Location of Sighting: Colony, Kansas
Date of Sighting: December 9, 2017
Time of Sighting: 8:40 PM CST
Description: I saw 10 to 15 blinking red lights in a uniform line. They were a uniform distance apart spanning a long distance, possibly a mile or so. The lights were moving slowly in an eastward direction. No sound was present. I watched the lights until they left the viewing area. I was able to watch them for approximately 15 minutes.
Note: A similar sighting occurred just west of Emporia, KS on Dec 9 at 9 PM. Emporia is about 35 miles to the northwest of Colony.
Note (Update Dec 16, 2017): The commentor below appears to have come up with the explanation for this and several other similar sightings on Dec. 9, 2017. The lights were due to military exercises.
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But you know, most witnesses got what they were seeing 100% correct. Likely they were too far from the flight paths to hear the aircraft, but still, most didn’t describe anything that they didn’t see. To me that’s a pretty good vindication of people’s ability to accurately describe an unusual observation!
Here’s additional information about the JFEX17 event. Scroll down this page to see the aircraft participating in the exercise. You could also have looked at an ADS-B tracking web site & seen the aircraft in question right where people were reporting them & right when they were reporting them:
http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/16843/those-lights-in-the-sky-seen-across-the-u-s-were-big-formations-of-military-airlifters
Sounds like this is a valid explanation. However, I don’t regularly visit sites and have time to scroll through radar reports.
My goodness, I listened in to the operation, via HF radio, as the aircraft from the east side of the US flew toward Nevada. What people did or didn’t hear had everything to do with their distance from the aircraft.
http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/17010/that-massive-cross-country-usaf-airlift-exercise-was-the-largest-of-its-kind-ever
I guess this is your area of expertise if you have time to listen to these type of operations on HF radio?
This was USAF C-17s & C-130s participating in JFEX17 (Joint Forced Entry Exercise). It’s all over news & internet aviation sites.
I don’t believe that for a minute. No one heard any sounds and the Air Force wouldn’t conduct exercises across the entire U.S. on the same night. C130’s are loud. I have ridden on them.