NUFORC Sighting 71192

Occurred: 2009-07-18 22:47 Local
Reported: 2009-07-20 13:28 Pacific
Duration: 17 minutes
No of observers: 3

Location: Escondido, CA, USA

Shape: Flash
Characteristics: Lights on object, Changed Colo

color changing flashes fly from southeast of Escondido to overhead then change direction and disappears.

I was looking to the Southeast skies from the driveway of my house. The moon was not yet showing and there were no clouds in the sky. I saw a brightly lit object in the sky several finger widths above the horizon and wondered which planet it was since it was too large to be a star or if I was actually seeing a satellite or the space station. To the right of the object I saw what I thought was a plane flashing a very intense green navigation light. I say intense because it was “starring”. As I watched it, the green flashing changed in color and flashing pattern. The color changed from a light green through the color spectrum to a purple between flashes or it glowed a few seconds changing colors. The flashing pattern wasn't steady. I studied the object several minutes perceiving that its flight path was stalling, then changing course by several degrees, then correcting to its original course. To make sure I wasn’t seeing things I went inside to ask my brother in law to look at it as well. I thought I was seriously seeing things. As he came outside it was still very high in altitude but closer to us. We both stood in my driveway looking at the object continue to change: color, light intensity, speed, and minute direction. Its general course was to the Northwest. At this time we had been watching it for 9 minutes and it was just past directly overhead. I was expecting to see the red navigation light or an anti-collision light but there weren’t any. It stopped and hovered at a very high altitude for several minutes. About this time a neighbor was coming outside to get in his car and drive somewhere. He paused for a moment looking at my bother in law am I staring at the sky above us. Then he looked up through his windshield and promptly rolled down his window asking us what that was that we all were looking at. He said, "I don’t think it’s a plane." To which we both said, "Not sure yet, but it could be."

As we said that it started moving directly to the south. It didn’t make a rolling turn. There was no normal aircraft movement in that you would normally see. Even a fast break with speed flaps does not turn 140 degrees to the left instantly. It continued on the southern course and a much faster rate of speed and appeared to be getting smaller. Then it suddenly disappeared or stopped flashing. As it did so, the stars in the area started to all blink in unison. They blinked like this for several minutes then did the normal blinking from atmospheric condition if you will.

I have a background in military aviation maintenance and as a flight observer on helicopters. I have flown over 450 hours of night flights both aided and unaided. I was a weapons instructor for 2 years. Currently I work for a civil aviation company that designs and sells UAV’s.

My brother in law has a background in computer repair and networking.

Posted 2009-08-05