NUFORC Sighting 131505

Occurred: 2016-11-25 19:00 Local
Reported: 2016-11-28 14:09 Pacific
Duration: 15 minutes
No of observers: 1

Location: Nevada (eastern), NV, USA

Shape: Light
Characteristics: Lights on object

Lights over Nevada seen from commercial airplane

On a commercial flight WJA 1475 from PSP to CYYC, about 30-45 minutes into the flight, I looked out my window to the west and observed what initially looked to be Venus. It was brighter than Venus, seemed larger than Venus normally does and colour-shifted from white through orange/green/blue shades.

Taking a closer look out the window, I noticed that Venus was in the sky as well, higher in the sky and slightly further to the south and less luminous. For the 15 minutes or so the light was visible, relative to me in the moving plane, it appeared stationary, until flickering a little then fading out. While it was visible, it was the brightest object in the sky I could see, including Venus, and it was definitely not ground-based.

I am a private pilot and the light was most certainly typical of aviation lights. Having some familiarity with the restricted airspace in Nevada, its location in the sky did surprise me.

Posted 2016-12-05