ATC: “Sorry, say again?”
Pilot: “I didn’t know if you had any idea what all these white
flashing lights are out here. There is a whole sea of them.”
The following incident was reported to the FAA and captured on Air Traffic Control (ATC) recordings over the course of a half hour. Although the original pilot felt the lights may have been on the ground, the FAA reported the incident as “Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon” and was ultimately seen by numerous pilots / flights over the course of more than 35 mins.
The Black Vault received word of this incident, along with the details of the incident, by someone who wishes to remain anonymous, but had access to the FAA database that listed the report. It was sent to The Black Vault in early October of 2022.
The incident details that were sent to The Black Vault (though were seemingly missing from the FOIA release – an appeal has been filed) were the following:
Subject: INFO ZKC N127RR Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon Initial/Closeout
TIME/DATE: 07:54z 09/27/2022
TYPE OF INCIDENT: UNIDENTIFIED AERIAL PHENOMENON: KANSAS CITY ARTCC (ZKC), KANSAS CITY, KS, (ARTCC)
INCIDENT DETAILS: Initial/Closeout
Call Sign: N127RR
Aircraft Type: GLF4
Origin: PDX PORTLAND
Destination: OKC OKLAHOMA CITY
New Destination: N/A
Remarks:
0355 EDT / 0755 UTC 09/27/2022
N127RR/GLF4 reported an unidentified aerial phenomenon off the left side while SE bound at FL350, 50NM WNW of LBL. The unknown phenomenon was described as a sea of flashing white lights below their altitude. The lights were not very bright and observed for over 100NM. No evasive action reported.
A FOIA request was filed, and the below is a result from FOIA Case 2023-00488. What was sent was the audio file of the air traffic control recordings only, though more documentation thought to exist was requested.
It is noted that the original pilot seeing the lights described them “on the ground”. However, it appears he was at about 35,000ft, and at one point seemed to state that the lights had followed them and they were “tracking them for at least 50 miles.”
During the course of ATC trying to figure out the source of the lights, it was talked about what may be in the area they were seen, possibly like a large stadium or known concert event. By the reaction of one of the controllers, it seemed like there was not much in the area that could account for the lights.
The Black Vault has NOT done a formal investigation on this incident. Rather, the page you are on now was setup to archive a confirmed “UAP” sighting by multiple aircraft/pilots on this night. Should any independent investigation add anything to this story, the page will be updated if the information is verifiable.
Air Traffic Control Recordings
Air Traffic Control Recordings of UAP Incident on September 27, 2022, over Kansas. “UAP” seen by multiple flights. This has been edited to remove long pauses. The original recording of “UAP” related banter stretches over approximately 33 minutes. You can download the raw file below the edited/trimmed version.
Air Traffic Control Recordings – Original Raw and Unedited File
This file is the original, untouched version, of the audio recording. It has two tracks. To hear the ATC side, you need to only listen to the LEFT channel only.
RAW AUDIO FILE DOWNLOAD [166MB] – This stereo track has two channels. Left channel has voice recordings. This file is as received from the FAA – and has not been altered in any way.
FOIA Response
Possible Explanation
Upon posting the above, noted “debunker” Mick West posted the case file on his Metabunk website. With permission, The Black Vault is posting the below posts to ensure readers here get all possible angles. The information below was posted over a short period of time on THIS THREAD, which may expand with more information in the future.
The Black Vault neither endorses, nor will attempt to rebut the information below. It is posted to ensure this case file page remains complete with all angles of what may explain this “sea of lights”.
The lights were initially reported by N127RR, a private jet that had tracking disabled, so did not show up on FR24. It was on ADSBExchange (which is looking more and more like the go-to place for flight tracking), so I downloaded the KML from there. It was later reported by Jetblue 136 (N639JB), as being at there “1 to 3 o’clock” so i got that too, which puts them around the town of Beaver in the Oklahoma panhandl
N127RR described the lights as “almost like the windmill farm thing, except they are more sporadic”.
Looking at the ground around that area I see two main things:
1. Farmland. Possible some nighttime farming activity?
2. Oil wells. Do they flash, “like the windmill farm thing”?
A possibility is center pivot lights on irrigation systems. Basically warning lights to show the large circular irrigation systems are moving
Looks like “Keith Foster” (keithfoster8021) beat me to it, a comment on this video.
Every single center pivot irrigation system in southwest Kansas has strobe lights flashing on them while they are watering crops. These are position indicators for the farmers. In September we were in drought and all irrigation systems were watering freshly planted winter wheat crops. Every single place on google earth where you see a circular crop would have at least one flashing strobe light on September 22 this year.
Most around here have the strobes on the pivot to let you know the machine is still walking. It’s a nice feature since you don’t have to go to the pivot and make sure it is still operating correctly. Some have the end tower light that comes on when the end tower is acutally walking but a lot of people don’t even bother changing the bulb when it burns out. The blinking strobe will tell you all you need to know. Certain areas of the country have an amazing amount of those blinking lights. Pretty cool at night to drive by. Highway 287 north of Amarillo around Dumas,TX is just amazing at night. The combination of what seems like thousands of those strobes and the ability to see 50 miles every direction you look adds up to quite the spectacle.
Center pivot irrigation was also suggested on Reddit yesterday.Follow The Black Vault on Social Media: