NUFORC Sighting 89760

Occurred: 2011-07-04 22:35 Local
Reported: 2012-06-21 00:03 Pacific
Duration: 5 minutes
No of observers: 2

Location: Newport, OR, USA

Shape: Light

One bright red light, not flashing, traveled from north to south about 1,000 ft above us.

It was the night of the 4th of July, 2011 in Newport, Oregon, along the Central Oregon Coast. My friends and I were on my boat, moored at the marina, watching the fireworks display over Yaquina Bay. The display ended around 10:30 pm. I noticed a bright, solitary red light in the sky to the north. It was traveling north to south, directly towards us, and I believed it to be an airplane; except the light was not flashing, and was much larger than lights on a plane.

I watched the light for about a minute, waiting to see flashing or other colors with it. But there were no other lights or colors. I pointed it out to one of my friends who had remained after the fireworks display.

He and I watched this bright red light coming in our direction for about two minutes, trying to determine what it might be. We considered it was probably a light from a Coast Guard helicopter. That wasn’t the case. Within about four minutes of first noticing the light, it was finally directly overhead, at an altitude of about 1,000 feet. We then knew it was not an airplane, or a helicopter. It made no sound whatsoever. It appeared to be traveling faster than any plane that would have been flying overhead.

Almost immediately after it passed us, the light became smaller and dimmer, appearing to be less than half the original size. It seemed to be traveling more than twice as fast once it was south of us, than when it was coming towards us. Within about 20 seconds after passing over us, the light seemed to shrink until it was completely gone. We have no idea what was generating that bright red light thatwe were watching for almost five minutes.

Posted 2012-07-04