NUFORC Sighting 158819

Occurred: 2020-08-19 21:47 Local
Reported: 2020-08-23 12:13 Pacific
Duration: 1 minute
No of observers: 1

Location: Cambridge, OH, USA

Shape: Light
Characteristics: Lights on object

Strange flashing lights in the night sky above Eastern Ohio.

August 19, 2020 @ 9:47 pm Rural Eastern Ohio While taking the trash can to the curb. I noticed a pair of odd flashing lights in the night sky, traveling west to east in a straight trajectory at a slow but constant speed. The event lasted a little more than a minute before the lights disappeared behind the trees. The bright white lights were flashing in unison and similar to anti-collision strobe lighting on an aircraft. But there were no red or green directional lights observed, just the two very bright flashing lights.

I was a bit stunned at first. But then I remembered I had my mobile phone in my pocket. I took it out and attempted to record the object. I say object because the two lights appeared to maintain the same distance from one another the whole time.

The lights also appeared to be at a lower altitude than normal nighttime air traffic for this area.

At one point I thought that it might be some type of consumer drone. But there wasn’t the telltale buzzing sound that a drone makes. It also appeared that the lights were quite large. At the angle that I was viewing them, I’m guessing that they were somewhere near a thousand feet AGL (above ground level). Therefore being too big to be a drone. There was a slight low rumbling sound during the sighting. If it were a standard aircraft flying at that altitude it would have been easily discernible.

Though my video was a bit shaky, I did manage to capture footage of the flashing lights. I also pulled a still from the video. When enlarged, it clearly shows the two individual lights.

As far as I know I was the only witness to this event. Our neighbors were outside at the time having an argument (which was captured on the video’s audio track). But I believe they were too immersed in their confrontation to notice the lights.

Our property is located about 2 miles east of a small city and these lights were traveling from that direction. About 3 miles to the south west is a small municipal airport. These lights did not take the normal flight path that local aircraft make on approach or departure.

I’m a retired security lieutenant and I used to work night security at a factory adjacent to that airport. I have seen countless aircraft on approach at night. These lights did not match anything that I have seen before. I’m also a hobbyist UAS (unmanned aerial systems) pilot. I’m familiar with drones and their flight characteristics. Which is why I do not believe this was a drone.

I still have no idea what I witnessed on the night of August 19th 2020 @ 9:47 pm. It has come to my attention that a sighting of a similar object occurred that same day approximately 12 hours earlier in the Cleveland Ohio area. This is why I decided to report my sighting to you.



Posted 2020-08-27

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