Man Sees Strange Pattern of Lights Near International Airport in Cleveland

Drawing Provided By Witness Immediately After Sighting

Red Star Is Witness Location
(About 4 Miles SE of Hopkins Airport)

Date of Sighting: November 11 2005
Time of Sighting: 6 PM EST
Date Reported: November 11, 2005
Duration of Sighting: A Few Minutes (Exact Duration Unknown)
Location of Sighting: Parma, Ohio (About 4 Miles Southeast of Hopkins Airport - Cleveland, Ohio)
Latitude:   41.367 Degrees North
Longitude:  81.783 Degrees West
Number of Witnesses: One
Weather: Scattered Clouds at 20,000 Feet. Visibility 10 Miles. Winds Southwest at 6 MPH

Description (In Witness's Own Words): The object itself had no distinct shape other than what I drew it as: A straight line of 4 very bright white strobes (the outer 2 being brighter or bigger than the inner 2) with 2 red lights in between the 2 groupings of strobe lights. By my visual perspective, the line from end to end looked to be about 1 inch (I'm a graphic designer and have been eyeballing stuff like this for a few years now), and by basic perspective of aircraft in the landing patterns, that would have been illegally low level and very close to where I was. At farthest, it would have been the Parma/North Royalton border, which is almost exactly a mile from my house. I've seen Air Force One take off from Hopkins, the Russian Antonov AN-224 also made a landing there last year. Next to a C-5, there really isn't much of anything that would have made that sort of a size perspective. I know, I'm not an aircraft expert, but I'm an aviation buff. I wanted to be a pilot when I was a kid. Like I'd stated in the report, I've lived in Cleveland's landing pattern my entire life, and I know what an aircraft looks like flying at night. I swear on my life - those were not landing or wingtip lights. If it was an airliner on a takeoff run from Hopkins, it would have gained discernible altitude by the time it entered the turn. This thing seemed to be flying silently at low level and close range steadily. Even when it seemed to turn to the north and level off, none of the lights were blocked by any sign of a fuselage. The intensity of the lights really got to me. These were an absolutely brilliant white (I know I painted them yellow in the bitmap, but it was that it was originally a white background), and the only other thing I've seen in the skies with a light that color but still lacking the intensity of these strobes was the single strobe light mounted on the International Space Station as it flies over. It wasn't quite as intense as a camera flash, but I could still see the light pattern in dots when I closed my eyes after it disappeared. The flash sequence was also nothing I'd ever seen on any civilian or military aircraft. The sequence was Out/Out, then Out/In/In/Out (looking at the four as if left-to-right). Being that there were 2 red lights on it, I originally assumed it was 2 military fighters flying in formation, but the size of the turn forced me to push that assumption further back into my mind. Even if it was one aircraft, the red lights (to my knowledge), should have been rotating domes on the underside - the two reds I could see did not seem to brighten or darken at all, and were between the strobes. There was no noise, whatsoever. That was what had furthered my assumption on it being fighter jets at long distance. Something that looked as big as those lights made it, being that close to me, should have been a steady and low roar. There was no noise other than some distant traffic (you can hear traffic on all 4 of the major roads in a mile radius) and the wind, which was blowing from the southwest - the direction the object was coming from. I finally heard a jet engine as the object seemed to be flying away, but then realized it was from an airliner (I want to say a McD/D family airliner, engines mounted under the vertical stablizer) that was passing a few thousand feet overhead directly above me. This thing was absolutely silent - I didn't hear any buzzing or anything else. Moving on from the details of the craft itself, the sighting was 6:00 PM EST yesterday evening, to the minute. I went out on my front porch to have a cigarette since I'm not allowed to smoke in the house. I lit up, took a drag, and a flash caught my attention. The craft came into view from behind the houses on the next block (all 1-floor ranch style), slowly moving from SW to NE, moving forwards with a visually discernible angle of 45 degrees, the high point of the angle being the front light. It took a very long, slow elliptical turn, at which point it seemed to be moving due east. It leveled off, moving ENE on a route south of downtown Cleveland, and very slowly disappeared over the roof of the house across the street from mine, and I finally lost sight of it as it flew behind a large oak tree a few streets away. Gee! I just described a perfect takeoff run out of Hopkins. Just forget I sent all this - it must've been an aircraft. I don't know. Just the placement of the lights, the flash sequence, the intensity from the flash, and the lack of noise - it's just not right. It's not. I hear the distant rolling thunder of aircraft day and night, and I heard nothing with this. They had landing patterns set up differently today - one set flying in off of Downtown, and the others flying in from the south - I could see both patterns lined up with at least three planes in the grid apiece. I don't really see why they'd set a takeoff run into the grid like that, but they might've. I don't know. Mr. Puckett, I'll be direct: I don't want to mess with anyone. I sent the report to you since I had googled "UFO Cleveland" and quite a few reports from my general area were listed on your website. I know what I saw, and that aircraft was too big to be in my line of sight that long and absolutely silent. The lights were wrong. I've never cried wolf, especially on something like this. But this one really frazzed my nerves, because I swear to you it was too big or way too close. I pray that you receive another report from the area on this. I know it just sounds like a mistaken identity, but it was JUST ALL WRONG, sir. I feel like I'm going crazy but I don't have any good reason to be. I'd appreciate another response, even if just to chew me out since it really does sound like I'm wasting your time. I understand and fully accept that possibility. Regardless, in closing, thank you very much for your time..

Investigator's Notes:  This witness comes across as very reliable. He has provided a very detailed report plus graphics of what he saw. He provided a dialogue of why he thought that this sighting is unusual.  He would appear to be very familiar with conventional aircraft given that he has lived by a major airport all of his life. Given available information I cannot identify this sighting. I will be periodically checking other UFO databases to see if other sightings occurred in this area.