Occurred: 2006-08-23 15:00 Local
Reported: 2006-08-29 22:14 Pacific
Duration: 1 minute +
No of observers: 1

Location: Hollywood, CA, USA

Shape: Oval
Characteristics: Lights on object, Aircraft nearby

Black, flashing oval flying and then vanishing over Los Angeles.

I was outside taking a break from my work place and standing by the parking lot facing south / south-west. From this vantage, I regularly see distant aircraft on their approach or take off from LAX. This time I saw an elliptical object about 40 to 45 degrees above horizon level. What got my attention was that this object was black, or at least some really dark color that looked black.

The day was pretty clear, as in very little haze or smog as well as very little wind. The black object was moving in a steady line from left to right. It was difficult to tell the speed, since it was difficult to tell the distance. However, I do believe it was at least a mile away if not farther. There is another building several yards across the parking lot, so I could not get any distant reference. It did seem like it’s size would be of a large helicopter (maybe a little smaller than a Chinook, but bigger than a corporate Bell) and it’s speed would’ve been comparable at that distance. At first glance this is what I thought it might be since I couldn’t think of any other type of aircraft which would be so black and not looking like a plane.

What changed my mind was it’s sudden flash of white light. At first I thought it was a reflection of it’s surface from the sun – something I see often from other planes out of LAX. The light was very brilliant white like a large star in the bright, clear blue sky. After about 6-8 seconds, it flashed again. This I thought was very odd, since the reflection off the sun should only happen once unless the object reversed which of course which it did not. After another 6-8 seconds it flashed again. The “shape” of the flash outside of the flare and halo, seemed to be square-ish, as in having right angles. Like that of a light reflecting off a flat mirror or glass. The light was also large and seemed to cover at least half of the object -- the right half from my POV. The reason I’m able to tell you the details of the light is only because it continued to flash in what seemed regular intervals. This was the second most outstanding thing, because at that point, I walked to the middle of the parking lot trying to figure out how the flashes were possible. The light was brilliant and large – nothing like I’ve seen from any aircraft. If it was the sun’s reflection, then the only thing I could think of that would cause regular-interval flashes would be if the black object was rotating in some fashion catching the sun’s rays in each rotation.

If it had continued on it’s way and I lost sight of it, I probably would not have sent this report in, since I have never seen what I would consider a UFO before even though I had been interested in the phenomena.

The reason I am reporting this is because of the most outstanding point of the event: with the last flash, maybe the 6th or 8th, the black object disappeared. Simply vanished. I actually laughed at this because it went against normal reality. When I was watching the object, I was trying to make sense of it: a mylar balloon, or something highly reflective. I've never seen or heard of a highly reflective balloon that was that large and black and traveling in a nearly horizontal fashion at that relatively low altitude. But not even a balloon simply vanishes from one second to the next. I scanned the nearby sky around it and stood there for another five minutes, but never saw it again. I could not make out any trail or debris, or anyting. The black flashing oval was unique enough, but to have it disappear completely is truly something I can’t explain.

There was only one person I saw walking down the parking lot at that time and he obviously was unaware of anything. By the way, my background is in photography as well as film (cinema.) I also took a flying course in Colorado when I was younger. I believe I am highly aware of what many types of aircraft, from large and small planes to helicopters and blimps look like. Especially living in Los Angeles, we have all of that traffic in the sky. I am also quite familiar to atmospheric distortion and light conditions, so I don’t think I was seeing something that could easily be explained away.

Thank you for this opportunity for me to report.

Posted 2006-10-30

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