NUFORC Sighting 09721

Occurred: 1970-08-01 21:30 Local - Approximate
Reported: 1999-09-13 00:00 Pacific
Duration: 3 min
No of observers: 3

Location: Palmdale, CA, USA

Shape: Cylinder
Characteristics: Left a trail, Emitted other objects

A flaming cylindrical object crossed the entire sky, north to south, in about 3 min.

3 of us were in the street in our neighborhood on a dark cloudless nite in Aug of 1970 (?) when we noticed a bright, red-orange-yellow flaming object crossing the sky. I first noticed it at about 40-60 degrees above the northern horizon progressing towards the south, straight overhead. There was no audible sound. It appeared to be a cylinder, but only flames were visible against the black background of the night sky. Pieces seemed to be falling behind burning up as if they were peeling off the sides of the cylinder. It's speed could be compared to a jetliner crossing the sky at 30,000 ft, but it gave me the impression of being much higher, as the flames seemed to be peeling off in slow-motion (indicating a very large object at high altitude), so we had time to consider following it in the car, as it appeared to be headed for an impact in San Gabriel mountains just south of town. There was no impact flash as it disappeared behind the mountains. It travelled in a straight line the entire time.

Posted 1999-10-02