NUFORC Sighting 06117

Occurred: 1999-04-05 16:00 Local - Approximate
Reported: 1999-04-08 00:00 Pacific
Duration: 14 seconds
No of observers: 1

Location: Chatham (Canada), ON, Canada

Shape: Unknown
Characteristics: Lights on object

Very Fast, 25000 feet, South to North, Silver, Flashing VERY BRIGHTLY 4-5 times per second, horizon to horizon in about 12 seconds

I had been observing contrails in almost clear blue sky. Some were round, going around the whole sky, I would say about30 miles across. These contrails stayed in sky about an hour, although there was high wind, indicated by fast moving small clouds at a lower level. At about 1600 hours I what I first thought to be an airplain come from the southern horizon at around 25000 feet. It crossed the entire sky in about 12 seconds, which would be a very fast rate of speed considering the height it was at. It appeared to be about the height of the contrails which were mentioned before, although they had disappeared by this time. It was hard to tell the shape because VERY BRIGHT flashes were coming from it at the rate of about 4-5 per second. The brightness of the flashes was MANY TIMES BRIGHTER than a strobe light or light on a plane, which would not have showed up because of the bright sunny sky. It was as though a mirror was aimed at the sun and reflected back to me. I might add that there are many commercial airlines flying over this area and the ones that fly over are almost all east to west (Detroit to Toronto) and take the usual 3 - 5 minutes to fly over at that altitude.

Posted 2000-12-02