Bright Lights Seen Again Over Ohio

MUFON Case # 22561
Date/Time: 03/29/2010 01:00
Location: Ottawa or Lima, Ohio
Description: Bright lights in sky, hovering about 5 miles N-NW of Columbus Grove

This is the 2nd time I've seen these lights. I wouldn't have filed a report but I did a quick search for Ohio and recent sightings and found more than one news story, in particular from Euclid, Ohio, that match what I've been seeing exactly.

The lights at first glance appear to be plane or helicopter lights. In fact, the first time I saw them, I didn't even give them a second look. That was on March 23 at approximately 11:30pm. I only thought it was something strange when I went out later that evening at 12:30am and saw the same lights in about the same position. I watched them for quite awhile and attempted to video tape them (which I do have), but the tape only reveals fuzzy lights so it's not worth much.

The lights stayed there for another 30 minutes until my curiosity got the better of me so I got into my car and drove toward them as best as I could. As I left town, I seemed to be getting closer to the lights and they were actually closer than I initially thought since they didn't in line with the stars and horizon as a distant object would. Just as I noticed I was getting closer, that's all the closer I was able to get. In fact, the lights moved relatively quickly away from me toward the east. I tried driving as fast as I could to catch up and drove about 60 - 70 mpg for about 10 minutes and could not catch up. I turned around and the lights were gone a few minutes later.

The lights I saw tonight (the 29th) were exactly the same lights. The difference is that I saw them to the Northwest of Columbus Grove instead of the East (March 23). I watched the lights for more than an hour and tried video taping them but again, the video camera couldn't get a good focused video. I tried using the 60x zoom on it and a couple times I did get a clear glimpse, but the lights just appeared as , well, lights.

the lights were white and blue. Truly, I would have thought they were helicopter lights but they hovered in approximately the same spot for hours and there was no noise at all. I didn't want to waste gas so I didn't chase them this time.

Again, the Euclid sighting seems to match what I saw exactly.

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Note: Could this witness have seen landing lights on a jet or helicopter? Well, I don't know any jets that can hover like that, or even helicopters that can hover in one spot for more than a few minutes. Having a helicopter mechanic in the family gives me a edge on exactly what helicopters can do, and this does not fit my idea of conventional aircraft.

I also feel the need to add that driving 70-90 mph chasing lights at night is not recommended. It only takes one large animal in the roadway to spoil your whole week, month, or maybe a lifetime.

The best thing to do is to call friends or relatives in another location and ask them to look for the light(s). If at all possible, between several individuals you may be able to triangulate the object's location. Someone else may also be able to get a good photo or video of it. -SW

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The Euclid Lights



Video Link

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Case closed: MUFON says Euclid, OH, UFOs are planes

By Roger Marsh, UFO Examiner

The objects reported nightly over Lake Erie skies at Euclid, Ohio, are incoming jet traffic from Cleveland-Hopkins International Airport, according to Ohio Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) Field Investigator Tom Wertman.

Wertman was reached by telephone late Thursday for a final disposition on the case.

Euclid, OH, resident Eugene Erlikh, 20, originally reported unusual objects out over Lake Erie that were appearing in the same spot night after night. The story was picked up by Fox News, Cleveland; and also by MSNBC.

The network stories brought the case to the attention of Ohio MUFON and Wertman was assigned to move to the site and have a look for himself.

Wertman, like many other ufologists who called or wrote to the UFO Examiner on this case were suspicious of the case from the beginning. The suspicion, they say, is when a sighting repeats itself in the same spot over many nights. Ufologists seem to agree that sightings like this generally have a natural or manmade ending.

Wertman specifically tracked lights from the same area where Erlikh says he was seeing lights. The two even spoke on the telephone, with Wertman outside and nearby. Erlikh was talking on the telephone from inside his high rise apartment.

"I was with him on the phone the other night," Wertman said, "and he described the exact same lights that we were both looking at. As each object came out, we matched the same time frames. He even went back at the end of the night and reviewed the three major sightings of the night. And all three were a match. The only difference was our watches, but the time frames were the same."

After Wertman was sure that the lights he was seeing were the same that Erlikh was seeing, his investigation began.

Wertman began comparing the movement of the lights to incoming air traffic at Cleveland-Hopkins International Airport. In addition, Wertman was using a computer to track incoming flights in real time.

On one of those evenings, Wertman and Erlikh had agreed on the three objects.

Wertman said the first object was a flight coming in from Chicago.

"Once spotted over Lake Erie, the object stayed relatively stationary for about two minutes," Wertman said, "then a second light popped up at thumb's length (if held at arm's length) from the first one. The flight tracking software was then showing a second flight coming in behind the first."

The data from the flight tracking web site was matching what Wertman was seeing.

"The first object appeared at about 8:40 p.m.. The light appeared in the northwest at 300 degrees at approximately 5 degrees above the horizon. It was a short time later - one to two minutes later - a second object appeared beside the first one. And holding my thumb at arm's length - the two objects were a thumb's width apart."

"The intensity of the second light was the same as the first. The web site used to track the air traffic showed two aircraft in that same area. The first was coming from Chicago. A short time later a third light appeared. One of the first lights was moving, getting dim, and moving toward the southwest. The second light was still stationary and it gave the appearance of hovering. It appeared to be stationary or hovering for about 3 to 4 minutes."

Cleveland airport is southwest of Erlikh's location.

"The web site was now showing that the first plane from Chicago would land then at 8:44 p.m. The second aircraft landed at 8:49 p.m. That was evidently the two planes that were close together."

Each object moved from the lake area to the southwest and toward the airport, matching the arrival time of the flights.

CASE CLOSURE

Wertman said he is marking this one - case closed. "It's air traffic for Cleveland-Hopkins," Wertman said. "The flights take a swing out over the lake where they can, at times, appear to be stationary. Then they move, one by one, to the southwest and into position to land - and right on time - according to the flight data available on the web."

Can someone mistake lights in a night sky for something anomalous? Happens all the time, according to ufologists.

Wertman said he was talking with Erlikh during one of the investigation evenings, when Erlikh shouted, "Did you see that? An F-16 just flew over my building."

But Wertman, standing just outside Erlikh's building, had seen what had just gone over his building at between 1,500 to 2,000 feet above the building. "I corrected him and told him it was a small business jet. Most likely landing at nearby Burke Lakefront Airport."

And by the way, Tom Wertman was just named Ohio State Section Director by State Director William Jones. Congratulations, Tom.

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Note: While some lights can easily be explained, others cannot. Not every light in the sky has an airplane or helicopter attached to it. Not all sightings are the space station; other types of satellite; the space shuttle; man-made rockets; weather balloons; flock of birds; Venus; swamp gas; meteor; etc.

If after you have run through all other explanations and still can't determine what the object is, you have what is known as an "unidentified flying object".

Keep watching the skies.

-SW

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