Strange lights over the Thames estuary - December 21st evening

Had a peculiar experience I wanted to log properly, as it's been bothering me. December 21st, around 6:15pm, I was leaving work in Southend and noticed three steady white lights forming a triangle shape, moving very slowly above the estuary. They weren't aeroplanes - no blinking, no sound, and they moved too slowly to be conventional aircraft.

The lights held formation for a good two minutes, then one by one they just... dimmed out. No descent, no acceleration, just gone. The whole thing lasted maybe three minutes total. Weather was clear, visibility excellent, and I wasn't the only one watching - had several witnesses including a bloke who works in aviation.

I've checked the airport flight paths and there was nothing scheduled. Any similar reports from Essex recently?

I saw something similar near Clacton earlier in December! Three lights in formation that didn't behave like aircraft. I assumed it was some sort of drone or military thing, but the way they moved... honestly still not sure what I saw. If you get more sightings from that area, I'm keen to hear about them. The Thames estuary gets a lot of unusual activity.

They weren't aeroplanes - no blinking, no sound, and they moved too slowly to be conventional aircraft.

This is probably the winter solstice effect people talk about - the astronomical conditions are right for optical illusions around that time. Not being a sceptic, just saying lights doing weird things in the sky when the angles are off isn't automatically alien. But I'd still want to see the footage if you got any.

Did you manage to take any photos or video? Even on a mobile, might show something. The aviation bloke you mentioned - is he willing to comment officially? That could be useful for establishing credibility. Don't want to sound cold, but eyewitness accounts are better with corroboration.