"Lots of Active Bright Lights in Formation" Reported by Pilots over Canada on January 19th

Multiple pilots reported seeing “lots of active bright lights in formation” flying over the Canadian Prairies in the early morning hours of January 19th, according to a recent article published by CTV News.

Much of the available information regarding the UFO reports is based on conversation between the pilots and air traffic control (ATC), which was pared down to 13 minutes from 2.5 hours of raw audio downloaded from two feeds at LiveATC.net, a website that shares live and archived air traffic communications.

The original, unedited conversation between pilots and air traffic controllers took place from approximately 4:20 a.m. to 6 a.m. CST.

CTV News was originally alerted to the sightings on January 23rd, when a report was published to Canada's Civil Aviation Daily Occurrence Reporting System (CADORS).

CADORS is an online aviation incident database maintained by Canada's federal transportation department, which itself is known as Transport Canada.

Around 4:40am on Jan. 19, NORAD was alerted after several flights reported "multiple lights sometimes in a TRIANGLE FORMATION" above the Canadian prairies in Saskatchewan👀✈️
READ the "CIRVIS/#UFO" report published last night by @Transport_gc👉🏽https://t.co/b4AKcWrylc #UAPx 🍁❓🔍 pic.twitter.com/7IvKBLcrEr
— Daniel Otis (@dsotis) January 24, 2024

That CADORS report can be read here.

At least four aircraft reported the lights, including a Flair Airlines flight from Vancouver to Toronto that described seeing multiple lights sometimes in a triangle formation.

"Yeah, it's quite bizarre," a pilot on that flight said. "There's around six of them just randomly in formation flying at a high altitude at 12 o'clock."

An air traffic controller in Winnipeg said that a "company aircraft over Thunder Bay" suggested the lights could be satellites, but an Air Canada pilot flying from Seattle to Winnipeg replied, "I'm certainly no expert, but they're moving side-to-side and then going away from each other and then forming triangles. That doesn't really seem like they're in any type of orbit. But I mean, I'm no expert."

A pilot on a Morningstar Air Express cargo flight from Calgary to Toronto said the lights were "definitely not satellites," adding, "It's unlike anything I've ever seen in the 15 years of night flying that I've done."

Despite talk of sunlight reflecting off of satellites, the strange lights remained a mystery to those involved in their reporting.

"There's no active airspace, military airspace, anything like that we're aware of," an air traffic controller said. "I honestly have no idea what that might be."

Although the Canadian military denies any interest in UFOs "outside the context of investigating credible threats, potential threats, or potential distress in the case of search and rescue," Canadian Air Defence (CADS ID) was notified about the lights.

Canadian Air Defence Sector in North Bay, Ontario, monitors North America's northern airspace as part of North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), a combined organization of the United States and Canada that provides aerospace warning, air sovereignty, and protection for Canada and the continental United States.

"NORAD detects radar tracks and if required, provides a threat assessment of those tracks based on a variety of factors," a Canadian NORAD and Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) spokesperson told CTV News. "For operational security reasons, we do not discuss how NORAD assesses threats."

Concerns about unauthorized incursions into NORAD airspace have been heightened since February 2023, when several unidentified flying objects were shot down over North America.

Despite this, CTV News reported, the RCAF, Transport Canada, and Nav Canada all declined to provide additional information on the sightings or any potential responses.

Meanwhile, later the same day, pilots in the U.S. reported a similar phenomenon, documented in a Memphis air traffic control audio recording.

Those sightings took place in the evening, at approximately 8:20 p.m.

"We're north of Birmingham, facing west, and we see multiple, multiple lights," one pilot said during an exchange between several flight crews.

When asked if it could be Starlink satellites, a pilot can be heard responding, "Negative, I don't think so. Starlink doesn't flash."

Comparable to what was reported in Canada, the lights were described as being in a triangle formation.

These reports come through CADORS with relative frequency, and the above sighting in Canada represents the third such report so far this year, following the January 5th sighting of “2 to 3 erratic moving lights” flying above an aircraft over Quebec Harbour and a January 13th sighting of an “unidentified object” off the starboard side of an aircraft in British Columbia.

However, as some have pointed out, there does not appear to be any effort made by authorities to investigate the sightings reported via CADORS and thus there is no resolution to provide closure regarding the experiences.