REPORT SUMMARY:
A married couple are out for an evening walk in Maghera when they notice 10 mysterious lights appear in the sky, one after the other, with the only audible sound they can detect being described as a “hum”.
FIRST NAME
[Withheld]
LAST NAME
[Withheld]
GENDER
Male
[Withheld]
DATE OF BIRTH
[Withheld]
WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO REPORT?
UFO Sighting [Amended from Unknown Entity]
DESCRIBE THE WEATHER CONDITIONS.
Calm, Cold, Thin Cloud, Dry
WERE YOU NEAR ANY OF THESE?
Town, Rural Area
WHEN DID YOUR ENCOUNTER HAPPEN?
24th Dec 2020
APPROX TIME OF ENCOUNTER
18:15
DURATION OF ENCOUNTER APPROX
8-9 mins approx
COUNTRY OF ENCOUNTER
Northern Ireland
LOCAL AREA OF ENCOUNTER
Maghera
WHERE THERE ANY OTHER WITNESSES?
Yes. Wife
IN YOUR OWN WORDS, DESCRIBE WHAT YOU SAW.
"I saw the same as my husband.On xmas eve we walked along tullyheran rd maghera around 6pm. It was a clear evening and at 6.15 pm we were looking towards the traffic coming down the glenshane pass in the distance about 2 mile as the crow flies where the traffic is first visible at the top after it heads towards maghera downhill and watching the car lights in the distance. We were chatting about the stars and noticed a red light with a white light coming in our direction approx height 15 to 20,000 feet. We heard a slight hum as it advanced from the north and veered south towards tobermore, the red light was bright and similar to the landing lights of a commercial jet and it didn't flash. Before the first red/white lights disappeared in to slight fog a 2nd red /whitelight had appeared in the same line as the first one came as we could see the glenshane pass in the distance and we're surprised to see this similar things in the exact same line, , we noticed a slight hum of the thing like an electric motor not loud but a humming sound. I was thinking Chinese lantern when I saw the first light, that changed when I saw the 2nd and it did the same veered towards tobermore and disappeared in to light fog with not a sight of it after that anywhere to be seen in the sky, then just before the 2nd disappeared came the 3rd, I was thinking Santa's sleigh...we were mesmorised as we listened to the same hum and then another, in total there were 10 lights appearing, moving and disappearing very uniformly spaced out, v v strange, unfortunately we had nothing to record it on, it happened, both of us discussed what was happening and we have never seen anything like this ever and we walk most evenings. My husband thought initially they were landing lights of an aircraft ..because they were low, it was if they were approaching to land from a distance out, we lived in N York and often stood on our apt roof watching la guardia air traffic landing and my husband thought back to similar but the red white light flying item remained high in the sky until each of the 10 disappeared (My husband is an aeroplane enthusiast and we have attended many N I and English airshows. We have often seen the wild geese aircraft dropping parachutists off in the past yrs.)This was the strangest thing we have ever seen and we have walked that rd over the past few nights and nothing more seen. [Withheld] and I thought it was following the contours of the maghera bypass coming towards us and veering off towards tobermore. Thanks. [Withheld]. Chris from NIUFOS referred us to this page to fill in the form."
PLEASE SELECT...
I wish to remain anonymous.
Investigator comments:
This is a bit of an odd one, because at first one would assume that it’s a Chinese lantern, like the witness stated. To see 10 in succession and accompanied by detectable sound casts a little doubt, but doesn’t completely rule that theory out, but the stated altitude gives me reason to argue that they weren’t Chinese lanterns.
There’s the possibility of flares being used. I’m not sure if there’re any military training areas around there - that’s something I’m going to explore to find out, but again, hand launched (or even artillery/mortar launched flares) wouldn't reach the stated altitude.
Now, with that said, let's look at aircraft. The steady red and white light could be an indicator of a helicopter, but helicopters usually have a slow flashing red strobe, which the witness hasn’t indicated that there were any flashing lights present.
Taking a look through historical flight information in the area. There were no aircraft with transponders on over the area at time until almost a full 15 minutes later, when a Cargo Boeing 747 travelled at 37,000ft from Louisville to Frankfurt. I don’t believe that this is what they’ve seen.
Let’s also look at the ISS. Records show that the ISS wasn’t visible at that time, with the only times that day to have been able to observe it being early morning. Having also looked into the possibility of a sighting of StarLink, it would appear that this wouldn’t have been the case either.
It leaves us with few options to explore now, and it’s most unfortunate that the witness didn’t manage to capture this on video.
If anyone else has seen anything like this in and round that time, please get in touch. For now, it remains unexplained.
Hynek Classification:
Nocturnal Lights
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