NUFORC Sighting 132905

Occurred: 2017-02-24 20:00 Local
Reported: 2017-02-25 02:49 Pacific
Duration: 5 minutes
No of observers: 2

Location: Bennington, VT, USA

Shape: Light
Characteristics: Aircraft nearby

Two white lights flying east to west at about 1200 feet in elevation.

February 24, 2017 Bennington, VT.

At about 8:00pm, my wife and I heard the sound of a helicopter approaching from the east. It was very loud and sounded quite low. We are near the normal flight path for Life Flight helicopters coming from Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in New Hampshire so that was my initial assumption. However, the noise was so intense, I went out onto my back deck to take a look.

My deck has a panoramic view of the Bennington valley. I looked east and saw the aviation strobe lights of the copter as it came over the tree tops across the street. Then I noticed two bright, white points of light about 300 feet in front of the helicopter. They were separated by about 50 feet from each other. They were solid lights with no blinking, fading or strobing. The tri kept a steady pace as they flew over the valley. The two lights never changed their path, elevation or distance from one another.

As they approached the mountains to the west, I suddenly noticed two other helicopters about a half mile to the north tracking in the same direction. They were about 200 feet apart and kept pace with the other three aircraft. All of them passed out of view within another minute or two.

Posted 2017-03-10