Multiple UFOs in the evening sky PA, US

Location: Ridley Park

Date of sighting: 2012-07-04

Long Description of Sighting Report

I hail from the town of Ridley Park which is 10 miles to the South of Philadelphia and about 2 miles from the Philadelphia International Airport. Back around the 4th of July holiday in 2012 I was having a small pool party with some friends and as the night progressed I had broken off from the main group of friends and was just catching up with 2 buddies of mine. We will call them Bill and Jake. Bill is a mechanic at the airport and Jake is in the Army National Guard. It was roughly 1130pm EST as we were talking on my back deck when a light caught my eye in the sky. I motioned for both of them to glance up and the 3 of us stood there in complete confusion as we watched this amber light moving East to West across the sky. The altitude would be hard to guess, but I would say it was between 10,000-20,000 feet basing it off typical air traffic living next to the airport. The amber light moved from West to East and then hooked North directly towards the city of Philadelphia as we lost sight of it over the trees. We immediately muttered some choice words to the effect of what the heck was that as there was no sound and even with planes at typical cruising altitude around here we can still hear them. As we continued to discuss what we just saw another light appeared from the same direction almost identical altitude (from the best we could tell) and it made the same turn towards the city. The light itself was solid in color. No flickering, no blinking or flashing, and no dimming. The amber light held strong in intensity the entire time and the second one did as well which is odd considering given its flight path we would have seen it from the front, the bottom, and then the back. Now some back story. I myself am a house painter by day and an amateur astronomer by night. I have seen satellites, meteors, the whole nine yards and nothing could compare to what I had just witnessed. 

Also, this was the first year I was not doing my annual fireworks display up in the mountains so I have seen my share of pyrotechnics and aerial flares. So to me it was not a plane (as I see them daily at all altitudes and flight patterns which this one did not follow), not anything astronomical by any means, not a helicopter (altitude appeared to be too high and the light did not fit any helicopter I have ever seen military or civilian), and not a Chinese lantern as I have witnessed these set off as well. Bill immediately concluded that it was nothing he had ever seen before at the airport or anything that made sense in terms of a civilian or commercial aircraft and Jake chimed in with it not being anything military that he had ever seen. So we sat there stumped and staring at the sky hoping for one more pass by another object, but there was nothing. I feel the need to mention as well considering I said I was having a party. my only vice is smoking cigarettes (I do not drink or use any other mind altering substances). 

A few days later I was catching up with my cousin who had told me previously while in a golf outing in the mountains about a UFO sighting he had before. So I figured I would share my story with him. He was relieved he wasn’t the only person he knew to had seen something he could not explain. I described the object in detail just as I have above and he compared his story to mine and the differences between what we saw. We talked about the only wildcard which we both admittedly knew nothing about being a drone or some type of UAV. If I remember correctly this is around the time when the government started using them stateside a lot more frequently, but still if the idea is for them not to be seen then why have a light on it that is so bright. Fast track to about September 2012 I get a call from my cousin who was in touch with me over the weekend as he was up looking for some dark skies for a photography session in the mountains trying to shoot the milky way (photography is his hobby and he is quite good at it). He was on his way home coming down 76 East (PA Turnpike) somewhere between Elizabeth Town, Pa and Morgantown, Pa when a light caught his eye. He reached for his Nikon DSLR and began filming while he was driving. The light he was filming was moving with him and it fit the same description as I had mentioned above. At one point while driving the light moved so abruptly it caused him to jerk the camera completely to the side window to keep it in the shot. He then pulled over to the side of the highway deciding it was better and safer to film from the side of the road than continue to do so while driving. Once he pulled over his memory card was full sadly and he was not able to continue to film the object anymore. Which he regrets because the object was then joined by 3 more lights of the same description and they continued moving in the same direction in what he described as a staggered column until they were out of view. Obviously what is not filmed can be taken with a grain of salt by any investigator or person looking into a video, but to me he has no reason to lie.