2006-08-26 - Atlantic Ocean (in flight) - Light

Bright light, changing colors, sitting still in the sky for 3-4 minutes and then moving slowly and disapperaing in front of our plane.

This observation was made sitting in a Boeing 757 (Continental Airlines), flying from Newark, NJ, to Stockholm, Sweden. Our altitude was 35,000 ft. Around 3:30 (UTC) I observed a bright light at 10 o'clock. The light was at a somewhat higher altitude and was seemingly sitting still in the sky. First I thought it was another airplane heading toward us with its lights on. I then noticed that the brightness of the light was slowly fluctuating and also changing colors from white (clear)-red-blue-green-white. No flashing lights (like on an airplane) were observed and no shape of the object. I took a digital picture of the light. Since it was dark outside the exposure time was long, so the camera moved while I was taking the picture. This caused the light to "draw" an irregular line on the picture, which makes it possible to see on the picture that the brightness and colors of the object were shifting continuosly. Less than one minute after I took the picture our plane started to climb up to 39,000 ft and changing the course more to the right (away from the object). This made the object "move" to a position at 9 o'clock, where it stayed for a minute or two. Then it started to move slowly to the right until it disappeared in front of our plane. Still at i higher altitude. It was impossible to see how far away from the plane this object was, but I am sure it was a few miles. This happened almost exactly two hours before landing at Stockholm Airport (7:30 local time) and the position was due west of the Farøe Islands, which I saw from the airplane approx. 30 minutes after the observation.

I have been working on the railroad for many years as Locomotive Engineer and Road Foreman. The last number of years I have been working in a Quality Department, inspecting and examening different components and assemblies.