Pilots aboard a Canadian North airline flight bound for Yellowknife spotted “two white lights” dancing in a circular pattern some 10 nautical miles northwest of the Yellowknife airport but couldn’t identify them. Meanwhile, an air traffic controller couldn’t see the objects on radar.
The ATR 42-500 charter that departed from Fort McMurray, Alberta, sighted the lights when approaching its destination in the Northwest Territories capital city late at night on Jan. 29 at 11:15 p.m. local time.
The air traffic controller replies: “Negative. I have no reported traffic in the area. Do you have a visual on something?”
The crew member replies, “We are not seeing them on TCAS [traffic alert and collision avoidance system], but we can see the lights moving around.”
The air traffic controller continues to respond in the negative.
“I don’t have anything on the radar either. Let me talk to centre,” he said. The “centre” likely referred to what’s known as an area control centre that is responsible for controlling aircraft flying in a certain airspace.
The air traffic controller came back to the radio momentarily, saying that the centre also didn’t capture “anything about any movement in the area. So I’m really wondering what you’re seeing there.”
The pilots noted that the dancing lights “are not a risk” to the flight.
“We just want to know what it was, if you guys have a pin on the radar,” the crew said.
“No, we got nothing. That’s quite strange,” the controller responded.
The controller said he would file a CIRVIS report, short for “Communication Instructions for Reporting Vital Intelligence Sightings.”
The document says events that require CIRVIS reports include “unidentified flying objects.” Other examples are submarines or surface warships identified as being non-Canadian or non-American, violent explosions, and “unexplained or other unusual activity, including the presence of unidentified or suspicious ground parties in Polar regions.”
“We’re not crazy,” the Canadian North crew member said near the end of the audio recording.
“No, we believe you,” the controller replied.