NUFORC Sighting 40010

Occurred: 2004-10-27 19:35 Local
Reported: 2004-10-28 12:14 Pacific
Duration: +/- 3 minutes
No of observers: 1

Location: Fortuna, CA, USA

Shape: Fireball
Characteristics: Aura or haze around object, Emitted other objects

My wife and I saw a bright red-orange apparently burning object ejecting material as it transited 110 degrees of sky.

Through an east facing window, my wife and I saw a bright red-orange object coming up behind a hill to the ESE .We went out on our south-east facing deck which has an unobstructed 110 degree view of the sky. When the object cleared the trees we were suprised that there was no motor noise heard since we expected the object to be a low flying helicopter because of it's slow speed.

We watched for about three minutes as the object transited our section of sky. During that time we were impressed by the brightness of the object and that the intensity seemed to vary over time.The color was flame-like, and in fact at one point we thought that the object was a plane on fire.The shape could not be determined and the size seemed to be about a quarter to three-eights inch on a scale held at arms length. As the object approached the hill to the SW it began to coruscate and just before it disapeared it ejected a pieace or two of the same color material.

The sky was for the most part clear with low patchy clouds to the SW and high thin clouds in the area in which it disapeared behind a house and hill.

I am a retired photographer and for many years had an aerial mapping service. During that time I amassed over four thousand hours in the air flying in light planes. I have seen many strange things that I always have been able to explain, but this was unexplicable. It certainly could have been some space debris burning in the atmosphere, but I am surprised that at 10AM the following day, no mention was made in any press reports.

My wife Jenny, who was with me the whole time, assisted me in the preparation of this report.She is a retired nurse, and for the last ten years or so of her career, was a nursing supervisor with a group comprising twelve doctors and eighteen or so nurses.



NUFORC Note:

We spoke with this witness at length via telephone, and he sounded quite credible, and we assume that he is an exceptionally good witness. PD


Posted 2004-11-02

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