NUFORC Sighting 18384

Occurred: 2001-07-11 21:10 Local
Reported: 2001-07-12 00:00 Pacific
Duration: 20 minutes
No of observers: 15

Location: Vancouver (Canada), BC, Canada

Shape: Fireball
Characteristics: Left a trail

Meteor enters end exits the atmosphere!

Long white streak in the sky above where the sun had just set - became bigger and began to move downwards from a 2 0'clock position in the North-western sky. after about ten minutes it was moving faster and faster eventually revealling a very bright head at the bottom end of the streak - I then realized that the streak was actually the tail. At the height of the event, it was moving as fast as a jet across the sky and the head was very bright. Suddenly the streak (tail) disapeared and about a second later apearred on the opposite side of the head (in a 10'clock position). At that moment it stopped moving downwards and seemed to stay in a relatively stable position moving slightly upwards again in the distance. After this it just got smaller and smaller as it faded towards the horizon. All in all this occurred between 9:05 and 9:25 pm with the most dramatic part being about 30 seconds. VERY dramatic and bright - I was walking across the Granville st. bridge from work and myself, a co-worker and at least 15 other people stopped and stood viewing what was happenning. I phoned the news stations when I got home, but although they said they had recieved calls about it, without camera footage they did not care. In retrospect it seemed to have been a comet or meteor entering and exiting the atmosphere with the moment when the tail suddenly changed direction probably being the time when it was closest to the Earth (and land/water). Actually scared the #*!@ out of me during that moment because it was so bright and fast (and probably a HUGE object up there).

NUFORC Note:

NUFORC received a telephone call from a Vancouver, B.C., radio station, reporting that witnesses had reported the event to them, too. We have not idea what the witnesses observed, but our first guess would be a contrail from a high flying jet. However, the witnesses insist that they were not looking at a contrail. We do not know what caused this sighting report. PD

Posted 2001-08-05