NUFORC Sighting 23744

Occurred: 2002-07-13 01:30 Local
Reported: 2002-07-13 11:03 Pacific
Duration: 02:10
No of observers: 3

Location: Vancouver (Canada), BC, Canada

Shape: Fireball
Characteristics: Left a trail, Landed

8-15 fireballs seen moving at different speeds, mostly landing (probably) in water, one exploded

3 people saw from 8 to 15 brightly glowing fireballs in the northern sky of the west end of Vancouver, BC, Canada. Most of them were descending towards the water behind a mountain, some fairly quickly, but some extremely slowly. One moved in a zig-zag pattern. All of these fireballs left behind trails of smoke, but the 3 of us cannot agree whether it was dark or light smoke.

Most of the object appeared fairly high in the sky and descended, however, a few were seen moving upwards from ground level, and one moved up from the ground, then descended again, towards solid ground, and then shot up bright sparks and a plume of white smoke.

The objects may have been shaped like discs seen edge-on, or possibly like shooting stars, only moving very slowly. They may also have been spherical, we were quite far away, and using binoculars, so we didn't see them very well.

The objects were quite bright, and when they fell behind the mountain, some of them produced enough orange glow to light up the sky in the area where they fell.

The objects may have been flickering or flashing, but this may also have been a dust effect due to our distance.

In the beginning, one of us suggested that they might be forest fires, but we soon disproved that - forest fires do not start so high in the air, and do not land in the water.

Posted 2002-07-26