Just saw three red lights on jet, weird

I hope this is in the right place. I am wondering if you learned aircraft experts might have an idea what I saw tonight. At about 10:30 pm tonight my daughter and I took a short walk into the front yard to take a look at the sky, as it is clear and dark..no moon visible, or at least I did not notice one..anyway, a plane came over and I immediately took notice:

It displayed three distinct red lights in a row, which were visible from the beginning of the viewing until it passed over the horizon. It made a low and smooth jet kind of sound that trailed afrer it. It was no higher than 10-15 k feet up and crossed the entire sky in about 12-14 seconds. I was angry that I had not brought a camera out as it lasted long enough so that with the zoom at full I could have gotten a pretty good shot with my video unit..damn it!!

It seemed to be cruising along leisurely but brisk pace. It was too dark to discern any real body shape but it looked like the three large red lights, in a row horizontally across the back, or so it seemed as it passed. It was a bit odd because no matter what angle the three lights were always quite distinct and no flashing lights or other color lights were on it.

It happened over the Macon County North Carolina area, and I estimate the flight passed very close to over town itself as I was a bit north of the object looking southward.. it seemed to be about 5 or 8 miles away, but that is a pretty haphazard guess.

I knew it felt like a special plane but the lack of standard lights and the unusual sound as it passed made me take note. Any ideas? Many thanks in advance for any input.

That's a bit odd. Were you looking away from the object at the time and using your perprfiphial (sp) vision?

Thank you for responding. No, it was not peripheral vision. My daughter and I saw the craft fly from the west to the east, generally, and I was amazed and attracted to it immediately because it did not have any white or flashing lights at all; only three distinct red lights, almost square in shape although that is possibly just a matter of perception. But it got my attention as I have never seen anything like it; I actually was a bit suprised to hear soft jet noise after it passed overhead; the sound was softer and less ' deep ' than a regular passenger jet passing over.

This area is mostly mountains and forests with not many flights daily overhead. Planes are pretty easy to spot; this was different from the start. I was cursing myself as it went over for not taking a camera out with me. The event lasted long enough to get some good shots had I done so. I watched the plane from horizon to horizon and was sure that I was seing something unique.

It seemd that the three red lights were at the rear of the craft, although they could be seen as it approached also. As it passed over I could see the red lights more distinctly; they seemd to be in a row across the back or back bottom, squarish but in a row together horizontally. Although I could not easily discern the shape, the impression I got was that of a odd shape, with many angles, but that is just a guess..it was dark and only the red lights on it gave any illumination, and that was little.

I have no doubt it is military and they do use this mountain range for testing and such now and then..but with no lights other than three red , square, horizontal ones spaced very close toghether at the rear ( or rear bottom ) it was hard to tell the shape.

Interesting..there are, by the way, MANY anomalous lights and craft in these hills..people see them all the time but assume it is all military. This is a really unique area in many ways; one of few designated safe zones on the east coast for nuke survival..just an aside.If you know of any craft that display such a lighting set up, please let me know, and thanks again for posting, I was getting worried there!!

From what you descibe, I'm wondering if it was a refueling tanker. As I understand it, they had alignment lights to aid in night refueling missions. Hey all you pilots and tanker crews help me out here. Are there 3 red warning lights that might be visible if switched on bright?

Don

How far apart were these lights? Was it definitely one craft? The lights sound similar to what I saw earlier this year.

I saw 3 red/orange lights.. not particularly bright but not dim crossing the sky. They were in a staggered formation forming a triangle (obviously the reason I say triangle is because 3 lights in any formation other than as traight line is a triangle.. not presuming that it wa a triangle craft!). They travelled in a straight line at a quick but steady pace at about the height you saw them at and they too had not flashing or navigation lights. I didnt hear any sound though.

Basically what I am trying to say is could it be three craft the same as i saw flying in a different formation?

hi there guys , interesting posts,

i am in the UK, i was camping over the last week/ weekend (wed-sat ) in Uffington in Wiltshire , in the evening we would sit and watch the stars as there is No light pollution there at all,
on the Thursday night we saw the same as you have described, an aircraft passed overhead at a steady but not slow pace, it had ONLY red lights lit up, even through my 7 x 50 Bushnell binoculars there was still only red lights visable.

i have worked around aircraft all my working life and i cant explain it.

hopefuly some one else can shed some light on this subject !!

take care

snoopyuk

Reply to snoopyuk

I have no explanation for it but what I can say is that when you see something you can't explain with your own eyes, you don't forget it.. looking at a photo or a video could be anything.

I know the red lights I saw were something out of the ordinary as there were no strobes or nav lights and i live under busy airspace so surely it would be illegal not to have them on? If that's the case, the same would apply in your case. Three red lights with no sound flying in formation and staying at exact distances and position from eachother is definitely strange.

They could definitely be related whatever they are.

[edit on 18-9-2007 by fiftyfifty]

thanks for reply fiftyfifty,

i am in the process of asking some RAF friends of mine if they can help. they work in atc.

thanks

snoopyuk

Just a wild a** guess. Could it have been a UAV?

What's weird about that? All non-fighter planes have lights on them. This just sounds like a weird design.