NUFORC Sighting 7965

Occurred: 1999-04-24 21:00 Local
Reported: 1999-06-08 00:00 Pacific
Duration: 15 minutes
No of observers: 75

Location: Las Vegas, NV, USA

Shape: Light
Characteristics: Aircraft nearby

4 lights/hovering/moving radically about 1 general area; gaseous area resolves to chevron formation of jewel color lights/ move slowly over us

Exiting Monte Carlo Casino in Las Vegas on Sat. Apr 24 around 8:45 to 9:00 p.m., my wife and her brother called my attention to "UFO's" over the MGM (S.E.ly maybe 20 to 30 degrees from overhead). At first, I didn't see them and thought they were joking, but I then observed 20 or so people in front of me looking in the same direction and pointing. With the help of my brother-in-law, I was able to locate 4 round lights. (The size of each in relation to my hand at arm's length was roughly like looking at an eraser on the end of a pencil.) The sky was generally clear, but the four lights were in the area of one of the few clouds in the sky. The lights were all staying in the general area of the cloud, but would move into a gap in the cloud and sometimes out from behind the cloud completely. Even when behind the cloud, the lights were visible. The movement of the lights was very intriguing. Each would hover for a bit, then it might move in a sweeping manner upward. Sometimes one would streak horizontally and then would instantaneously reverse course or move at a radical angle. Each of the lights was moving independently of the others. This continued for several minutes. My wife then exclaimed, "Look at that!" and pointed just a little south of the cloud. I looked in time to see what I would call a gaseous light, greenish in hue, significantly larger than the round lights. It was like looking at an image through heat waves in the desert. I estimate it was three to four inches relative to my hand at arm's length. Within ten seconds or so the gaseous area resolved into more precise lights, jewel-like and muti-colored and the lights were in a formation that changed and within a few more seconds, appeared as a chevron shape, keeping the same overall size as the initial gaseous image. It then moved towards us, keeping a constant height and a smooth and steady course. I notice a round light, that looked like one of the first lights that we had observed, was flying just to my left of the chevron formation. Looking back into the cloud area at the first lights, I could now only find three of the round lights. They were still hovering and/or moving as before. The chevron/round light formation was continuing on its course and speed and slowly moved directly overhead and beyond until it was eventually obscurred by the Monte Carlo building. I strained to see if I could make out an object in the lights or hear any sound coming from the formation, but could not. Looking back to the area where the chevron first appeared, the "gaseous image resolving to chevron" event repeated. Again, the chevron was joined by a round light. I now could only see two round lights in the cloud area. The combo formation was, like the first, moving towards us. I looked from the sky to the area in which we were standing and noticed that there were now many more people watching the event. Most were exclaiming in amazement, myself included. When the first chevron appeared, I had heard many people shout as had my wife. There were a few cries of fear. It also looked like people on the other side of Las Vegas Boulevard in front of the MGM were also looking skyward and pointing. We crossed the street to the area in front of the New York, New York Casino. The second chevron had now disappeared from view over the Monte Carlo. I could now only see one of the original round lights. I pointed it out to a person coming out of the casino who said that he had seen this event before and that it was a bird, like a hawk, with ground lights reflecting off of it. He did not observe the chevron lights. A few other random observations: We observed the event for about fifteen minutes. I wanted to stay longer, but we had to leave to catch a flight at the airport. Early in the event, I noticed a small civilian aircraft in the general area, but it was lower and farther to the east. The event took place relatively close to the Las Vegas airport. Another friend that accompanied us never saw the round lights, but witnessed the chevrons. Although he is highly skeptical by nature, he had no explanation for what he saw. The MGM has large green lights that illuminate the building. The Luxor, farther south on the Strip, has a laser on top. I am not sure how high the clouds were and consequently have difficulty estimating the actual size or altitude of the formation. I have racked my brain trying to come up with an explanation for what we observed. I do not buy into the bird theory because of the relative speed in relation to the clouds, the radical flight patterns of the round lights, the visibility behind the clouds. Holographic images don't seen to fit either because of the great distance traveled by the chevrons. Also, at no time were the clouds themselves ever illuminated. We watched the paper for reports of the observation by others. My wife called the newspaper in Las Vegas. They said that they had not received any reports. They did not seem interested in her report. We recently learned of this site and decided to report our experience.

Posted 1999-06-23