I have mixed feelings about ufo's.....
It's mathematically improbable that we are the only life in the universe, and if we aren't the only life in the universe, well, what, makes Earth such an interesting destination?
As of 2013, there's daily reports and pictures of mostly orange orbs, fireballs, stars and other generally round objects, mostly slowly moving. Eventually winking out or zipping away.
As a pilot, I tend to look up at the sky a lot and probably see more than most. I've seen 4 "things" that I can def say that are things I can't identify.
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Occurred : Saturday night, 9/22/2012 19:46
(Entered as : 09/22/12 19:46) Reported: 9/23/2012 3:30:17 PM 15:30 Posted: 9/24/2012 Location: Petaluma, CA Shape: Light Duration:5 minutes http://www.nuforc.org/webreports/093/S93021.html |
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7-8 twinkling orangish-reddish starlike lights,
starting at low altitude-climbing to 5k-10k and
wink out Petaluma Sonoma county California Sept 22, 2012 7:46pm My girlfriend and I were traveling south on 101, just past the truck pull off area on the hill between Petaluma and Rohnert Park just after dark. On the Petaluma side, we pulled off the highway and stopped, facing in a southerly direction. Red Honda Civic in case anybody saw us on the side of the highway. We had seen 5 "glistening", orangish lights, in a generally straight line and roughly equidistant. Starting low in the west, slowly traveling east and ascending. They were a light, muddy red color, visually 2-3x larger than a planet in the sky and noticeably twinkling. Twinkling too much for a star or planet. They were at a relatively low altitude. If I have my distances right, they were larger than a small plane by a factor of 2-3. When we first noticed them, the furthest away and lowest light was to our right and just above the hills on the coast hills on the west side of the north Petaluma farmland, about 6 miles away, perhaps near and above the Two Rock Coast Guard station/Tracon Petaluma (707) 765-7000. Maybe that last one that appeared above Two Rock at 500-1000 ft above the ground. The closest light to us was to our south, in front of us and much higher than the ones to the west. Initially, the 5 lights were equally spread out, from just above the hills to the west to maybe 5,000 ft high, in front of us. Then, 3 formed a loose group up high in front of us and winked out. The other 2 traveled towards where the loose group was and winked out, one by one, at maybe 5000 to 10,000 ft. They stayed about the same size, maybe a little larger as they traveled from our right, to right ahead of and above us. After the first 3 disappeared and the other two started traveling in the same direction, 2-3 other new identical "lights" winked into existence low over the hills to our right, roughly equally spaced and followed the others to the same general area and winked out. After the 5 had winked out, the other 2 moved in that same direction and another light appeared to the west, just above the hills and started making it's way to the "winkout" area. After it had made it about 1/2 way, a final 7th light winked into existence in the same initial location, over the hills as the others and hurried up to catch up to the 6th. We tried to call Petaluma Coast Guard Tracon. Not open. It wasn't airplanes or helicopters - no red beacon or red/green nav lights. They moved too quickly to be balloons and too slow for jets and who ever heard of jets forming a sloppy 3 unit group in 6 miles? No matter which direction these objects were traveling (it seemed that their direction varied slightly), their brightness remained twinkling but consistent. The surface winds were light on the ground and from the west. It wasn't high altitude objects with the setting sun reflecting on it, because we were on the wrong side of the object for a reflection. The objects were to far away to hear if they made any sound. Literally, 300-500 people must have passed us on the highway. Accompanying is a Google Earth kmz file showing where we were stopped on the highway and aprox. where we determined that the objects appeared to the west. link: http://productforums.google.com/forum/embed/#!topic/gec-member-centric-locations/eHPns25wmsM |
Occurred :
9/17/2000 16:00 (Entered as : 09/17/00 16:00)
Reported: 1/14/2008 6:25:46 PM 18:25
Posted: 1/21/2008
Location: San Francisco, CA
Shape: Light
Duration:30-45
minutes 3
intensely bright, very small points of light, high in the sky, unmoving for at
least 30-45 minutes
It was my niece's birthday party. We were at San Quentin village on the little
beach. I looked up into perfectly clear blue sky and happened to see 3, very
small points of brilliant white light.
The lower 2 seemed to be one over the other and the top light was equidistant
from the other 2, but to the left, about 15 degrees. The 3 lights were "joined"
by 2 very thin, black lines.
I asked my brother if he saw anything up in the sky, without showing him and he
described what I saw. He described what I was seeing.
I then went over to my 21 y/o niece, and without describing to her what I saw,
asked her. She described the same lights.
The 3 lights were due south of San Quentin Prison, and possibly directly high
over San Francisco.
It wasn't possible to estimate the distance - but they were, as best I could
tell (I triangulated with a tree branch) motionless over the city (or at least
in that direction).
There was an air show down in South Bay that day and 2 military jets did do a
low pass over us a bit of time before we saw the 3 lights.
We saw the 3 lights for 30 to 45 minutes and then as my brother and I were
watching, they seemed to flit up to the right and disappear.
They left no vapor trails. Their light was almost lazer-like, pure white,
dazzling and just a pinpoint with some slight "flaring".
I am also a pilot and can state that it wasn't a satellite, a plane, a balloon
or blimp.
About a year later, I was talking to my sister-in-law's brother - and he
recounted that he, from the San Jose area in the South Bay, was working on his
house on the weekend and also had seen a series of, what he proceeded to
describe, as the same type of lights and about the same time of the year. He
described them as motionless and "over San Francisco". So, if they were the same
lights, We both, from different locations, saw them over San Francisco. He
is a pilot, also.
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Occurred : 12/23/2008 18:30 (Entered as :
12/23/08. 18:30)
Reported: 1/5/2009 11:02:38 AM 11:02
Posted: 1/10/2009
Location: Vallejo/Napa, CA
Shape: Lights
Duration:10-15 minutes,
2 bright lights at
night at about 1000-1200ft over Vallejo and Napa, Solano county. Slowly moving
to the east.
Long Description of Sighting Report It was dark and clear below 1500ft. Overcast
above.
As I was driving east on Hwy 37, past Skaggs Island, about 3-5 miles west of
Vallejo, I saw two very bright, white lights in the sky.
At first, they appeared to be two landing lights from a larger airplane. I
didn't pay too much attention to them, I just noted that it looked like an
airplane, going in the same general direction as a "right downwind" for runway 6
at Napa Airport (KAPC). If it was a private jet in the pattern, they'd be at
~1200 ft - and that's about what it looked like.
I did start to notice that the "airplane" seemed to be "downwind" longer than
normal, as it didn't turn right, to base, as it should have done - so, I started
watching it more closely. The lights now seemed to be far too widely spaced for
2 landing lights on one aircraft.
Maybe it was a helicopter? But, a helicopter doesn't have widely spaced "landing
lights". Maybe it was a helicopter with an advertising grid below, with 2 large
lights? It seemed odd to me - since I'd never seen a helicopter with a lighted
advertising display. Maybe 2 helicopters with Night Sun search lights
pointed at me? That would be weird. It wasn't helicopters or an airplane or
night flying hang gliders.
Then, the two lights, that were level, seemed to bank and turn left, towards
Vallejo (to my right, as it had seemed to be heading towards me).
What was odd, is that the two very bright lights, didn't change in intensity.
"Landing lights" and search lights are "directional". If they aren't pointed at
you, they, basically, go dark as far as you are concerned. Because I could see
that the "lights" were turning east, and weren't pointed towards me and still
stayed brilliant and dazzling, It was not possible that they were directional
landing lights and were, instead a non-directional light source.
I'm a licensed pilot with quite a bit of night flying experience - and being
based up north of San Francisco Airport, you can watch the landing lights of the
passenger jets take off at night and watch them wink out as the jet makes it's
turn after takeoff. These lights did not wink out as they changed direction away
from me.
So, when this "thing's" right side light seemed to drop, and it seemed to turn
"left" (my right), back southeast(ish) towards central Vallejo, it really stood
out that the 2 lights didn't change in intensity at all. That would infer a
non-directional light - and that wouldn't be on an airplane - as a
non-directional light that bright, would blind the pilot's vision. Then, as it
seemed to still be at about 1000-1200 ft, I saw a string of 7-8 dimmer lights
tying the two bright lights together.
What was odd, and different from my first impression, was that the right side
bright light stayed ~30 degrees lower than the upper left light (as if "it" was
still banking) - but, the two lights stayed offset and the pair of bright lights
(and the 7-8 dimmer lights connecting them) began obviously traveling east, at,
I'd guess, at 40-50 mph. (as in def not 10-20 and def not 60-70) It wasn't
turning anymore, it was traveling east over Hwy 80 up the Auto Mall "valley" -
still with the two lights offset in height. All below 1500ft.
I'd been watching it over the Napa River Bridge, through Vallejo (on 37), past 6
Flags Amusement park.
I lost sight of it while taking the 37 / 80 west offramp. behind the overpass. I
caught a brief glance of it looking backwards on 80 - Then I couldn't see the
7-8 dimmer lights between the 2 bright lights, but traffic was a bit hectic
there.
I took the first offramp and doubled back on Admiral Callaghan, I couldn't see
it, but caught a momentary glimpse of a very brightly lit area behind a rocky
deposit 800-900 ft up on the valley ridge, right about at the Target store
shopping center.
I'd guess that it was 80% to 90% of the way to the top of the hills (I could see
the outline of the ridgeline). The lighted spot was reflected light, and I
couldn't see any particular point of light, just a *very* brightly lighted area
50 to 100 ft wide up near the ridge.
I lost direct line of sight behind the auto dealers and when I got to the top of
Admiral Callaghan, I couldn't see the light on the hill anymore.
I went down to Auto Mall Parkway, turned right and kept looking up to find the
lights again.
Nothing.
In recreating my initial view, what I first had thought was "downwind" on Rwy 6
at KAPC, was wrong. The lights were over the northern edges of the town of
Vallejo, a few miles south of the airport, about inline with the Napa / Solano
county borders.
I'm 100% sure of the 2 non-directional lights, the 7-8 dimmer lights and the
slow speed, the altitude and the light on the hillside. No smoke, no flicker, no
pulsation.
On January 4th, at about 6pm, I called the FAA tower at KAPC and asked the
controller if they had had any other sighting reports on the 23rd. He didn't,
and he checked with the controller on duty that night, and he didn't see
anything, either. The lights would have been to the south of the tower, behind
the controller's visual operating area (runways are north of the tower).
Duration of observation, about 10 - 12 minutes.
If someone else describes a similar sighting, feel free to contact me.
Marc Salvisberg
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Occurred : 9/29/2004 22:00
(Entered as : 09/29/04 22:00) Reported: 10/5/2009 10:54:27 AM 10:54 Posted: 12/12/2009 Location: Santa Rosa / Novato, CA Shape: Oval Duration: 2-3 seconds |
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Luminescent blue "lozenge" flew
across nose of airplane at night. 6-8 feet long,
4-5 feet wide and 18" to 24" thick. Santa Rosa /
Novato, CA September 29, 2004 (from FAA logbook entry) Occurred during a night flight, as pilot, aircraft: PA-28-140. Night. Approximately 10pm, 6500ft, west of Santa Rosa (KSTS), over the coast - unlimited visibility, had just looked west for jets, east for jets, south for jets, listening to Oakland Center. All quiet. Suddenly, BIG BLUE LIGHT at my 10 o'clock, flashing past the nose and off out over the ocean to my 2 o'clock. 2-3 seconds total. Instinctually, I slammed the yoke forward and turned hard right. At the same time I thought... I just looked and there was nothing to the east? HOW could I could have missed a jet's landing light? Why is there a jet at 6500 feet traveling west here? (it's not on any flight path that I know of) It's too late to "dive" out of the way, I'm going to get hit by turbulence no matter what..... then, I didn't get physically hit? Hey, if it's a landing light, how can I could still see it as it winked out over the ocean? This made no sense. On first impression, a jet and the bright light I saw was the landing light - then thinking about it, No - it couldn't be a landing light - I could see it as it went away from me. A meteor, A luminescent blue meteor? But, it didn't "get dim" over the ocean, it just "winked out". making me think: no smoke trail. How could it be a meteor? I couldn't figure out exactly how close it was - but, it appeared at my 10 o'clock and went over the ocean at about my 2 o'clock - and it was only visible for 2-3 seconds. So - it had to be darned close. If I had to guess, less than 100-200 feet. Maybe 6 to 10 feet long, 4-5 feet wide and 1-2 feet thick. Or maybe 100 feet and it would be a bit smaller. No wind turbulence, no sound. Weirdest thing I've seen. I can't help thinking that some ET teenager swiped the keys to the saucer when the parents were out and went out with his buddy's for a night of ET style "cow tipping"...... btw: I was so shocked that I couldn't talk enough to call Oakland Center (ZOA)....... |