2008-04-10 - Greenville, NC - Formation

four large greenish hazy lights, in straight line formation, moving very fast, no sound

Time sighted: 2044 EST, Thursday, April 10, 2008
Location: Greenville, North Carolina, USA
Duration of sighting: approximately 12 to 15 seconds
Sky conditions: Very clear, stars visible and distinct, the moon a one quarter crescent just above the formation, scattered low small thin clouds.

I was sitting on my patio facing west. At 2045 by my watch which is one minute faster than the official U.S. time, I observed four lights going from southwest to northeast, from my 11 o'clock to 2 o'clock position, at elevation about one half way between the horizon and directly overhead. The lights were four abreast at first, top to bottom from my perspective and eqi-distant apart, which I thought was unusual for military aircraft. If you hold your hand at arms length with your thumb and first finger about three inches apart, that would encompass the formation. There was only one light per object and they were not blinking. Each light was maybe three to four times the size of Venus, with a faintly greenish tinge, and appeared not distinct, but slightly hazy like looking through a fog. They went through about twenty degrees of the sky and then one light dropped back into trail. After going through another twenty degrees, they disappeared behind a cloud. They traveled in a straight line. The entire sighting lasted about twelve seconds. I expected to hear sounds of jet engines following the lights, but heard nothing. There was no vapor trail like I observed on other normal aircraft seen later.

For many years, I have done a lot of fishing at night. I have observed many aircraft flying overhead and have seen many shooting stars. This was like nothing I have ever seen before and immediately caught my attention. The unusual formation, speed, and lack of sound were unique. To cross the sky that quickly, they had to be relatively low but I heard no sound. If they were too high to be heard, they were going many times faster than other planes I have observed and were extremely large. It was definitely not the ubiquitous weather balloon.

To our south about thirty miles is Seymour Johnson AFB. I was stationed there in the mid-60’s and am familiar with military planes. Their F-15’s often fly over Greenville since their runway has a north-south heading. They are generally low enough to be heard. We also see the louder F-18's out of Virginia Beach. Most aircraft have red, green, and white lights. On most airplanes you can usually see blinking lights or rotating strobes and not all lights are visible from every direction. The four lights I saw were steady and looked the same from a left to right forty degree arc. Pitt-Greenville Airport is about four miles away to my northwest. I worked there for three years ending two years ago. Again I never saw anything like this during that time.

About me. I am sixty-four years old and retired. I was in the air force four years, worked at Eastern Airlines for twelve, and was in computing for thirty-five years, the last eighteen with a university. I do not believe in UFO’s, little green men, or alien abductions. But I will admit that this was like nothing I’ve ever seen before and it was interesting. I’d like to know what I really saw.