NUFORC Sighting 33186

Occurred: 2003-11-15 11:30 Local
Reported: 2003-11-17 10:05 Pacific
Duration:
No of observers: 3

Location: Coachella Valley, CA, USA

Shape: Light

Group of fuzzy, oval illuminations in the desert night sky

Three of us returning from late dinner at 11:30 on a cloudy night in the desert. What first appeared to be searchlights caught our attention. We watched for over 30 minutes as oval illuminations flew about in random paths. The first group contained first 4 then 5 and 6 and back to 4. They would bounce off of one another every so often, but mainly flew about in a limited area. Sometimes one would fly away from the others. It was very hard to determine the distance. At one point, a few flew below the cloud base but still appeard as an oval illumination, fuzzy rather than a well-defined light. Another, smaller group with 2, 3 then 4 appeard directly behind us and flew in the same random manner, often bouncing off of one or two at a time.

Made a few attempts to call police on the non-emergency line but kept getting a recording for the fire department. I decided to give up trying to contact them, thinking they would probably discount it anyway.

These were not searchlights because of the randomness of the flight paths and no beams appeared below. Also, searchlights do not bounce off of one another.

Posted 2003-11-26