NUFORC Sighting 09785

Occurred: 1997-05-13 21:00 Local
Reported: 1999-09-17 00:00 Pacific
Duration: 30 sec.
No of observers: 2

Location: Petaluma, CA, USA

Shape: Triangle
Characteristics: Lights on object, Emitted other objects

A triangular formation of about 10 glowing,reddish lights suddenly appear and fly silently overhead.

On May 13, 1997, at about 21:00 local time my then 19 year old son and I were standing in front of his apartment on North Petaluma Blvd. in Petaluma, California. A minute before, I had just seen a normal meteorite in that direction of the sky so now we were both looking to the east hoping to see another one. Suddenly a triangular formation of about 10 reddish, glowing lights appeared or "came on" and flew completely silently overhead from south to north. They were in such perfect formation that it seemed to be a single craft except for the fact that at one moment several of the lights split quickly apart from the formation then just as quickly reformed and held perfect formation for the remainder of the sighting. Another odd thing was that I could see through or in-between the lights but there appeared to be a shimmering quality to this space between the lights, like looking through water. Each individual light seemed to be diamond in shape and had a light quality similar to a glowing coal. Not knowing what I was looking at, it was hard to judge the altitude of the object but if I had to guess, I would say it was at least twice as large as a 747 and about 3000 ft altitude. The total sighting lasted about 30 seconds and the lights simply “blinked out”. My son and I examined each other’s story immediately after the sighting. We both saw exactly the same thing. I am 43, an airline pilot for a major airline and an amateur astronomer.

Posted 1999-10-02