NUFORC Sighting 36363

Occurred: 2004-04-15 20:47 Local
Reported: 2004-04-15 18:20 Pacific
Duration: 1 minute
No of observers: 2

Location: Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA

Shape: Fireball
Characteristics: Left a trail

Reentry Object in northern sky 4/15 20:47 PM - Duration about 45 seconds

Just observed some kind of object/vehice enter into the atmosphere in the northern sky from 8:47 - 8:48 PM. We were traveling north on Flamingo Road north of Griffin Road near Fort Lauderdale, approaching Flamingo Gardens. Noticed a bright orange/red glow, stationary at about 35-40 degrees above the horizon, just above the tree line as seen from the road. Size made it appear to be an aircraft beacon but more orange/pink in color than a red beacon. The other problem is there is no beacon in the vicinity.

This "object" was apparently motionless but after about 15 seconds a long tail of "flame" appeared behind the object, indicating that it was entering the atmosphere from the north, thus the bright reddish glow and tail. The tail lasted about five seconds after which the object began to fade steadily and it turned to the east at a high altitude at a rapid speed, that of a fast jet. There were no aircraft style lights or beacons from the object. It faded in intensity after it turned east.

This unnerved me since I have never seen anything like this, and the apparent direction was from the north, which would be a strange direction of reentry for a typical spacecraft.

I am familiar with meteorites, which at the rate of speed on entry, streak across the sky in about 1 second. This episode lasted the better part of a minute and was obviously not a meteorite. I wonder if you have any information on this episode that you can share. A driver behind me also pulled over to observe this object. Whatever it is, the sight was extremely unusual and compelling. My daughter was with in the car and saw the object as well.

NUFORC Note:

Missile launch. PD

Posted 2004-04-27