NUFORC Sighting 69237

Occurred: 2009-03-17 00:00 Local
Reported: 2009-03-16 22:42 Pacific
Duration: 45 minutes
No of observers: 2

Location: Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Shape: Disk
Characteristics: Lights on object, Aura or haze around object

Multiple flying objects over Grand Rapids Michigan.

I went outside just before midnight, to smoke a cigarette and looked up at the stars and saw a formation of 5 golden lights speeding across the sky West/northwest. I stared in disbelief, then I saw two more reddish golden disks flying (one slightly behind the other) much lower and extremely fast. I started backpedaling and tapped on the window to the room where my fiance was and before she came out I saw five more heading northwest. By the time she came outside they were gone, but I just said, look at the stars...then bam, 3 more just flew West right then. We witnessed a few more flying west and then I called my parents (looking at my phone I believe it was 12:07 when I called my mom and I talked to her for 11 minutes about what I was seeing) My phone wasn't working first, but just as it finally started ringing and she answers, (she lives in Kalamazoo Michigan) two more flew over heading due west completely silent and extremely fast. I witnessed 3 more formations as I talked to her, but I started seeing so many, I lost count of how many were in which formation. Every formation was heading west or northwest, except one lone formation of 3 that traveled southeast. The whole time I was seeing them, I only saw one airplane with blinking lights and one helicopter which was extremely huge and loud (it was flying very low, so I could see it was like a Huey and had only red lights)...my fiance had went into the house to file a report and I stayed outside and kept seeing these things. At about 12:30am she came out and we called a number to report what we had seen, and two flew over very low and fast heading northwest. I talked to someone on the phone for 4 minutes, and the helicopter flew over during the call. then we tried to call the airport, but only got automated answers. I also was shocked when I witnessed a small flash and shower of sparks in the sky to the north. It looked as though something may have exploded.

These things were a goldish somewhat red color and traveled in formations of 2, 3, or 5. I lost count, but I saw at least 2 dozen. They were silent, extremely swift, and mostly stayed in very tight rigid formations, that were shaped like triangles, or an upside down check mark. Two or 3 of the formations were loose on one side, with the things weaving back and forth, while the other side of the formation stayed in a tight line. The lights DID NOT blink ever. The ones that were flying lower looked as though they had a ring of light golden light around them. They moved easily 10X faster than the airplane I saw to the north (which had blinking lights that were greenish) There wasn't a cloud in the sky, and I saw no moon. If I had to guess, I'd saw they were heading towards Muskegeon and Lake Michigan. I have NEVER seen anything like what I saw tonight. I have seen meteor showers, shooting stars, satellites, airplanes, helicopters, planets, and the MOON of course. I can't say what to use for a background, but the formations with 5 all had objects the size of stars and were flying much higher I believe. The lower flying formations which only had 2 or 3 objects were much larger than stars. Probably 4x the size of a star. These larger objects were moving incredibly fast. Even the smaller objects moved easily 10 times faster than the airplane to the north. We do not have any camera to take pictures. And these things were so fast and some of them were so high, I highly doubt anyone could capture them on film. It would just be a blurry mess I think. I hope someone has at least tried to capture them though. It was unlike anything I've ever witnessed in my life. When I witnessed the shower of sparks, I did not see any objects around it and it was to the north. It was around 12:30 when I saw it and my fiance just missed seeing it too as she was dialing a number for me and our house blocked her view.

This is all I have to say. I would suggest following up in Muskegeon and around Lake Michigan and the Gerald Ford airport here in Grand Rapids.... I hope someone else saw this besides us. It was so unique.

Posted 2009-03-19