NUFORC Sighting 29809

Occurred: 2003-07-19 00:50 Local
Reported: 2003-07-19 10:59 Pacific
Duration: 15 - 20 minutes
No of observers: 2

Location: Barra da Tijuca (Rio de Janeiro) (Brazil), , Brazil

Shape: Other
Characteristics: Lights on object, Emitted other objects, Changed Colo

lights came out of the bottom and evenly fanned out toward the ground in rows like the tines of a fork

I am an American living in Barra da Tijuca in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I've lived here two years and have spent lots of time viewing the stars from my patio on the top floor of a four story apartment building. My apartment is in the Jardin Oceanico neighborhood (front) of Barra, one block from the beach, facing the Pedra de Gavea mountain. I do not know what I saw and venture no theories, however, when surfing the net this morning to see if others saw it, I came across the report of another similar sighting in Barra that occured appx a week ago and decided only then to go on record. I have never seen or reported any weird occurrences in the past, nor do I have any strong opinion as to whether the aliens that must surely be out there in the vast universe, spend there time buzzing the earth trying to freak us out.

Last night around 12:45a.m. after a bath and reading (ate at home, drank no booze or imbibed any other mind-influincing substances), I was getting ready to go to bed when I noticed it was unusually bright outside. The moon was about half full and coming up on the right side of the mountain. It is winter here and the night was beautiful with a clear view of the mountain, so I went outside to enjoy. I immediately noticed an area about the size of a helicopter with lots of white blinking lights (strobe-like with no real pattern)and some non-blinking red colors mixed in that seemed to be fairly close, right above the mountain. There are a lot of helicopters flying here all the time (the police patrol use large search lights to scan the ground and condos), so I assumed that's what it was and looked toward the beach enjoying the view. When I looked back, the lights seemed to be coming closer as they were getting larger. I was thinking it was just a helicopter flying erratically, although I heard no noise. All of a sudden a bunch of , perhaps six or so of them. It looked like some sort of fireworks display. They floated down slowly leaving straight trails of white light. (just like fireworks do) My husband was sleeping and my 16 year old daughter was IM'ing friends back home. I ran to my daughter's room and finally got her off the computer long enough to come look, and when we got back outside, the leading edge of some of the rows were still visibly and very bright white as they went out of sight behind some condos in front of the mountain. (looked like maybe some small pieces of wreckage, very hot, white coming to earth and not burning out before hitting the ground) However, the flashing lights were still in the sky, in the same spot but not as bright. There are fireworks here all the time and at any time of the night and my daughter was like 'big deal, more fireworks' and headed back to her computer. I sat down and watched the flashing lights, and they seemed to get farther away and not as bright fairly quickly. Then they started to get bright again. That's when I finally realized it wasn't a helicopter and got excited. Should I wake my husband? Should I not? When the lights got brighter and seemed to be right above the mountain where the other display occured, the flashing started to alternate between a very bright white strobe and lesser bright white strobe still with no identifiable pattern, I ran inside for my husband. I ran back outside screaming for him to hurry up.

During this time, the lights were very bright white and seemed close with some red and now green. (The red and green never seemed to be actual lights but more like the light that would be given off by red and green lights) Appx. five or six separate bright, same sized, green with some white lights broke off in a sort of bow shape and maintaining that shape, started very slowly floating down to earth (except the original light which was whiteish green and not as bright, but in the same place). Unlike the first occurrence, the green lights started to fade sooner as they went down. By the time my husband got outside, there were 2 or 3 green light trails floating down and the original in the same place. The green light trails faded before hitting ground and the original, blinking more bright white again with a faint reddish seemed to get farther away but remained in the sky for about ten more minutes getting progressively fainter until it disappeared.

My husband was outside for an additional 10 - 15 minutes after he saw the 2 - 3 green lights falling and also observed the odd strobe-like flashing, the odd way it seemed to sit in the same place for long periods of time and the gradual disappearance (fading) into the sky.(at points, it looked like a large, medium, small red star) At times it seemed to be coming back and the stobe effect would be visible again and then it would fade. As it seemed to get further away and mostly invisible, my husband and I thought we saw something very dark and faint falling behind the mountain. (like a large piece or several tightly packed smaller pieces of debris) However, this could easily have been a shadow of something as there are lots of street light, cars, planes, helicopters (although I didn't see any flying during the event), etc.

I kept checking back every 15 minutes for about 3 hours to see if would reappear and it never did. Never during this entire episode did I feel scared, threatened, nervous or as if I were being singled out in any way. This was all happening for anyone to see. I only felt excited and puzzled as to what it was. I am still expecting to find some logical explanation on the internet.

***While writing this, I use 'bright' and 'close', 'faint' and 'farther' away interchangably.



Posted 2003-07-23

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