2000-11-04 - South Roxana, PA - Light

Bright light flying back and forth overhead before disappearing

I was about six years old, at a church bonfire, standing several yards away from the fire and everyone else, and looking up at the sky. I noticed a bright white (with slight orangish tint) light that looked very much like a plane, up fairly high in the sky, to the point I had my head tilted far back to see it. It was flying from N to S (I have confirmed this now based on the map view from where I had been standing) that would travel some distance across the apex of the sky before instantly changing direction 180 degrees, apparently without stopping, to move from S to N linearly back across its original path.

I remember thinking that it seemed strange, as planes do not move back and forth. Another person who was older, maybe an older teen, noticed it too and asked me how long the “airplane” had been moving in that way. I told him I had only just started paying attention, but I didn’t think it seemed like a regular plane. He said it probably wasn’t a helicopter either as there was not any sound either. We both watched it move back and forth like that several times before it just blinked out and never reappeared.

I do not remember which direction it had been moving in when the light went out. Also, since I was so young, I don’t have a good estimate of the altitude or speed it was moving, just that it generally had the appearance of a plane flying overhead, but moved strangely and was slightly brighter. The sky was clear that night and there were no artificial lights around other than the fire, which was behind me. I do remember vividly also that the other guy started saying it was a UFO and getting excited before my mom came to get me.