Posted: December 24, 2009

Location of Sighting: lincolnshire east coast
Date of Sighting: 22 oct 2008
Time: 17:45

Witness Statement: I had just left the fish&chip shop and looked up at the clear, cloudless sky; visibility was 100% and the clocks hadn't gone back.

Viewing east to west towards the Wolds (higher than sea level-ridge, horizon distance 8-10 miles) I noticed what I thought was a small, white cloud close to the horizon sitting in the otherwise clear reddening evening sunset. My first thought was how can this tiny cloud formation be capturing the sun - the sun rises from the east (behind me), I'm looking towards the west where the sun-sets. whilst looking at this 'cloud.' I began to notice what can only be described as 3 to 4 'white-lights.' As the lights became brighter/bigger/closer, 2 had disappeared, leaving only two visible.

At this point I thought it was a couple of helicopters fastly approaching with their landing/searchlights on. As 'they' came to a halt, I became confused that I could neither hear nor see these helicopters. IF they was helis, I would have felt the down-wash from the rotors so close would it have been IF they were helis!

Up until now the 'observation time' is around 10 seconds. As I stood in amazement at these two brightening and brighter-than white lights (note: but not dazzling) they turned to orange and hovered/floated perfectly and staticly/motionless, equidistance-apart, in absolute silence for a further 5 - 10 seconds. It might sound daft to say, but I had an overwhelming feeling of being 'watched' myself!.

There was no way I could tell how far away these 'lights' were, but if the two of them were separated by a distance of say 150ft from each other (a large plane) then I would estimate they/it would have been 300 - 400 yards from me, at their nearest, at a height/altitude of say 250 - 400ft.

My total observation time of these lights was approximately 5 - 6 minutes; the time it took me to ride the half mile distance home from the chippie.

By now the 'lights' were receding towards the reddening sky above the horizon in what would be a south-westerly direction (lights originally approached from west to east). Another estimation would be that the lights had flown/traveled an approx distance of 16 - 20 miles.

I feel I must add that I have been involved with aircraft all my life and can be referred to as an 'aircraft junkie.' I can also tell the difference between a common 'shooting-star' and a meteorite entering the atmosphere; the later being extremely rare, once in a lifetime event to observe with the naked eye - this meteor event I observed is a documented-case that happened in our area when the meteor penetrated a holiday-caravans' roof, only one mile as-the-crow-flies from my house.