FARMINGTON – The Vermont Air National Guard was flying a training mission over Franklin County last Tuesday night, around the time people in Franklin County reported seeing spotted, odd lights in the sky.

“We had four F-16s in that area between 7 and 8 p.m.,” said Senior Airman Marie Endsley, with the 158th Fighter Wing based in Burlington, Vt. The fighter jets were flying no lower than 8,000 feet and were using flares, she said.

People from New Vineyard, Wilton, Phillips, Industry and around Mt. Abram called the Sheriff’s Department last Tuesday to report low-flying lights and an odd sound, dispatcher Bill Hoyt said last week.

But while Endsley’s report might explain some of what was seen, it apparently does not jibe entirely with the reports Hoyt received.

Dispatcher Aaron Gordon was on patrol in Jay and heard them come over the radio, he said Friday. “There were reports of what sounded like a jet, but not deep enough,” he said. “And there were several reports of a line of lights in the sky with no sound.”

“Flares would leave a trace behind them if they were falling,” Gordon said. “It doesn’t sound like it would have been flares to me, but who knows. It could’ve been, I guess.”

Gordon also referred to one caller who worked with jets, and said the lights were unlike anything he’d ever seen.

Others, though, said they looked like low-to-the-ground stars, Hoyt said last week.

Unidentifiable lights have been spotted over Franklin County numerous times over the past few years. Training missions in the air are a regular occurrence for the Vermont Air National Guard, and have been for years, Endsley said. “This isn’t anything new we’re doing,” she said.

People who thought they saw the lights closer to the ground than seven or 8,000 feet were probably mistaken, she said. While the F-16s do fly lower than 8,000 feet during the day, they never do at night, and flares burn out after falling about 1,000 feet, she said.

But the cold of the night often makes the engines sound louder than they are, she said. And as for the flares and the plane’s lights in the cold night sky, Endsley said, they still would have been pretty bright.