NUFORC Sighting 96454

Occurred: 2013-02-27 19:20 Local
Reported: 2013-02-27 18:55 Pacific
Duration: 25 minutes
No of observers: 3

Location: Raleigh/Durham, NC, USA

Shape: Other
Characteristics: Lights on object, Changed Color, Aircraft nearby

Unidentified lights/craft over Raleigh/Durham - RDU Airport tells news reporters it is "military exercises"

There were literally dozens of aircraft and unidentified lights in the night sky over Raleigh and Durham, North Carolina on February 27, 2013. Dozens (if not more) of people called local news outlets to report them. When the news outlets contacted RDU airport, they were told that helicopters were conducting "military exercises" and that there was "no threat to public safety," and "nothing to worry about."

Witnesses (myself, my adult daughter and my sister included) all saw unidentified craft that sometimes hovered, sometimes darted, and that moved at times with incredible speed. Some of the crafts had only white lights, some had only red lights, some had only intermittent strobes and were completely dark for as much as three to five seconds at a time.

First we saw three unidentified craft over the area near Six Forks Road in North Raleigh. They had white lights and moved very slowly at first. As we continued to watch them, the left and right aircraft turned off their white lights and turned on much dimmer red lights, at the same time the middle craft became very bright white.

Then they all three went almost dark, and suddenly sped from the Six Forks area, crossing over Falls of Neuse Rd and moving over toward Atlantic Avenue/Capital Blvd at an incredible rate of speed, then suddenly slowed down and resumed moving slowly, at very low altitude, and again with white lights.

We then left the area and travelled toward Durham on I-540.

Suddenly the sky was filled with white strobe lights! The lights would go dark for as much as three to five seconds at a time - there were at least 12 to 15 of these craft and they were moving slowly and at a low to moderate altitude (1000 feet?).

While viewing these, three triangular shaped craft with red lights only appeared back toward the airport, at a higher altitude and approximately 45 degrees away from the objects with the strobe lights. The strobe lights appeared to be hovering or moving very slowly - the red objects were moving more quickly, toward the southwest.

Soon two longer craft appeared in between, shaped almost like long-wing gliders, with a row of white lights down the central part of the object and red flashing lights on each end. We would occasionlly see commercial airliners landing and/or taking off, and these were obviously not similar to those.

At no time did we hear any noise from any of the objects, even those we were closest to. For the further objects we were not close enough that we would have expected to hear anything.

We have been around airports and even Air Force bases all our lives (two of us were Air Force brats growing up, one former U.S. Army infantry veteran and one lived near an Air Force base in California) and we all agreed this objects/craft were unlike anything we had ever seen.

We left the area and continued to our homes, west of Durham.

Posted 2013-02-28