NUFORC Sighting 47582

Occurred: 2005-11-07 18:40 Local
Reported: 2005-11-09 11:23 Pacific
Duration: 10 mins
No of observers: 0

Location: Navarre, FL, USA

Shape: Formation
Characteristics: Aircraft nearby

Formation of five bright amber lights held a hover in "W" formation over NW FL Mon 7 Nov 1840L

(Addendum to earlier report) Witnessed a formation of very bright, amber-colored lights holding a "W" formation and hovering at steady altitude approx 15 miles distance, directly west of our location, angle of elevation approx 25 degrees from horizon. I am a retired AF Special Ops aviator w/nearly 5,000 hours in a multitude of both fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft. I've seen flares, SAM and air-to-air missile launches. These lights were none of the above. They held formation for approx 5 mins, then one by one, broke formation and disappeared w/in a few seconds of each other. There were no milair in the area (Eglin Military Reservation) at the time of sighting (I checked w/base) but one small civilian plane did fly into the area during time of sighting. It flew N to S, crossing in front of formation, then circled a 180 back N until it was clear of our view, then did a 360 before departing back to N. We all felt the small plane was closer to us than the bright lights, since we could see it's red and green wing beacons and white anti-collision strobe. The bright lights were evenly spaced and held perfectly still in the "W" formation for the five minutes I saw them.

Posted 2005-12-16