NUFORC Sighting 168110

Occurred: 2022-05-24 21:00 Local
Reported: 2022-05-26 10:32 Pacific
Duration: approx 2 minutes
No of observers: 3

Location: INDIAN TRAIL, NC, USA
Location details: home looking SE object moved from North to south

Shape: Light


flame like light coming from single object with no sound

at approximately 9pm i observed a single odd orangish (flame like) light in the sky while traveling as the passenger in my family's car. we were entering our neighborhood and i first assumed this light to be a fireball meteorite or something that would burn out quickly. we turned away from the light and i lost sight of it as we proceeded to our house about a block away from the initial sighting. once we were parked i got out of the vehicle and walked to the end of the driveway to see if i could still see the object, hoping to show it to my daughter and husband. to my surprise the object was still present and headed in our direction. it was moving from the north to the south across the sky and was to the east of our viewing location. i called my husband and daughter over and both saw the same object. we are located near the monroe airport and are accustomed to seeing regular small aircraft traffic in the area following a similar flight pattern, but this object seemed too fast for one of these smaller aircraft and the nature of the light had a distinct flame like quality including an occasional flicker. we recorded an 8s video of the object moving through the sky on a cell phone, unfortunately the quality is not great. after observing the object for a total of probably a minute once we reached the house, the light rapidly faded. i was able to still distinguish the shape of the object that presumably was the source of the light and its path in the sky once the light was out, but it was very faint. at that point it appeared as a small dot reflecting ambient light. my best guess is that this was a rocket or a fireball meteorite, but the duration doesn't seem to match the fireball theory and i'm not sure that a rocket would have moved that horizontally through our viewing area. perhaps a plane or helicopter flying with a flare instead of the usual indicator lights or a piece of space debris re-entering the atmosphere at a much slower relative velocity to earth than a typical fireball? please contact by email if you'd like further information or have a good idea as to the identity of this object. thank you

Posted 2022-06-22

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