Formation over Lake Frederick, VA

The report, as filed

I saw what I took to be an airliner with the kind of red light you'd expect to see on the fuselage. It was headed south. It was lower than normal for flights to and from Dulles Airport 65 miles to the East, I looked up expecting to hear the sound of the jets but there was none. The craft then turned to the West and as it did it changed configuration from what I thought was an airliner into a formation of 20 or so round disks. The formation was kind of like a triangle with one of the disks spearheading the pattern. It was a tightly held formation. They all stayed together going in one direction. The disks were silver in color but also appeared to be opaque as if you could look through them, but not quite. The disks then disappeared into the atmosphere. They did not soar upward in doing so. I questioned what I had seen or what I thought I saw and even now am unsure I saw what I saw. I saw the craft through the small branches of a tree. I was on one side of the branches and the craft was on the other, so whatever I saw or thought I saw was not visually right in front of me, but rather something I saw off in the distance. I am not claiming it was a UFO. I'm not sure what I saw. There were no other aircraft in the area when I saw this. I am not asking to be contacted by an investigator but if one does that's fine.

Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center (record NUFORC #166225). Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.