NUFORC Sighting 99634

Occurred: 2013-06-26 22:00 Local
Reported: 2013-07-04 18:37 Pacific
Duration: 30 seconds
No of observers: 2

Location: Crawley (UK/England), , United Kingdom

Shape: Diamond
Characteristics: Aircraft nearby

Fleet of stealthy dark squares without lights, in formation and monitored by military helicopter

First noticed a military helicopter, most likely a Lynx, slim possibility of it being a Puma but not a Merlin due to its slender aft fuselage. Circling overhead at between 1,500ft - 2,000ft. Despite the time, being summer it was not dark but dusk and the silhouette of the helicopter was reasonably definable.

Within a minute or so, we noticed a fleet of 10-12 square-shaped dark craft flying silently in tight formation at no more than 1,500ft, in a South-Easterly direction. Due to the closeness of their formation, (that is that they were either overlapped or touching) at first glance I thought I was watching two massive birds of prey cruise overhead, however formation 1 converged into a diamond configuration and formation 2 opened-up with breathtaking precision. They had no lights and were obviously thin profiled as they appeared to disappear quickly as I chased after them across the green outside my home. They flew individually as diamonds not squares, i.e. across their corners. The closest known stealth aircraft to these would be the BAe Taranis, however there were no notches out of the rear section and I do not think for one moment that even if they had built so many of them, they would not be testing them over a busy town of 100k people, in such proximity to each other. The fl! ight characteristics were such that they would have knocked each other out of the sky. As for speed, they didn't hang about but could not have been doing much more than 350mph.

After this, the helicopter turned about and crossed the sky overhead in an easterly direction. The helicopter had 2 - 3 spot lights fitted to the aft of the main fuselage pointing straight out, not down but nothing at the front was on. It continued to circle overhead for some time.

As well as being an aviation enthusiast, I live 10 minutes from Gatwick Airport directly under a helicopter corridor for both military and civilian craft. I often see Apache Longbows, Chinooks, MD 902s of the police and air ambulance (for whom I work) and Agusta executive helicopters. As a musician and sound engineer I can easily recognize the specific sounds of the aforementioned aircraft and identify them long before visual contact. So much so I can be outside with a video camera ready to film the Longbows as they come over as I can hear them approaching from miles away.

It is important to stress that as the fleet of UFOs flew overhead the only noise that could be heard was that of the Lynx, which also sounds similar to the Puma at that altitude but quite different from a Merlin.

The helicopter sighting made this week's local newspaper wherein a former soldier believed it was a Chinook by its sound as he didn't see it and was clearly mistaken, since other non-qualified witnesses could see it only had one main rotor. Its presence was a mystery according to the paper as nobody else had witnessed the UFOs that the helicopter was clearly monitoring. It is quite possible that people may have been so distracted by the chopper, that they mistook the fleet of UFOs for birds and paid no attention. Fortunately, I have excellent vision. Too bad I could not get to my phone camera quick enough to capture the UFOs, though I did manage to record the lynx. The footage appears darker than it actually was but then a little cloud contributed to the quickening night sky.

Posted 2013-07-05

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