NUFORC Sighting 37761

Occurred: 1991-05-11 14:00 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2004-06-24 10:28 Pacific
Duration: 2 minutes
No of observers: 0

Location: Huntington Beach, CA, USA

Shape: Other
Characteristics: Aircraft nearby

Burning Magnesium Orbs

I am not sure of the exact date, but the form would not accept question marks, so it may not have been the 11th, but I am sure it was in May, and I am positive that it was 1991 because that is the year my husband and I got married, and the sighting happened on the way home from shopping for the wedding.

My friend and I were sitting in her van in the left hand turn lane going from Northbound Beach Blvd. to Westbound Ellis Ave. waiting for the light to turn green.

It was a clear day with no clouds in the sky, very bright, around 2:00 pm.

I looked up in the sky to watch a bird fly across the street from my left (East) to my right (West), when I saw two objects high in the sky to the Northwest.

They appeared to be giant balls of burning magnesium so bright that they made the rest of the sky seem suddenly dark.

I would approximate their size as about the size of my house, but judging size in the sky is tricky to say the least. I would place their location over Terry Park in Huntington Beach, approximately a half mile above sea level.

They remained motionless in position for about 30 seconds, the larger one on the left, and the smaller one on the right. Then I saw 2 helicopters rise toward them, a Huntington Beach Police Department helicopter and an Orange County News helicopter.

My friend and I sat through the left hand turn light watching this, and I believe there were many people who witnessed this because no one honked at us to go when the light changed.

I knew the light had changed because I could see in my peripherial vision the cars going Eastbound on Ellis and Southbound on Beach who would not have seen the objects because they were behind those cars.

This is why I believe the sighting lasted one to two minutes, but I was so amazed by the objects that it seemed like an hour to me.

The helicopters got approximately halfway to the objects, then the objects suddenly moved horizontally to the North and were gone in less than a second.

As soon as I got home I called the Huntington Beach Police Station and asked what the helicopter had seen.

I was told that no helicopter had been sent up that day.

I called OCN (the news network) and asked what their helicopter had seen.

I was told that their helicopters had not been over Huntington Beach that day.

I asked my friend (now ex friend) to relate the story a few days later, and she denied having seen them or the helicopters, even though she was driving and sat through the turn signal to watch them.

NUFORC Note:

Date is approximate. We wonder whether the witnesses might have observed a missile launch out of Vandenberg AFB, although we do not have a past schedule of launches for 1991. PD

Posted 2004-07-08