UFO lines night sky
A UFO described as resembling a train in the sky was spotted two nights running as Far North Queenslanders watched the stars overnight for a potential third appearance.
Dozens of Cairns residents saw the strange line of lights moving through the sky about 6.40pm on Friday, with reports of a similar phenomenon in Townsville.
The unidentified flying object – whatever it was – made another visit on Saturday night but further up the coast in Cape York.
Hope Vale resident Carmen Pearson was still trying to work out what she saw.
“Me, my partner and brother were just casually yarning outside under the stars about 7.10-7.15pm,” she said.
“I noticed a long trail of small dull lights about 7pm and a large light further back that flashed bright three or four times, high in the sky.
“It moved northeast across the sky for about one minute.
“We watched it, then I decided to run inside and grab my phone to record it, but when I ran outside it slowly got really dull and disappeared.”
Edmonton resident Phil Austin said the lights were visible from his property for roughly 45 seconds at about 6.40pm on Friday.
“The only way I can explain it is it was like a distant train with carriage lights inside,” he said.
“There were four little lights, not exceptionally bright but bright enough to be quite visible, then a gap and three more lights, then another gap and I think another two.
“They were all travelling at the same speed, dead straight.
“I thought it might have been a RAAF exercise or something but I couldn’t hear any noise coming from it.”
Fortunately for his sanity, Mr Austin was not alone.
His story – a line of lights moving in perfect unison across the night – has been replicated dozens of times by confused social media users.
Mr Austin said one theory was that the unidentified flying objects were related to SpaceX entrepreneur Elon Musk’s launch of 60 small Starlink satellites into low earth orbit last week.
“I wouldn’t assume they would be orbiting in uniform like that,” he said.
The Cairns Post has asked the Department of Defence to confirm whether any RAAF operations could have caused the lights.