NUFORC Sighting 14053

Occurred: 2000-09-09 03:30 Local
Reported: 2000-09-09 00:00 Pacific
Duration: 3-5 seconds
No of observers: 1

Location: Philadelphia, PA, USA

Shape: Changing
Characteristics: Left a trail

A bright flash seen in the sky facing west, 60 degrees above the horizon, heading downward from right to left, leaving a trail.

I was standing outside on the porch of the home where I work as a night shift private duty nurse. I was facing approximately north when the entire surrounding area lit up brightly for several seconds. I began looking toward the garage to my left on the property to see if a spotlight had been turned on. While turning, I noticed a bright light coming from high up shining through a tree in the yard. I stepped to my left to see the light without the tree being in the way. I was facing approximately west. At about sixty degrees above the horizon, I could see a bright trail angled down from right to left terminating in a bright mass. When I held my hand at arm's length, the length of the mass and tail together was roughly that of my index finger. Within a few seconds, the light from the object had faded. I did not notice any smoke remaining after the flash faded. My first thought was that perhaps it was an exceptionally large meteorite. I have seen numerous meteorites in my lifetime, but have never seen anything light up my surroundings like this did. I then wondered if it might have been an Iridium satellite deorbiting. The thought that there was a space shuttle mission recently launched to the international space station made me wonder if there could have been an accident associated with that, although the notion clearly seemed like a stretch of the imagination. I decided to report the object to the National UFO Reporting Center in hopes of perhaps finding a means of identifying what I had seen.

Posted 2000-09-17

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