Unidentified Flying (Manmade) Object over Central Pennsylvania

At approximately 9:38PM EST Northwest of Lancaster, PA I saw something strange that caught my eye. When I was younger, I had lived on an air force base for several years, and currently I live right under the the flight path of Harrisburg International Airport. I say this because I am quite familiar with aircraft and can typically identify the model just by the sound it makes. When I hear or see something I don't recognize I pay attention.

I was driving home and out of my window I saw two bright lights (similar to the current brightness of Venus that you can see in the sky right now). They were set wide, much wider than any aircraft I have seen. I do not think they were two separate craft as they moved in an extremely linear and stable fashion. Before it had passed overhead, I had pulled into a neighborhood so I could slow down and get a better look. Although there were, what I would assume to be, typical white forward lights, there were no "right of way" or strobe lights that typical planes would have. In addition, when I looked directly up at it while it passed, I could not make out a structure – in fact, between the lights, there seemed to be some sort of smoke or haze. Moments after it passed I could see something like static electricity pass between the two lights and the port or left side of the craft seemed to disappear only leaving the one light on the right. The sound is what struck me even further. I was nearly beneath it and there was not the high pitch frequency that one would typically hear, it sounded more like a gentle wind (similar to the sound you make as you sound out the letter "F"). It looked like it was beginning descent and was headed roughly due North towards Fort Indiantown Gap which is about 25 miles away.

This is the first time I have ever felt compelled to report in detail anything odd that I have seen, at least in recent years. I'm not saying that what I saw was alien, in fact, it did not seem alien at all. However, it was something that seemed very different than any commercial or military craft that I have ever seen. Has anyone seen anything else like this before?

reply to post by Resonant

Well, if it's man-made at least one man can identify it. In a worst-case scenario a bunch of people can identify it, de-compartmentalised and be separately interrog ...questioned.

reply to post by LightSpeedDriver


Apologies, I had accidentally hit "enter" as soon as I had typed out the title, so it took me a little to write up the details.

Edit:My apologies - I first thought OP stated his sighting was heading west and could have been what I saw heading the same direction.

OK... Just registered in order to reply as I just observed something as well.

In central Ohio, saw what appeared to be a shooting star with a slight tail but it appeared stationary in the air above the western horizon. Next it must have passed through a cloud due to increased brightness/haziness surrounding the light. It then begin moving due south (left) and the haziness subsided - perhaps having completely passed through a cloud. The light appeared to jump a distance equal to the width of my outstretched thumb and vanished. At this same moment what sounded like a military jet passed overhead above the clouds heading in the general direction of the light.

Following this there was no more light and the sound of the jet vanished in to the horizon.

I've never seen anything like this so I turned on the news and checked the web - nothing. Then I remembered ATS and saw this thread in the New Topics section so here I am.

Additional Information after reading the OP's post in full...

I had thought that it could have been an aircraft with landing lights going through a cloud, but like the OP I saw no aircraft strobe lights. Then there's the jump. I wonder what the distance is at about 10" above the horizon, jumping about 3/4"

Yes I believe they are US- Man Made.
Was it a "triangular" Shape.
I saw one in 1999. Im sure there are several versions by now.
Going by other eye-wittness reports, they seem to have this almost comical/obvious? manoeuvre of flying directly over people who are observing them, almost as a Joke... In a "Ha Ha look at me, but no-one will believe you. etc etc". Fashion.
The one I saw, flew directly overhead, at night time, with no sound. Only a 100-200ft or so off the ground.
Im sure that they use infrared imaging, so they can obviously see people on the ground, and fly over as a lark.
It could be part of the Test flights for these craft, just to see if anyone reports it etc.
Most people dont.
I waved at mine, so I would think the "Pilot" was having a great laugh....in a serious way.
What is their purpose?.......No Idea.
Some people have stated they are lifting platforms, probably Intelligence gathering craft too, who knows if they are armed? Maybe not, maybe that is why they fly "Under the Radar".
Be assured they are out there, I recall a comment from someone on ATS last year that had a buddy in the Army, and he told him some of them are as big as a football field, and completely silent.
Who makes them? Boeing? Lockheed? Mac Douglas?, EG&G? Hughes? or all of them ?? take your pick .

I live right by the indiantown gap I'll keep my eyes open I work all night and I get a chance o be outside every 45 minutes or so

Just to add a few more details. The skies are relatively clear tonight, and this was flying beneath any cloud cover. Also, I could not make out much structure. Really, it seemed like there wasn't really much structure at all. It did seem there could have been something stemming backward in a direct, linear fashion from the lights. I would say, definitively, it was not triangular in form.

After it had passed over me, I waited there, still, watching it as far as I could see, until it sank beneath the distant treeline. As I was leaving, a commercial plane was flying a similar path, but not the same (I assume it was making descent to HIA), and it was significantly smaller in width and size as what I saw (if I had to approximate, again this is an estimate, the unidentified craft was 3-4 times larger than the commercial airliner).

The gap does not possess a runway to accommodate such a large craft. Also the gap is open to the public and their largest runway is along fisher avenue in plain view, not a likely place to use a secret craft (not saying you are claiming this just saying) the area is usually very busy with weekend warriors boozing it up at Mooses LZ a bar or coyotes den and the Eclub they are always active. The most activity I have seen coming and going from there is 46's and Blackhawks as rotary wing is the largest airial fleet they contain there outside of a few c-130s (I think I've seen them there but never saw one take off or land)

reply to post by Brotherman


I'm not saying that it was headed there, but it was headed that way.

Assuming that whatever this was, was not a traditional, everyday aircraft, could it be possible that it would not need a very large airstrip to land? If it stayed that size, I would be skeptical, but to me it almost looked as if the one side, and really the mass in between had disappeared, or had been "absorbed" into the other.

I can see I'm going to like this place. My mother used to tell me stories about the strange crafts she would see in the evening sky, growing up in the Nevada desert north of Vegas. I remember the look on her face the first time she saw stealth aircraft... that aha moment of recognition.

Her stories have had me watching the skies ever since.

reply to post by Resonant


That does sound very odd, I was suggesting that the gap would be an unlikely place for this to be destined to land at is all.

reply to post by Brotherman


Yeah, who knows?

I wish I had my camera. I typically do, but it's being repaired. Frustration does not even begin to describe the way I feel at the moment. I had my phone, but I knew nothing of great value would have showed up.

This isn't necessarily relevant, but have you seen any elevated activity out that way as of recent?

reply to post by Resonant


I've seen a couple weeks ago maybe two and a half lots of military helos patrolling about. The drug interdiction task force which is a coalition of NG and state police that fly around looking for pot growers and other things (moon shiners etc) which is what I chalked them up to be other than that nothing too heavy. As a matter of fact it's been incredibly quiet normally around this time of the year I would be hearing the artillery range rocking and rolling as troops were training for deployment to the middle east.

reply to post by Brotherman


According to Wikipedia, Fort Indiantown Gap and the Muir Airfield conduct "about 70,000 take-offs and landings annually, making it the second busiest helicopter base in the world". I knew it was an active base, but I did not realize it was that active. That's quite a bit of air traffic.

reply to post by Resonant


Idk it might say that but I live 10-15 minutes outside the base now I don't count all the comings and goings of air traffic there but like I said its been very quiet as of lately. Also about the Gap they are talking about fencing it in, in the coming years and requiring ID checks and armed guard shacks, I find this very odd. I remember reading here on ATS about the gap being a supposed FEMA camp but I quickly noted that there isn't even a fence around the facility and all the places civilians shouldn't be are secured and fenced off. Guess I'll have to get back to that thread and update info lol. Back on topic though I believe the less amount of air traffic is because the gap becomes a no fly zone during live fire arty exercises I know alot of troops have been going through there as of lately for training but those are more or less for the Stryker brigade, PA Indian town gap has the 2nd largest Stryker brigade in the nation or something like that.

reply to post by Resonant


Report this to MUFON if you have time.

reply to post by gort51


I assume that they move over habitated areas as a way to start a myth about themselves exactly as has the ETs have donewith their mysterious UFOs flights that seem to have no real purpose. It is a PR effort to embed the unscientifically valid concept of UFO into our folklore, continuing and enlarging upon the myth. I'll briefly explain about the best example anyone could imagine.

In 1998 at the evening's end at the (last) annual Rocky Mountain UFO Conference in Laramie, Wyoming, I and about twenty others witnessed a huge triangle move low, slow and silently over the town. The craft was lit up with three huge strobe lights and about ten smaller ones flashing in a random sequence. It was like an aerial carnival. The strobes were hundreds of times brighter than the small strobes on typical aircraft, almost blinding at the closest approach. (It moved west to east about a mile north of our position.)

The fact that the craft appear minutes after the last lecture that night as many of us were standing around outside in the warm June night and made itself quit visible with the strobes in its leisurely traversing our position is quite telling. --I've never encountered another display of such strobes in anyother triangle reports.

The passage took about twenty minutes to cross the sky. The whole "show" is sufficient reason to suspect the ship as one of "ours" and out to give us UFO believers a thrill and perhaps entice us into going hogwild over with discussions of whether it was ours or ETs.