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Here's what those weird flashing lights over Denver were

Mystery solved!
Melissa Y. sent in this photo of the lights over Denver Saturday night (Photo: Melissa Y.)

We now know what those flashing white and red lights were that flew over Denver around 9 p.m. Saturday night.

The 9NEWS newsroom received well over a dozen phone calls, emails and messages about a series of single-file lights that flew over the Cherry Creek/Washington Park area of the metro.

We can now tell you that Saturday's light show was courtesy of a group of 17 C-17 cargo jets. According to our sister station WLTX, they took off from Joint Base Charleston base around 7 p.m. EST Saturday.

The large aircraft went cross-country to Nevada for a training exercise involving HALO drop--high altitude military parachuting. The exercise was done in coordination with multiple air military installations and groups, including the 82nd Airborne.

Before we knew for sure what the light show was, one viewer called to suggest it was UFOs. One said her son thought it was Santa's scout elves flying back to the North Pole -- much more creative solutions for what the answer turned out to be.

UPDATE: South Metro fire's spokesperson has a room camera on his home in Littleton - you can clearly see the lights moving at :10.

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