Mysterious "Fast Moving Lights" Captured on Camera over Glasgow, Scotland

The image taken by McLean. *(James McClean / Singular Fortean Society)*

James McLean, 58, sent the above photograph to the Singular Fortean Society last week, which he said is of several “fast moving lights” he saw flying over Glasgow, Scotland, on January 24th.

McLean took the photo from his bedroom window in Glasgow’s Castlemilk district at approximately 7:30 p.m.

The sighting of two bright lights, very close together, that “looked like a potential collision,” prompted him to open his window to see what was happening, at which time he saw eight more lights following "almost in single line formation [and] in complete silence,” he said in a series of correspondence with investigator Tobias Wayland.

Before they were gone, he managed to take a photograph of three of them.

"Never seen anything like that in my life before," he said.

McLean described the altitude of the lights as being similar to that of an aircraft landing at the airport, and said that they were moving through the clouds towards the northeast.

He shared the location of his house, which lies within the flight path for planes landing at Glasgow Airport, and said he was familiar with any normal aircraft that might be in the area, ruling that out as an explanation.

Nor did he believe they were floating lanterns, fireworks, or satellites.

"[I] see aircraft, helicopters, fireworks, Chinese lanterns, [and] drones from our location in Glasgow on a regular basis, these were like nothing before with the brightness and speed of them," he said.

He also explained that he had seen footage on YouTube of SpaceX satellites and these lights were "one-hundred percent not satellites.”

An enlarged image of the leftmost light in McLean’s photo.

The sighting lasted no more than “a few minutes, max” from the time the first lights entered through the clouds to his left and the final lights exited through the clouds to his right, McLean said.

“There was a slight climbing motion from left to right, then a steady path into the cloud[s],” he said of the objects’ flight path.

An enlarged image of the middle light in McLean’s photo.

McLean sent the Singular Fortean Society the original photograph taken from his phone, a Samsung S21, and photo analyst Emily Wayland was able to confirm through the image’s metadata that it had not been tampered with in any way. That information also confirmed that the photo had been taken on the day and time claimed by McLean.

Emily enlarged the objects in the photographs, revealing what seem to be clusters of lights grouped closely together, with a black form around them that could indicate the structure of some kind of craft. The rightmost object in the photo appears to be between a cloud and the camera, something that is further evidenced by light from the object seeming to reflect off of the cloud. Missing from all of the objects are the colored navigation lights normally required for aircraft flying at night.

An enlarged image of the rightmost light in McLean’s photo.

Based on the eyewitness testimony and photograph provided, it does appear that several unidentified flying objects, or UFOs, were witnessed by McLean late last month.

"I'm honestly kicking myself now for not being able to video capture the sighting that evening. But [it] was almost like a dreamscape moment, where you are completely transfixed to what you are witnessing,” said McLean of the experience. “The moment was all that mattered, and not to...go and get my phone to capture [it] and [risk missing] some of what was happening in front of me. A once in a lifetime experience, I reckon for me. I'm always looking up to that same area in the sky now, hoping for a revisit!”

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