By Tim Binnall
A remarkable air traffic control recording from Canada features multiple bewildered pilots reporting mysterious lights that would occasionally come together to form a triangle. The very strange case reportedly occurred on January 19th and unfolded over the course of several hours. The strangeness started when a pilot flying north of Winnipeg contacted ATC to ask if there was "any active military airspace" in the area and, upon being told there was not, she indicated that there were "lots of active bright lights in formation." As the controllers attempt to get to the bottom of the peculiar sighting, they soon hear from more witnesses seeing the weird lights from other aircraft.
"They're moving side-to-side and then going away from each other and then forming triangles," another pilot reported, while a third observer told a controller that "it's quite bizarre. There's around six of them just randomly in formation flying at a high altitude." A fourth witness subsequently chimed in with his account of the odd lights, musing that they were "definitely not satellites" and marveling that "it's unlike anything I've ever seen in the 15 years of night flying that I've done." Amazingly, another two pilots joined the conversation and revealed that they had previously seen similar illuminations in the past. "I haven't seen them tonight," one of the witnesses said, "but we've been seeing those lights for probably the last 18 months or so."
Air traffic controllers were ultimately left with no answer as to what the pilots were seeing and the case wound up being filed with Transport Canada, an aviation authority that classified the event as an 'other,' which includes UFOs as a possible explanation alongside prosaic possibilities such as weather balloons or meteors. As for what the weird lights might have been, some skeptics have suggested that Starlink satellites might be behind the odd event, though not everyone is convinced of that scenario as the illuminations appeared to dim as well as move in and out of formation. What do you think the pilots spotted over the Canadian Prairies last month? Weigh in with your thoughts at the Coast to Coast AM Facebook page.