NUFORC Sighting 88556

Occurred: 2012-04-20 21:33 Local
Reported: 2012-04-21 01:47 Pacific
Duration: 8 seconds
No of observers: 4

Location: Lake Elsinore, CA, USA

Shape: Chevron
Characteristics: Lights on object

Large, dark, triangular winged object with numerous small dim lights, silently floated by us.

I have seen many meteors, fireballs, aircraft in my 56 years, but have never seen what I would call a UFO until tonight. I am a high school teacher.

5 of us were sitting in my friend's (a middle school teacher) back yard around a small gas, fire pit from 9:00PM pacific time until about 11:00PM. I looked up at the sky (clear, star filled- the moon had just gone down) and noticed what looked like a dark, winged object floating by low in the horizon, but just above the backyard trees.

At first I thought it was large bird, like an owl (we have white owls that I've seen at night many times) but quickly realized it was much too big (and too dark) to be an owl or even a large hawk. It took about a second to realize what the scale of it was and to notice dim but numerous lights all along the wings. The wings appeared to be curling, or slightly flapping but seemed obvious that it was mechanical now.

I pointed and said "Look at the UFO." Everyone turned to look and were all amazed at what we saw. I got up to see it a few more seconds before it disapeared. 3 of the others saw it and the one who had his back to it and was a little more behind the tree didn't. I probably saw it for 7 or 8 seconds. The others for 3 or 4 seconds. It didn't seem to be traveling extremely fast (unless it was high), but the angle of view and the trees eventually obscured it. But it actually seemed to just disapear to me. It was traveling close to due north, maybe slightly west as well.

It was hard to get a scale on it. If I had to guess, I'd say it was about the size of a B-2 bomber or up to a B-52 bomber with swept back wings. I only saw wings, nothing sticking out the front or back. The wife of the other teacher (she works for a car dealership) said it looked like a dragon from Harry Potter with no head or tail. Most of us thought we saw the wings moving. But the soft, diffused lighting on it (small spots of diffused lights, mostly on the edges of the wings) definitely showed it to be mechanical. It was completely silent. That was an eerie part to all of us.

It was either large airplane size, and about one or two thousand feet up, or gigantic, and far away. All four of us agreed that we had never seen anything like it.

Posted 2012-05-13

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