and air shows etc.

So all in all nice find! wish id spotted it, I try and spot one every time i look in the sky but as yet unfortunately no luck.

Yeah, apart from airshows (none at this time of year) there's never really fighters down in the south east, so i don't really think it could be that. Also, no strobes or nav lights were visible, which probably would have been had it been an aircraft that turned, unless it flew into clouds or something. i shall try to make an little drawing of what i saw, possibly even an animated gif if i can remember how.


My first sighting, and also witnessed by my dad - my famly know i'm kinda into UFOs, if it was just me that saw it they'd probably think it was just wish fulfilment.

[edit on 20/12/04 by minimi]

Well done minimi looks like you had yourself a close encounter of the first kind.

I would find it hard to believe it was jets on an exercise as most of those take place within the mountains of Wales and Scotland.

Keep that camera handy, although I would prefer you use a real digital camera (higher resolution) as those phone cameras will always cast a great deal of doubt due to their poor quality.

Yeah that'd be cool if you could make a diagram or even a gif of the sighting.

heres a little diagram;

Has anyone else here seen anything like this?