Orange Lights

[Richard Dale]

This happened a few years ago whilst driving from Warnham to Ockley on the A29 at night, the direction would be roughly south to north.

About a mile from Ockley I noticed three orange lights in the sky at about 100-120 feet altitude, there were travelling slowly in a southerly direction seemingly in tandem 50 feet apart or so on a horizontal path. They were wobbling about and the thought came to me that they were aerial “cyclists”. They were following the leader. I stopped the car for a few minutes to observe them. They continued their wobbly trajectory for a while then suddenly changed direction by 90 degrees all at the same time and headed East at the same altitude then disappeared from view.

At first I thought they were Chinese lanterns, they had the same appearance, but I have set off a few and they generally fly upwards then disappear, these objects were flying horizontally and very slowly. I did not hear any sound of engines, e.g. ultralight aircraft usually have very noisy engines.

What were they, I am not saying they were UFOs but what type of aircraft were they. I imagined they were aerial cyclists pedalling like mad to stay aloft.

Any thoughts?

 

[GNC]

I've seen Chinese lanterns behave exactly like that, so I'd say your first instinct was correct.

 

[Min Bannister]

Yes, sorry but they do sound very much like Chinese lanterns. I once saw a set of three fly over us in a perfect triangle formation. Very UFO like.

 

[Old_Shoe]

Interesting story, Dale. Back in the late 90's I was sailing with my parents on Charlotte Harbor in southwest Florida aboard their 30' sailboat. We anchored for the night in an anchorage area between Punta Blanca Island and Caya Costa State Park near the opening between Charlotte Harbor and the Gulf of Mexico. It was around 10 pm and my dad and I were sitting in the cockpit sipping a bit of Scotch. My dad suddenly said, "Hey, what's that in the sky over there"? He was looking toward the northwest. I looked in that direction and I saw two bright orange lights hovering at what appeared to be a couple thousand feet altitude above Boca Grande. As we watched the lights they did a slow dance around each other. They were a couple miles from us and there was no sound. They were there hovering like that for ten or twenty minutes...quite awhile. Then they started to fade out and red strobe lights appeared and they began moving southeasterly, towards us. We watched as the strobe lights passed over us, with no sound at all. The lights continued traveling southeast until out of sight.
It did about the same thing, just hovering there for quite awhile. It seemed to skitter around a bit. Then it did the same thing....it faded away and sprouted red strobe lights and started moving towards us. It passed over us at an estimated two thousand feet, and about eighty to a hundred mph. It also disappeared from our view in the same fashion.
Awhile later a third orange light appeared over Boca Grande and behaved the same way.

We discussed what we thought the lights me be and agreed they must be some type of aircraft the government was using or testing. Some years later I learned of a helicopter called the Commanche. It was a stealth helicopter and was being tested in SW Florida around that time period. I suspect there might be some connection. I can only guess.

 

[Old_Shoe]

Gads...I'm on a laptop computer that has a demented mind of its own. The cursor jumps around and it self edits in a most perverse fashion. The above disjointed mess is a product of that. I apologize.

 

[Coal]

Gads...I'm on a laptop computer that has a demented mind of its own. The cursor jumps around and it self edits in a most perverse fashion. The above disjointed mess is a product of that. I apologize.

Has someone got remote access to your machine? Check that in control panel --> system -->remote settings.

 

[Richard Dale]

OK folks there is one thing I would like to request on IHTM, I find this the most important part of the FT, supposedly "genuine" experiences of the unexplained or paranormal are recounted and I for one generally regard them as "genuine", maybe over credulous as I am. It is easy to take the mickey I know to try to make fools of "naive" believers and feel somehow superior in doing so. I would request that only genuine experiences are recorded on this forum, I know we are relying on the integrity of people but it only takes a few mickey takers to make a mockery. Paranormal experiences are generally personal and not provable or repeatable but still nonetheless real and interesting.

 

[living-in-ithilien]

This happened a few years ago whilst driving from Warnham to Ockley on the A29 at night, the direction would be roughly south to north.

About a mile from Ockley I noticed three orange lights in the sky at about 100-120 feet altitude, there were travelling slowly in a southerly direction seemingly in tandem 50 feet apart or so on a horizontal path. They were wobbling about and the thought came to me that they were aerial “cyclists”. They were following the leader. I stopped the car for a few minutes to observe them. They continued their wobbly trajectory for a while then suddenly changed direction by 90 degrees all at the same time and headed East at the same altitude then disappeared from view.

At first I thought they were Chinese lanterns, they had the same appearance, but I have set off a few and they generally fly upwards then disappear, these objects were flying horizontally and very slowly. I did not hear any sound of engines, e.g. ultralight aircraft usually have very noisy engines.

What were they, I am not saying they were UFOs but what type of aircraft were they. I imagined they were aerial cyclists pedalling like mad to stay aloft.

Any thoughts?

They were sky lanterns. Wind currents can change suddenly. Wind currents are layered and can gust. and an object flying up can suddenly change course. making a right turn throughly possible. 'Disappeared from view' is what they look when they burn out. Since they burn out at hier highest altitude, they seem to diasppear. These sky lanterns were released together and followed roughly the same path. They went thru the same air currents as they rose. People always assume that lights or objects moving in the air are under intelligent control when its just rising higher or falling lower thru air currents.

 

[living-in-ithilien]

Interesting story, Dale. Back in the late 90's I was sailing with my parents on Charlotte Harbor in southwest Florida aboard their 30' sailboat. We anchored for the night in an anchorage area between Punta Blanca Island and Caya Costa State Park near the opening between Charlotte Harbor and the Gulf of Mexico. It was around 10 pm and my dad and I were sitting in the cockpit sipping a bit of Scotch. My dad suddenly said, "Hey, what's that in the sky over there"? He was looking toward the northwest. I looked in that direction and I saw two bright orange lights hovering at what appeared to be a couple thousand feet altitude above Boca Grande. As we watched the lights they did a slow dance around each other. They were a couple miles from us and there was no sound. They were there hovering like that for ten or twenty minutes...quite awhile. Then they started to fade out and red strobe lights appeared and they began moving southeasterly, towards us. We watched as the strobe lights passed over us, with no sound at all. The lights continued traveling southeast until out of sight.
It did about the same thing, just hovering there for quite awhile. It seemed to skitter around a bit. Then it did the same thing....it faded away and sprouted red strobe lights and started moving towards us. It passed over us at an estimated two thousand feet, and about eighty to a hundred mph. It also disappeared from our view in the same fashion.
Awhile later a third orange light appeared over Boca Grande and behaved the same way.

We discussed what we thought the lights me be and agreed they must be some type of aircraft the government was using or testing. Some years later I learned of a helicopter called the Commanche. It was a stealth helicopter and was being tested in SW Florida around that time period. I suspect there might be some connection. I can only guess.

Same thing, sky lanters Most last 5 minites or so, but it seems a long 5 minutes. Perhaps your time perception may be skewed as you were young and time has passed. The red strobe lights were planes that appeared in the distance coincidently in the same area as the xtinguished lanterns. It would be lovely to set off a sky lantern over the water.

 

[Richard Dale]

They were sky lanterns. Wind currents can change suddenly. Wind currents are layered and can gust. and an object flying up can suddenly change course. making a right turn throughly possible. 'Disappeared from view' is what they look when they burn out. Since they burn out at hier highest altitude, they seem to diasppear. These sky lanterns were released together and followed roughly the same path. They went thru the same air currents as they rose. People always assume that lights or objects moving in the air are under intelligent control when its just rising higher or falling lower thru air currents.

Yes that is the explanation, thanks, but it still looked strange......

 

[Victory]

In late summer 1996 I saw three orange lights flying in formation over North West London/South Hertfordshire.
It was still light, about 7pm.

The lights were in a triangle, flying fast, slightly altering position, but one would periodically break away from the formation and shoot downwards or side to side at fantastic speed, then re-join the formation.

I estimated their usual altitude to be 2500 feet, and airspeed to be over Mach Five at times, at other times much slower.

No known/revealed human aircraft or spacecraft could do what these lights did, whether fixed wing or helicopter.
I doubt they were lanterns because of the way one light broke off then re-joined the others.

I was not the only person to see these, because I was driving my car and other drivers and passengers were pointing up at the lights.

I reported them to the Ministry of Defence, who sent me a report form.
I compiled it and sent it back.
They replied thanking me for the report, but wrote no one else had reported this and so they did not consider them a threat to UK airspace.

 

[RaM]

About 10 years back I was standing on the car park at Knott End Lancs looking out
over the slipway and Morecambe Bay it was a Wednesday about 7pm just going
dark I was on the way home from a meeting, someone I knew turned up and we were
having a natter when I noticed two amber lights, stationary one above the other
very bright, about 4 times brighter than a road light, they just sat there got the
impression the top one was about 3000 ft the other about 1500 and maybe 5 miles
out over the bay, pointed them out to the other bloke he said he had never seen
anything like it, I lined them up on one of the slipway lights and they were not moving.
After a good few min they suddenly went out I got my binoculars out of the car
but nothing could be seen were they were but there were 2 RAF Tornados flying
fast at low level up the other side of the bay we see RAF fast jets a lot nothing
strange about that but once they disappeared the amber lights came back just as
they were before, after a few more minutes they disappeared again and did not
reappear wile we were there, I have seen sky lanterns a good few times and
they were not them, I am certain they were nothing to do with the Tornados but
got the feeling they went off so they were not seen by them, not a clue what they
were, the area is a UFO hot spot but that does not surprise me as we are in
a designated low fly area and BA systems use the area for test flights we see
some very strange things flying about, we even have space men now and then but
not seen them for some years but though they look a bit like space men they
are as for as I know testing for radio activity, Heysham nuclear power is about
8 miles away and Seascale or what ever they call it now just up the coast.