Expert: Tom Whiting - 11/24/2009

Question
My boyfriend and I were in Defiance, MO.  He lives there and we are building a new house.  We were quiting for the evening and saw over 10 yellowish orange lights in formation coming from the southeast sky at 8:20 p.m. Saturday November 21st heading northwest. They were in formation and when the first 3 light started to turn and we could not see the light anymore all the lights disappeared. We know Spirit of St. Louis Airport is in that direction they came from but my boyfriend has lived out there for 8 years and has never seen anything like this before. We just want to know if anyone else saw this or reported this and how can I find out what we saw.

Thank you,
Pam

Answer
Hi Pam,
Lights at night are the most difficult to determine, as the eye can only detect brightness
and color...not distance, not size, and not even true motion, whether it's distant flying
aircraft or meteors which are typically 60-100 miles up.  (Especially out on the horizon).

Excluding the abnormal which is always my very last choice (Aliens, ET, flying saucers, etc)
and which I've never arrived at due to the one in a trillion probability...we can determine
some common sense rules here.
Not only are you, in Defiance, on a line with Spirit of St. Louis, if you extend that same
line about another 25 air miles, you are also in perfect alignment with Lambert Airport too,
to your ENE.

It's night time...aircraft can be seen on a clear night out there 50 miles or even more.
Another fact is that aircraft have multiple lights, and low flying helicopters especially are
lit up like a Christmas tree and typically fly in a several ship formation at night.
It was a weekend night... when Reservists (Air Force, Air National Guard, etc) are typically
on night-time practice maneuvers...doesn't Lambert have a Reserve organization on the airport
grounds?  Maybe Spirit of St. Louis does too, but I'd go for Lambert having a military
Reserve Unit...you can check that out to see if the "weekend warriors" were on monthly Duty that weekend.

So my best guess is a flight of helicopters in formation (which you admit using the word
formation) heading back to Lambert field from the south, out there about 30-50 miles. The orange color would be due to the long distance...atmospheric haze converts light to an orange or reddish color, just like sunsets are orange or reddish. Then once the lead formation started to turn toward their downwind or base leg to the field, the first of 3 helicopters (or aircraft) disappeared from your view in that turn, with the rest of them following suit quickly thereafter.

And of course nothing was reported to the press, or announced on the news, because there was
nothing out of the ordinary to report.  Formations of helicopters are quite common at night,
especially before the midnight hour.
(And there would be no sound out there 30-50 miles distant)....
That's my best guess, for what it's worth... just using common sense, which is all what I have
to go on.
Clear Skies,
Tom Whiting, retired pilot USAF
Erie, PA USA