NUFORC Sighting 04667

Occurred: 1998-10-24 17:00 Local
Reported: 1998-10-27 00:00 Pacific
Duration: 30 minutes
No of observers: 7

Location: Wilmington, NC, USA

Shape: Sphere
Characteristics: Aura or haze around object

Approx 1 hour before dusk, 7 chrome-colored spheres appeared in the north/northwest sky. The objects didn't appear to be balloons and were definitely not aircraft.

The objects seemed to move independent of each other but at times did move together. They appeared to hover (or hang) in the sky, which led the observers to believe that the objects weren't aircraft. Balloons were ruled out because no one in our area has a hot air balloon and we've never heard of 7 weather balloons being launched at the same time. The objects eventually moved due east, heading out over the ocean. One of the observers managed to videotape the sighting and when he asked his neighbors for their thoughts (they witnessed it as well), they had no idea as to its origin either. Although the observers watched the object by eye and with binoculars for close to 30 minutes, it was nearly impossible to detect any specific features on the objects. For what it's worth, we typically do not have a lot of helicopter activity in our area. But strangely enough, three days later, one twin-rotor (apparently military-green) and one black high-tech-looking Huey-shaped helicopter circled the same area most of the afternoon until dark.

Posted 1998-11-01