Triangular shape with lights in Kent

Report of triangular shape with lights in Kent on 23rd October 2024

Two witnesses spotted a bright light in the sky.  When viewed through a telescope they could clearly see it was triangular in shape and had a lot of white individual lights covering the full triangle. They viewed through the telescope for 10 minutes.

The sighting took place at 18.45 and so the sky would have been getting darker and some stars would have been visible.  The weather was clear and bright with a very light South-Easterly breeze.

The area is rural with lower levels of light pollution and no streetlights or other obvious lights in the immediate area.

In the direction of the sighting there is dense woodland for around 300m.  Further away in the North-West are fields, a solar farm and a limestone quarry.  There do not appear to be any other businesses or areas where additional lighting or drones may have been in use at that altitude.

A review of social media coverage does not highlight any events or activities around that date that could have been using lighting or drones for entertainment purposes.

I can find no evidence that anyone else reported the light/object on 23rd October.

There may have been commercial aircraft passing by the location but these would not have been visible as unmoving for a full 10 minutes and so a commercial aircraft is unlikely. 

A helicopter could remain stationary, and it is not unusual for police helicopters to be visible in the evening, but I would expect the witness to see at least some flashes of light during a 10-minute period as the helicopter moves around slightly.

At that time of the evening, Venus would have been very low and bright in the sky, possibly just above the treeline, but would have been to the South-West.  Saturn was also very bright in the sky in the opposite direction. Other stars would have been visible (such as Arcturus). It is possible that the initial bright light seen could have been one of the planets if viewed in those directions.  The witness refers to a regular satellite that they initially thought was what they were viewing.  There were a number of satellites passing over at that time in the evening, but they would have been moving across the sky and would not have been visible for a full 10 minutes.  It does not appear that the ISS was visible from the location on that evening.

It is possible that the initial bright light seen could have been a planet although the direction of the sighting given does not align with this.

Previous sighting report:

A previous sighting report was submitted to BUFORA of a black triangular craft seen above Greater London.  The object hovered for some minutes in early June 2024.  From the information available I was not able to identify the object but did note that there are experimental or newly developed aircraft and unmanned drones that are being used or tested in the UK and there is an aerospace defence company at Rochester Airport which was just 20 miles away. It has been difficult to determine exactly which projects are carried out at the Rochester site but their website and various news articles indicate that they may be working on new technologies for autonomous vehicles and possibly aircraft.  The object seen in the previous sighting did not have any lights but had three indented circles.  This does make it quite different from the object seen in this report which describes a large number of lights. Rochester Airport is also only 40 miles North-West of the location of this sighting. 

As an example of the type of aircraft being developed, in 2013 BAE announced that it had undertaken test flights of its Taranis unmanned aerial vehicle.  The Taranis was reported as being more than 40ft long and more than 32 ft wide and was largely triangular.  Since 2013 there are likely to have been further developments and other manufacturers will certainly be working on similar equipment.

I do not believe that it is possible to confirm whether any experimental aircraft or drones were being tested or flown in the UK by any commercial organisations on the evening of the sighting.  However, it is certainly possible, and it is likely that such equipment will be tested over the UK at times.

The witness reports seeing lots of lights on the object and draws more than 30 lights on their sketch.  I have not been able to find any reference to aircraft or unmanned vehicles with this many lights.

Recent news articles:

A number of recent news articles have emerged reporting drones being seen over US airbases in the UK, particularly referring to some airbases in the South-East of England.  While little information has been made available about the drones, reports indicate that they are seen in various different shapes and sizes.  I have seen some unconfirmed reports that people have seen some that were dark grey triangular craft.

Other factors:

Unfortunately our eyes are not always as reliable as we would like them to be, and we must be conscious that our interpretation of what we see can be distorted by a range of factors including our expectations, previous experiences, the ambient light, reflections, the quality of our equipment.  When someone already has a good appreciation of the UFO topic, they are more likely than the rest of the population to interpret the object as something unusual.

The current news articles regarding drones did not start until after the report was made to BUFORA and so could not have influenced the interpretation, but the subject has been in the news on a number of occasions over recent years and the witness has a good appreciation of the UFO topic which could unconsciously influence the interpretation of what is seen. However. this sighting was witnessed by two people who both say that they saw the same thing.  This makes it less likely that the object was misinterpreted but cannot discount the possibility completely.

The witnesses say that they could see the shape of the darker object as well as many lights, indicating that they saw a single physical object rather than a number of lights in close formation.  Bright light seen with the naked eye or through a telescope can be distorted and it is possible that a witness could see many lights instead on just one. Without any other supporting evidence it is not possible to confirm this.

Conclusion:

From the information available it is not possible to confirm what the object was.  The report states that the witnesses could see the object as a different colour to the sky which indicates that it was a physical object of some kind, but it is not possible from a verbal report to fully rule out the possibility that the view of the light was distorted.

It seems unlikely that it could be a commercial aircraft, helicopter or drone because it remained stationary for so long and due to the unusual light configuration, but it is not possible to discount the possibility of advanced aircraft or drone from a military or commercial developer.

It will be helpful to hold the sighting on file in case more information becomes available.

Carolyn Bruce

BUFORA Accredited Investigator