2009-12-29 - Pine Level, AL

Five lights, moving as one, slowly at low altitude from west to east across US-231, with no normal aviation lighting.

I was driving my truck from Brundidge to Montgomery on US-231 after delivering a load of frozen food to the Walmart DC. I observed five lights in the sky in front of me. They were arranged left to right, two close together, one single, two close together. The spacing of the three sets was about the distance from your index finger to your little finger when held at arms length in front of you. The lights moved together slowly from west to east (left to right), as though they were attached to one object. I could see there was a mass there, but being night time I couldn't see what it was clearly, despite the full moon overhead. It just seemed to be a darker area in the sky where the lights were. The lights moved slowly and disappeared behind some trees to my right, just off the roadway. They appeared to be at a lower altitude because of how quickly they went behind the trees. Then I lost sight of them.

I am a licensed pilot (Airline Transport Pilot license) and know what an airplane looks like. With these lights there was no red flashing beacon, no flashing strobes, no colored navigation lights. I thought maybe it was some high altitude jets going by, but again, no strobe lights. They stayed perfectly seperated too. Maybe a plane from the local airport, but it was moving slowly and steadily, and at an altitude that I could only guess was below 5000'. I thought once maybe it was a relection on my windshield, but when I moved my head around the lights didn't change position. I couldn't hear any sound, but then again in my Peterbilt there is quite a bit of noise.