2002-09-19 - Holden Beach, NC - Unknown

Red and white lights seen over Holden Beach, NC

On the evening of the 19th of September my husband and I were fishing on Holden Beach when we noticed on the horizon to the Southeast at about low cloud level bright red lights appearing in the sky and then fading out after about 3 to 5 seconds. These were large lights. At one time early in the sighting one of the red lights split into two red lights and faded at the same time. After we had watched these lights for about 10 minutes my husband stood up to to walk down to the surf to reel his fishing line in and suddenly just beyond the surf and very close to us, four white lights lit up one at a time in a row as if they were attached to something, I yelled at my husband to look up and he also witnessed them. These lights stayed lit for about 3 to 5 seonds and faded out. Just after these lights when out the red lights on the horizon lit up again. One at a time the red lights would light up and fade after about 3-5 seconds. I ran into the house to get binoculars and told my father in law to come out and watch. He came out with me and my husband said while I was in the house 2 more red lights had lit up in the sky. As soon as I sat down 2 more red lights lit up and one of the lights emitted a beam from the side of it and within the beam were small white lights in a row. After the last two red lights we saw nothing else for the rest of the night. My father in law was witness to the last 2 red lights. There were no aircraft in the area at this time.