NUFORC Sighting 56222

Occurred: 2007-04-13 20:35 Local
Reported: 2007-04-14 13:14 Pacific
Duration: 10 min
No of observers: 1

Location: Richmond, CA, USA

Shape: Disk
Characteristics: Lights on object, Aircraft nearby

One set of cylindrical lights seen above 580 West

While returning from the Oakland Airport, I was driving along 580 towards the Richmond Bridge, when in the sky there appeared some type of cylindrical object of flashing lights. I first saw this object in the sky while passing the IKEA in Emeryville, CA. The object was stationary, but far in the distance.

The lights I saw were clearly in motion, moving in a circular pattern, but in a pattern that varied from a solid circular pattern of uniform shaped lights, to certain areas flashing while other areas are black.

If it had lasted only a minute, I may have ignored it, but this went on for more than ten minutes, and as I moved along 580, it was clear I was approaching the object. While I originally thought it stationary, it must have moved at some point because I lost eye contact with it for approximately 2 minutes, then it came back into sight. I cannot say the exact place I "passed" the object, but it was on my right-hand side, somewhere nearby the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Park.

Shortly after I passed where I thought it was above, I saw what I thought was a helicopter moving towards the location from the Southwest. By the time I reached the Richmond Bridge, I had seen an additional 3 helicopters in the area.

Posted 2007-04-27