Pilots reported mysterious lights 'dancing' over Yellowknife last month

An airline crew flying into Yellowknife a few weeks ago reported seeing some unidentified high-altitude lights near the airport — apparently leaving both the crew on board and air traffic controllers on the ground perplexed.

According to the federal aviation reporting system CADORS, the incident happened the night of Jan. 29 and involved a Canadian North flight en route to Yellowknife from Fort McMurray, Alta. It was logged to CADORS on Friday and first reported by Cabin Radio. 

The incident has come to light after a series of other incidents involving flying objects over North American airspace. 

U.S. military personnel shot down an alleged Chinese spy balloon that drifted across the continent earlier this month, and since then three more objects have been shot down, over Alaska, the Yukon, and around Lake Huron. The U.S. and Canada have not publicly identified the source of the three latter objects.

The Canadian North ATR 42-500 spotted "two lights 10 [nautical miles] northwest of the field," according to the report.

An audio recording captures the exchange between the flight's crew and ground control.

"Just wonder, do you got two planes that are just to the east of your field doing circuits or manoeuvres?" a crew member asks the controller.

The controller says there are no reported aircraft in the area.

"We're looking at two lights dancing around here," the crew member says.

The crew member describes the lights as being at a higher altitude than the plane. They're told that nothing's visible on radar by air traffic control.

"So I'm really wondering what you're seeing there," the controller says.

"Yeah, so are we," the crew member replies.

As the plane gets closer to Yellowknife, the crew says the lights are now visible about 10 to 20 miles northwest of the city.

"So far they're just lights that come in and out, but there's two of them there moving around, in a circular pattern," the pilot says.

The CADORS report logs the occurrence as "weather balloon, meteor, rocket, CIRVIS/UFO," with CIRVIS referring to Communication Instructions for Reporting Vital Intelligence Sightings.