Forum: General F-22A Raptor forum

Greetings fellow fighter [Link pending approval]

Last Sunday night I witnessed an event that has me [Link pending approval]

I'd say that I'm wasting my time by submitting this post but I will give it a try [Link pending approval]

Because of the warning 'sticky' about "unintentional" revelation of classified information I will keep my exact times and area [Link pending approval]

I live in Central Kentucky and have lived in this small rural town (population about 100) since 1997. Since then I have seen lots of military helicopters fly [Link pending approval] Chinooks, Black Hawks, Kiowas, even some UH1s, but I have never seen a military jet fighter fly over town until last Sunday.

I was sitting in my living room at night and heard a twin engine prop plane fly over, over my intercom. I thought this odd, since it was very bad weather, pouring down rain with lots of heavy wind and according to Lebanon-Springfield Airport's Automated Weather Observation Broadcast on [Link pending approval] the ceiling was 800 [Link pending approval] (I checked this on my Ham Radio after the sighting).
I didn't pay much attention to the prop-plane and assumed that it was probably a National Weather Service plane.

About 5 minutes after the twin engine prop plane flew over, I started to hear a jet over my intercom, which grew louder and [Link pending approval]

There is a flight route to my East which is full of [Link pending approval] planes flying into Louisville, Ky. about 11:00pm every night. They are an every night sight here. They fly out of the southeast, to the east of town and on in to Louisville.

I quickly realized that the jet I was hearing was MUCH louder than them and began to discern that it was a [Link pending approval] I jumped up and ran outside and saw a jet passing almost directly overhead UNDER the clouds and banking left. The jet was extremely loud and had already passed over. It was heading northwest and had just overflown my house.
When I say I "saw a jet" I mean that I saw 2 bright orange-white lights side by side moving away that were pulsating to a pink-ish color, tilted at about a 20 degree angle, heading northwest and hearing the distinct sound of a [Link pending approval]

The lights were bright and steady, clearly beneath the overcast cloud cover.

I am an avid fighter enthusiast and have witnessed many jet fighters many times. I will tell you that it's been a while since I've been to an airshow and that I have never before seen an F22 Raptor except on videos ([Link pending approval] ,Youtube [Link pending approval])

I am an Amateur Radio Operator and have monitored the 225 to 400 MHz Military Aircraft Band for many [Link pending approval]

I researched the lighting configuration of the aircraft I saw and as far as I can tell it was an F22 [Link pending approval] This Youtube vid closed the case for me.

In it three Raptors take off at night, the first two only have their Beacons on as visible from the rear, the third one has the steady "taillights" on with the beacons flashing in them. I am convinced that this is the exact lighting configuration that I witnessed, minus the afterburners' [Link pending approval]

[/url][Link pending approval][url]

What I'm curious about is why this fighter was over my town on a Sunday evening, in bad weather, and so far away from the nearest base which is either Ohio or Scott AFB in Illinois.

I suspect that the fighter was scrambled to intercept or investigate something, I don't think it was routine. Never saw one before.

What do you guys think???

[/url]

F-16.net Sponsor

The nearest Raptor base is in eastern Virginia. I would agree that that does NOT sound normal, however, there could very well be a new or less-used MTR through the area. Low-level night flying isn't what I'd expect of an F-22, however. Possibly a Strike Eagle (closest base is in NC), though.

Thanks for the reply! Smile

I thought maybe I had done a "no no" by posting this and was thinking about deleting it, since so many views and no replies.
I still think it's possible that the fighter may have just been flying from base to base and was forced to duck under the storm, especially since reading the posts about their ceiling limit because of their O2 problem. (If it was indeed, an F22 Raptor).
I still strongly suspect that the fighter was here for a reason. I find it hard to believe he was simply traveling from point to point when he was banking so hard, UNLESS the pilot was maneuvering around weather.
The video matches the lighting config. that I saw EXACTLY. I can find nothing else like it. If you know of a fighter that has a similar lighting config please let me know.

There is a definite MOA over my area since, as I said, I have seen TONS of Military helicopters since I have lived here.
Some fly over completely blacked out at low level and can only be seen with night vision. I've seen Black Hawks and Chinooks fly over very low blacked out with my 3rd gen NV pocket scope. I'm sure they are authorized to do low level exercises in my area. But as I said, I've NEVER seen a fighter over town. Thanks again for the reply, I thought the nearest Raptor base was Wright [Link pending approval]
On a side note it's sure good to know that there are F-15 Strike Eagles near my airspace, still ready to do their job! Smile

Forum: General F-22A Raptor forum

Possible Night Sighting of F-22 over Kentucky