Fighter Pilots Tracked Lights Before They Vanished From the Screen

Two U.S. fighter jets were flying a mission in Iraq when the pilots saw several bright lights moving rapidly from west to east. One pilot was able to track them on the aircraft’s system as well.

The tracking lasted about 20 seconds. Then the lights dimmed and disappeared from the system. When the pilot compared their image with an image of a star, the results were different. But what were the lights, and what exactly did the system pick up?

The Lights Appeared on the Screen, Too

The pilots described lights moving quickly and seeming to change direction. They did not appear in a fixed formation, like a group flying together in an orderly pattern. The report said lights had appeared in such formations on previous flights, but not this time.

One pilot used a system installed in the aircraft that displays an image on a screen. It allowed him to track the lights briefly. The report describes several bright lights but provides no further details about their appearance. It offers no description of a shape or any identifying feature.

Twenty Seconds, Then Gone

The lights remained on the tracking system for about 20 seconds. Then they dimmed and disappeared from it. That is the report’s most striking detail: the pilots saw the lights, and one was able to track them on the aircraft’s system, but the tracking ended shortly afterward.

The pilot later compared the image captured by the system with an image of a star. The results were different. The report does not explain exactly what the comparison examined, so it is impossible to know what the difference indicates.

What Remains Unknown

The report does not determine what the lights were or why they disappeared from the tracking system. It describes the reporting pilot’s impression at the time of the incident; it does not prove that the lights had any particular characteristics. It offers no possible explanation for what the pilots saw.

The lights vanished from the screen. What, if anything, remained there is an open question.