NUFORC Sighting 84646

Occurred: 2011-10-15 21:30 Local
Reported: 2011-10-19 20:55 Pacific
Duration: 2 minutes
No of observers: 3

Location: Glendora, CA, USA

Shape: Light
Characteristics: Lights on object, Emitted beams

UFO (slow moving yellowish light) report for Saturday, October 15th, 2011@ approximately 21:30 PST in zip code 91740

UFO report for Saturday, October 15th, 2011 @ approximately 21:30 PST in zip code 91740 My daughter and I went to my best friend’s house on Saturday evening, so she could play with her friend, and I could do some video gaming with my best friend. We arrived at approximately 1830 PST. After eating and gaming for about 2 ½ hours, I went into the hot tub with my friend & his wife. It was a very clear and beautiful night, plenty of stars and a bright moon. Given the location of our homes against the nearby Los Angeles National Forest mountain range (6 – 8 blocks to the foothills), we are usually treated with superb visibility, allowing us to see satellites, the Space Station, Shuttle, etc, on a regular basis.

Their hot tub is circular, about 6 ft across and I was oriented at the 5:30 o’clock position, facing north (or about 345 degrees). My friend was at the 11 o’clock position (facing south), and his wife was situated in-between us (2 or 3 o’clock) and facing due west. We are all in our 40’s, married for 15 – 20 years, and been friends since the mid 1980’s / early 90’s. There were no exterior lights in the yard, as the moon gave a constant soft light.

About 30 minutes after we entered hot tub, and while I was scanning the sky for items, I noticed a light in the western sky, approximately 10-20k ft high, moving towards us in a due east flight path relative to our stationary position. The light was not travelling in the typical approach or departure pattern for the nearby ONT, BUR or LAX airports. The light appeared to be moving rather slowly, coming directly towards us. It was a dark yellow or light orange color, with only the light visible. There was no discernable airframe, external nav lights, no noise – only a light. It was a constant light, no changes in its intensity, direction or color.

I commented to my friends that there is something we don’t normally see, meaning it was not apparently a plane (with the normal navigation lights, sounds and profile), and not a satellite (it was far too low, a medium brightness and noticeably larger than other satellites and space station lights we’ve seen). All three of us looked at the light coming towards us for perhaps 1-2 minutes, with his wife asking if planes didn’t have special colored lighting to distinguish them? I confirmed that since the object was moving towards us, there should be a red light on the right-hand side, and perhaps other lights (strobe lights, landing lights, take-off lights, anti-smack light, etc). None of these were distinguishable.

While we watched and speculated, the light began to slow down, and then completely stop in midair. I picked up my flip phone camera, and attempted to get some video. I took (2) 30 second clips of the stationary light, though the resolution quality was quite low (essentially worthless).

We of course sat stunned and stared in some genuine disbelief. There was no sound of any rotor blades (we get them around our house ALL THE TIME for a variety of reasons, so we all know typical helicopter movements, sounds, etc. As we watched the light it moved slowly & slightly to the south (our left as we were still facing due west). After perhaps 30-40 seconds, it then returned to its original stopping point for perhaps another 10 seconds. Then it slowly started back the same way it came. The light did not turn direction away from us, it merely moved in reverse away from us.

As we watched in silence, a small series of lights came out of the bottom of the larger light. To me, it initially looked like a flare dropping straight down from the craft, but it did not burn with any consistency. It alternated between mildly bright, to barely visible, back to mildly bright, then nearly disappearing, before becoming mildly bright once again. By the 3rd time it got bright, the trajectory of the dropping light changed, and it headed due northwest and quickly disappeared. It did not move off for miles before disappearing, it was gone with 3-5 seconds after changing direction. All the while, the main light continued back on its westward path, going behind some trees and disappeared from our view.

None of us could explain what we saw, and none of us have ever seen anything remotely similar to this.

To be truthful, my friend had 4-5 shots of whisky since about 5 PM that evening (he’s about 250 lbs), so there wasn’t much impact by 21:30 PST, as his consumption was in a measured pace relative to his tolerance and size. His wife had just returned from taking the girls to “Booing” some of their Jr. High friend’s houses. She was still working on her first mixed drink of the evening at the time. I had 3 shots of 75 proof whiskey during the previous 3 hours, and was for all intensive purposes – still completely coherent and alert.

Of course when my wife called to see when I’d be coming home, I was so excited to tell her about what we witnessed that the phone slipped out of my wet hands, and straight to the bottom of the hot tub…before it unceremoniously powered off. Though I’ve tried several methods to dry and revive the phone, nothing has worked yet.

My friend and his wife have lived at this location for nearly 10 years, and he is fairly familiar with local traffic patterns. He has an App on his Android phone that allows us to quickly pin-point stars, constellations, space debris or even rocket launches from Vandenberg AFB. He and I have attended several air shows @ Apple Valley and Edwards AFB. His background is in the high-end automotive field, and he is one of the top specialists in his field in the world. His wife is a part-time real estate agent, and full time mother to their only daughter. My background includes a BS degree in management, with a minor in Computer Management Information Systems, a Master’s of Science in Organizational Management and a nearly complete BS degree in Criminal Justice.

Additionally I have 13 years studying (numerous technical certifications) and working in military & commercial aerospace operations and manufacturing (all in the avionics realm) from 1982 to 1997. My hands-on technical training, support and management experience includes a wide variety of light, single & twin engine general aviation craft, military helicopters (UH-1N, AH-1J), attack aircraft (A-4M), observation planes (OV-10 B) and medium to large jet aircraft (MD-80, MD-90, MD-95 and MD-11).

I have been to dozens of air shows, was trained at / stationed at military airfield facilities including NAS Memphis, MCAS El Toro, MCAS Tustin, MCAS Yuma and MCAS Pendleton for over 3 ½ years during my tour of service. My civilian experience includes 6 months working at the El Monte and Fullerton airports and 7 ½ years with a major manufacturer at the Long Beach airport.

Currently I’m an NCO in the state reserves and have split 50% of my duty time for 2011 between the airfield at Los Alamitos and my normal drill station. I’ve written an article for Air Safety Weekly (in 2006), and had one of my comments to the editor published in Aviation Weekly (April 1998). Finally I was interviewed by Swiss Public Radio in 1999 after the Swissair Flight 111 MD-11 crash in Canada in 1998. Suffice to say I have a passing knowledge of the aerospace community…  There are only 3 explanations I have for what we witnessed. It was (A) a lighter than air vehicle of some kind, (B) a helicopter, or (C) a tilt-rotor aircraft. Options B & C do not seem plausible, given the amount of noise a hovering aircraft would make. If my altitude guess was correct, then option B is out the door, as few helicopters will operate in the 15-20k altitude range without pilot & crew oxygen, especially in the heavily regulated LAX TCA zone, and close to the climb-out area for jets departing ONT.

We are hoping your team might be able to shed some more light on this situation!

Posted 2011-10-25