2008-04-13 - Lakewood, OH - Formation

Two sets of flashing lights over lake Erie in Cleveland.

I live on the 10th floor of a 17 floor building here in Cleveland Ohio. I have a Easterly view and a partial view of Lake Erie.

The next building to mine is far enough away that I can get a pretty good view of the sky. Today was a pretty windy and cold day here in Cleveland, so the waves off the lake are pretty rough. Since I can hear the waves, I tend to notice the lake more and often look out my window to see how big the white caps are. At about 10:00 tonight I did just that. I couldn't see the waves so well, so I glanced up and saw what I thought were two airplanes.

Airplanes often approach the city from the lake side, so I didn't think much of it. The "Planes" had three lights each, which again didn't surprise me because I thought i was seeing the two wing tip lights and then a central light under the fuselage. The lights were blinking rapidly and were more of a strobe fashion. The lights on the objects were white and red, and I can't remember what order they were in. I immedately noticed how close the sets of light were, and thought they might be helicopters, but I didn't hear any sound. Just when I thought that, the lights, which were moving in a northwest to south east direction started to rotate around each other in a circular fashion. The set of three lights in the lead, kind of looped back and circled around the three trailing lights. Then the three trailing lights took a sharp turn and went north, while the first set of three lights proceeded on it's southeastern course. Its fairly overcast here, so when the lights were obscured by clouds, I never saw them again. At first, i was really scared, because I was still under the impression that these were airplanes. I thought, oh my god, they must have clipped wings, and the one is circling out of control. But the lights never lost control, they just went their separate ways.