NUFORC Sighting 13794

Occurred: 2000-08-11 22:40 Local
Reported: 2000-08-15 00:00 Pacific
Duration: 3-4 minutes
No of observers: 10

Location: Mammoth Cave National Park, KY, USA

Shape: Formation
Characteristics: Lights on object, Aircraft nearby

Very high altitude triangular formation of lights moving in a southernly direction.

On 8-11-00 at 2240 hrs, I along with approximately 10 other witnesses, observed an unusual formation of high altitude lights. I am a licensed pilot,an aviation historian,a UFO/paranormal researcher and am extremely well versed in the area of aircraft identification. Other witnesses included an engineer and several school teachers. All of us were attending a cave restoration camp sponsored by the park service. During a nightly stargazing session, we observed a triangular formation of three pale white lights moving at an apparent extreme high altitude at a high rate of speed. These lights gave the appearance of a dim, moving constellation or a formation of satallites. Their intensity was a little less than the surrounding stars.The lights were arranged in a perfect triangle, but moved sideways against the starfield. (imagine a flying wing moving sideways, with one wingtip as the leading edge). The objects were in view approximately 3-4 minutes, moving in a continuous arc directly overhead from north to south at the approximate same rate of speed as other man-made satellites I have observed. The formation did not waiver, change position, change color or move erratically and stars were clearly visible through the formation, giving the appearance of three vehicles, as opposed to a single solid object.I observed one object with binoculars before it was lost in the moon's glow. It appeared as a single point of light, with no apparent structure. The whole formation appeared slightly smaller than a business card held at arms length. No sounds were heard, although there were several commercial airliners in the area at the time at a much lower altitude. I am convinced that what I saw was probably unassembled U.S. space station components, the Mir Space Station , or some other type of orbital debris. However, since there was a meteor shower on the night of the observation, I am curious to know whether anyone else observed the same objects, as there were probably many people sky watching on this particular evening. Thank you for this opportunity to comment.



NUFORC Note:

We believe that this may be yet another sighting of what we assume to be the U. S. Navy N.O.S.S. satellites that are reported to us from time to time. They were first reported during the summer of 1995 or 1996, and they seem to reappear every year or two. Mr. Terence Dickerson, journalist for the Toronto Star, investigated the phenomenon several years ago, and was perhaps the first to link the sightings to the U. S. Navy project. PD


Posted 2000-08-19

© 2023 National UFO Reporting Center. All rights reserved. Use or reproduction within any application without written consent is prohibited.