2000-11-29 - Sherwood, OR - Triangle

Saw very low flying, quite or HUGE object with 5 big bright lights in a V shape, evenly spaced. No strobe nor colored flashing lights.

I was on my way to work at 3:46am, when I stopped at a stop sign in new housing development area in Sherwood on the outskirts of Portland. When I looked out my windshield I noticed a low flying formation of big bright white lights moving together as one low slow moving object. There were 5 lights shaped in a V. One on the tip of the object and two on either side of the craft and two more on the end of the V shaped craft. All were evenly spaced. At first sight...I thought oh my! That's one low flying craft...but why aren't there any colored or blinking strobe lights flashing? 2 years ago before moving to Oregon, I lived for 6 years behind an Airport in Juneau Alaska...the runway was behind a stand of trees behind my home. So I have seen and heard many types of aircraft including the largest military cargo plane made (it flew in and stopped at the Army Air National Guard Station next to the Heliport and Airport. It's wing structure wouldn't allow for a V configuration of lights like I saw, and neither would anything but a triangular shaped craft or a chevron shape). And, I also saw a Harrier Jet rising up from the runway, flying stationary and then zooming up and away during a "Snowbird" airshow directly behind my home (watched it through my livingroom bay windows). It was soooooo LOUD!!! And all the planes I have ever seen have some sort of colored flashing beacon lights of some sort. So, what struck me as verrrrrry unusual was the absence of these kinds of lights, and I couldn't hear any sound. I then thought that what ever this is it has to be very high up to be so quite and moving slowly and if so...then this thing is SOOOO HUGE, and the 5 white lights very big and bright to shine so much. Or it's a low flying craft which is very strange....that it's so quiet. Very quiet. (no engine sounds) But what ever it was...it was still a large flying object. I watched it for a few minutes as it slowly passed almost over head and then I made my right hand turn and pulled over to the right hand side of ther road and turned my head around and looked at it through the drivers side window when I noticed it start to bank left (the V formation of 5 lights turned into 3, because it was turning) and fly off towards a more unpopulated area. I then took off because I didn't want to be late for work. I thought it might be a stealth wing, but when I saw the photos of the lights on them, I saw that they had a red light under the belly of the plane and small green lights (landing gear lights?) and more white lights than what I saw and the pattern of white lights were not evenly spaced along the V shape on the Stealth craft. Now I'm even more puzzled because what I saw didn't have a red light underneath nor could I see an afterburner in the back like the stealth aircraft. Unless it's the space shuttle? But I don't think so...even that has an afterburner! UFO...that's all I know as of right now.