Strange lights over Owensboro, Kentucky

[Calter]

Saw this post on reddit today, it's two videos of a strange light in the sky
First video is on the reddit post

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/UFOs/comments/1d1cfck/strange_lights_over_western_ky/

second video is on this dropbox
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/cj4p....mov?rlkey=h4mgw38lwjf791zxdwvmk5uol&e=1&dl=0

The second video has a second light but that's just a camera artifact/reflection and can be ignored.

The submission statement is

I was walking my dog two nights ago when I saw an incredibly bright white light in the sky and began filming it. It seemed unnatural to me. After the end of this video I walked my dog for a few more minutes and found a new spot and stopped and began filming again. In that video you can clearly observe it moving.

OP also states that

Filmed this while walking my dog two nights ago.

(Which could put it at 3 days ago considering this was posted 17 hours ago)

When asked if it could be a police chopper they replied with

I couldn't hear anything that sounded like a chopper. Also, my town is 60,000 people. I'm not sure we have a police chopper lol.

When asked

neat, was it that purplish in person? its got a strange slightly purple cast compared to your standard white LED to my eyes, but maybe its just the cloud cover or something.

OP replied

At the beginning it seemed pure white to me. When it began flashing it looked to be blue.

When asked if it could be a drone OP replies

The thing that really makes me think it's not a drone is the first video. If you watch closely, right before the bright light dims, there are secondary flashes of light to the bottom left of it. If it was a drone what causes those secondary flashes of light? Multiple drones?

(Which personally I'm not sure I see the secondary flashes they are talking about)

When asked for a height estimate they said this

It didn't appear to be very low to the ground but it was definitely below the clouds in the beginning. In the 2nd video it looked to be much higher up to my eye but it's hard to say.

Personally, I'd put my money on some sort of drone with a strong light and it looks very bright when the light is pointing to OP. But I don't really have that much experience with drones, so I'm interested in knowing what people here think.

 

[Ann K]

When asked if it could be a police chopper

I think that's a good guess, because in the first part of the video (where there are trees visible in the frame) it is conspicuously NOT moving. A chopper hovering with a bright light might also be for some non-police purpose like highway construction.

 

[Duke]

If the video was indeed shot over Owensboro (don't see that in anything posted other that the thread title), that's less than 100 airmiles north of Ft Campbell. Ft Campbell is home to the 101st Airborne and numerous supporting helicopter units, including the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, known as "The Nightstalkers." If anyone is skulking around Western KY with a helo/drone with nonstandard lights at night, that's the outfit I'd suspect.

The US Army owes its modern night-fighting aviation capabilities to the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne), headquartered at Ft. Campbell, KY. Originally formed from attachments of the 101st Airborne Division, after years of development, training and deployments it has become the world's most elite special operations night-operating aviation force. Employing heavily modified Chinook, Black Hawk, and assault and attack configurations of Little Bird helicopters and unmanned-aerial-systems, they are exceptionally well-trained and ready to accomplish the very toughest missions in all environments, anywhere in the world, day or night, with unparalleled precision.

https://www.nightstalkerfoundation.com/history

 

[JMartJr]

It reminds me a bit of the "landing light" on my son's new IR camera drone, which he is using to set up a roof inspecting business. If I can get vid of that, I'll share it. But it's basically a smaller and closer version of the helicopter hypothesis, I guess. An objection to both are "where are the flashy navigation lights?" but possibly there is a distance at which the really bright white searchlight/landing light is visible but the flashers are either too faint for the camera or lost in the glare.