NUFORC Sighting 25497

Occurred: 2002-09-23 01:00 Local
Reported: 2002-10-09 23:45 Pacific
Duration: 16 minutes
No of observers: 1

Location: London (UK/England), , United Kingdom

Shape: Triangle
Characteristics: Lights on object, Aircraft nearby

Bright light and triangle over London, 23rd September 02, 1am

23rd Sept 2002, at 1am I was talking to a friend on the computer, I have a solid wood and leather chair. I felt vibrations and thought I imagined it, but a second wave through the chair and stronger ones frightened me so much so that I jumped out of it and to the other side of the room.

As I sat and almost waited for the chair to do something else, not realising it had been a tremor at that point I got up and went out onto my balcony (I have french windows in this room), the sky was exceptionally clear, it was very cold and there was only the faint hint of a breeze. To give an idea of direction, the full moon was facing me slightly to the right and Heathrow is to the right. I looked to the right and saw a clear light about the size of a headlight about pencil length above the rooftops of 4 story flats in that direction (I'm on the 5th floor and about the same level as their roof) The glare was bright and I'm very used to watching planes and helicopters being in central London. I thought for a moment it was a plane but at the size it was, I would have expected it to move or change direction or something or at the very least, grow in shape if it was coming directly towards me for example, but it was stationary for a good 5 minutes. I ran in and prayed my batteries were okay and hunted for my digicam (nikon coolpix 775) and ran back outside. I took a couple of pictures but it was very cold out and I was shivering so they are a little blurred, but I also managed to get a couple of short videos though again they're a little shakey, as the camera has a 15 second silent video feature. Had that been a plane it would have grown in size and neared except that wasn't the right direction for the usual flight path either. A helicopter appeared from behind me and hung around between me and the full moon or there abouts and still the light didn't move straight away. Eventually it moved slowly up and to the right in direction and I feared I would not be able to see it as it slowly passed behind my flats. I ran to the other side of the flat and out to the front balcony. First the helicopter came over the roof, (the whole time there was only ever the helicopter noise, nothing at all from the object itself.) It could have been a completely separate UFO as the look differed greatly from each view ! point or the same one with just the angle making it look very different. Bu it climbed and began to come right over head where now, although it was dark as was the object (which did at that point look possibly like it could have been a plane) when I realised the pattern of red lights were alternating and going in a triangle shape, very clear bright flashing red lights in a continuous pattern, I could make out a basic triangle shape and confirm to myself that this was not a normal plane. The object moved in front of me from left to right and I managed to get a photo of this. (Heathrow would now have been to my left, and the moon would have been behind me). Having loaded the photo's to the computer it looks very odd. One light shows only (they had alternated) and two of the outside edges can be seen though they are blurry and look almost cloud like except there were no clouds whatsover and it stayed this shape the whole two-three minutes it took for it to pass over heading towards the direction of Hamstead (if you imagine the point being close to me and the flat side moving away) I was asked if it looked like a vapour trail but this would have been completely reversed and was moving clearly (between the size of a penny and a twopence piece) in the totally wrong direction for it to have been so. It didn't look like that to the eye, to the naked eye it was a triangle shape with red flashing/alternating lights that went round the inside edges of the triangle shape and possibly one in the centre when I try to think back. Just one edge red light showed up on the photo though and I'm glad to have got as much as I did considering by now I was absolutely trembling with the cold and trying to get the object in the picture at all.

I'm very used to planes, (though not camera's!) I often watch and am used to seeing anything up to 18 in the air at one time from my view and am also used to seeing the Presidents aircraft landing in the American Ambassador's home in Regents Park directly opposite me. It was not a plane, it was not a helicopter, it most certainly wasn't a meteor (as has also been suggested) as the shakey photo's can only show a split second still and nothing like what the naked eye sees by way of clear lights flashing in a continuous sequence and a definite shape etc.

>From the tremors with the chair to the object leaving, the whole thing lasted 16 minutes.

Posted 2002-10-15

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