2013-04-13 - New Castle, PA - Formation

8 orange lights seen over New Castle, PA

I was travelling eastbound on Route 422 south of New Castle, PA on 4/13/2013 at 2314. I witnessed eight orange lights to my north. The color was similar in nature to the orange lights used to illuminate roads near interchanges. I pulled the truck over about a mile from the Route 65 exit. This afforded me a clear view across the valley to my north. The lights appeared to travel out of the north to the southeast in a loose trail formation with the lead light about one mile ahead of the other 7. I shut off the enhine and the radio. I did not hear any sound that would indicate rotors, propellors, or turbine engines. I am very accustomed to these sounds as I was a helicopter crewchief inthe Army and an aircraft technician for a number of years. The lights faded from view one at a time (lead light first) before they had even gotten to the north end of the valley. They did not display aircraft anti-collision lights, navigation lights, or landing lights. The orange ! glow cast form these objects was constant (did not flicker, flash or change colors) until it faded. From the moment I first viewed these lights until the last one faded from view was about four minutes long.

Lat/Long of my position could not be obtained (didn't have my GPS). Lat/Long can be obtained as well as an asmuth to the location of the first light's location when it faded from view and the last light's location at the same time (the first faded from view before it entered the constallation Libra.