NUFORC Sighting 91191

Occurred: 2012-07-25 21:00 Local
Reported: 2012-07-25 23:58 Pacific
Duration: 10 seconds
No of observers: 2

Location: Safford, AZ, USA

Shape: Fireball

Fireball looking object in south sky 12 miles south of Safford, Arizona

My child was driving and I was the passenger. We were 12-13 miles south of Safford, Arizona. We turned east onto Artesia Rd after traveling south on Hwy 191. We were traveling east approximately 25-30 mph as Artesia is a dirt road. There was a half moon with a few clouds in the west sky. The south sky was clear. The east sky had rainclouds with lightening, far away, like probably on the Arizona-New Mexico border. I was looking at the south sky, my window was halfway rolled down. I said to my child, "That's a strange light," and rolled my window down all the way. I saw what appeared was a fireball and my first thought was a meteor, but the object was not moving. I noticed that although it reminded me of a fireball there were no "flames" coming out. It was kind of low in the sky and seemed close, and I bet that if it was closer it would have been a very large craft, or object. I saw it for about 10 seconds and then it was gone! , in the blink of an eye.

I then thought that a cloud was obscuring my view but I could see stars and there were no clouds in the south sky. No sound , no vapor trail, no blinking lights, nothing coming out of it.

After being home for 15 minutes my husband and I went outside and started looking in all directions, about 9:20 p.m. (21:20). I saw many commercial airplanes way,way up in the sky. Then out of nowhere the object appeared in the east sky, farther away, and after about 3-4 seconds it was gone, in the blink of an eye. My husband was looking south so he did not see it, and since my child was driving my child did not see it. I know this area is a military MOA and have watched many war games, day and night. I have seen many types of aircraft flying over, day and night. I have also seen satellites moving across the sky, and I have seen flairs dropped. The stars seemed brighter and twinkling more on this night compared to many other nights and the moon was ve! ry bright for being a half moon.

Posted 2012-08-05