1999-01-07 - Williamsport, PA - Other

2 lights flying in "formation" blinking white/yellow, then green/blue, then red then joined and other white lights came in quickly to converge(like shooting stars) then very erratic movements by all lights

i looked out my kitchen window and noticed a red and white blinking light. I assumed it to be an satelite as it did not have 2 sets of lights. i then noticed a second identical light to the left-behind the first light. they were moving at normal air-speed for a small aircraft, i thought this strange as i have been in the military and jets that fly in such formation are very noisy at such altitudes(approximate same as for airplanes arriving to the Williamsport/Lycoming Airport. I didn't hear any sounds. Then i heard a small aircraft and within a few seconds did see a small aircraft heading east toward the airport. As i watched the "tandem" lights they seemed to have a light pattern: first a whitish-yellow, then a blueish slightly green, and then red. I have also had instruction in astronomy and have utilized several college observatories. I have never seen two satelites(sp?) orbit in such fashion. or at such low altitudes. And once the small aircraft dissappeared from veiw i no longer heard a sound, but still saw the lights. The lights appeared to accelerate slightly and then the front light flashed a "beam-kind of like you would see lightning between clouds". This did not light up the entire sky, but slightly illuminated the area directly around the 2 objects/lights. within about 5-10 seconds the light to the rear "sent" the same type of "beam" back to the first object. My attention was distracted to the west and i thought i saw a shooting star.. it went directly towards the point where the 2 objects were located. Those 2 objects began to show a change in behavior. Their lights got brighter/stronger..the item to the rear picked up speed and seemed to run into the first the flashing of the lights continued(no beams, just the white,green, red) Then another shooting white light came straight down to again seem to come to a target or convergence area. Another appeared coming from the Wilkes-barre/Scranton area. My next thought was that of a meteor shower, but i know there aren't any right now. Then all of the white lights stopped all logical behavior and seemed to move around. More erratically than you would see from a spotlight..like when a child plays with a 4TH of July sparkler and swirls it around in front and you can see the tip glowing.... At this point there were at least 5 lights in the sky. I could no longer rationalize anything reasonable that i could blame this on...i wanted to verify with the airport . I left the window and called the Williamsport airport, but no answer. i called a delta 800 line...the reservations person took a bit of information and told me that i needed to hang up and call 911 and make a report, and again asked me to please do so right away. I called 911 embarrased. I am an educated person, but this was too weird. I wanted some reasonable explanation of the events. I went back later to look again(took me a while to get up the courage..the incident really seemed to get me in the gut..but there was nothing. I live in Williamsport on edwin street there is a hospital--Williamsport hospital about 5 blocks directly north of my home. The activity appeared to take place directly over the hospital. It was way too low for a satelite(sp?) but was at a higher altitude than the small aircraft that passed through the area. I have never seen anything like it in my life. it was very unnerving. Please feel free to contact me for any additional information. I was unaware that anyone would even call me about this. I had already received a phone call from Stan Gordon. I was a bit unnerved by the second phone call from Peter. My apologies for any rudeness. I keep private to myself and was not prepared to be getting calls asking me questions. Again, feel free to call or e-mail me. I would like to find out what I saw. I am very bothered by the incident. Respectfully, Pamela Gill