Cross over Flying Hills, PA

The report, as filed

First sighting was near Ephrata, PA. It looked like a vertical string of several white lights. It seemed to hover or move slowly. I kept trying to see how it was moving. It appeared it was moving East. I lost sight of it for awhile. I was driving North by Northeast. I exited the major road onto a state road. I saw the shape again in the Western sky. It was moving slowly or hovering. I kept trying to catch a glimpse of it through trees and around houses. When I came to an especially clear vantage, I was able to see there were 5 of the lines of light in a virtually straight east by southeast line. At one point I had three in sight. All had been white lights hanging in a vertical line. When I looked up I caught only one still in my line of sight, and then one with a vertical line of red lights instead moving slightly faster than a jet. I think at least one of its red lights was blinking, but I am not remembering clearly now. The white light objects appeared to blink or shimmer. I am sorry I cannot give a better explanation. I want to say they were at a height of 1 to 3 miles. Probably closer to the lower end. I thought I might be seeing hot air balloons, but it was dark, and hot air balloons could not move at the speed of which the one with red lights moved. The red lights moving stayed in the straight vertical line formation. When I had a safe place to stop there was just one I could see through the trees. I took only one picture but it was not visible in the poor quality duplication. I could see tree branches and perhaps a star nowhere near where the object was. At no time could I see the object to which the lights belonged on any of the lighted lines. Not even the vaguest of shapes to guide me to a credible description of the shape. I said cross shaped because it looked like the upper portion of the lights might have contained projections on either side that seemed at times to also have lights. I could see at least three lights on every one, but it seemed there could have been more. I could not tell, just like I could not give credible sizing. When I saw the extended line of the different "crafts," it looked like they may have had three miles or so in between each of the five I could see. That is about all I can remember. Sorry for the length of this. As the observer, I am a 54 year old white male with masters level degrees used to teach in a grade 7-12 building. I have never made a report of this kind before. I still kind of believe they could have been balloons, but cannot explain the movement of the red lights. I am just not sure what I saw.

Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center (record NUFORC #179398). Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.