NUFORC Sighting 53677

Occurred: 2006-11-26 14:30 Local
Reported: 2006-11-29 01:33 Pacific
Duration: 5-6 minutes
No of observers: 3

Location: Long Beach, CA, USA

Shape: Circle
Characteristics: Aircraft nearby

Let me first say that I have been a pilot since I was 17 years old, flew helicopters in the Army and logged over 3600 hours of flight time. I have very good depth perception and can judge altitudes pretty accurately. This particular incident is the second unexplained sighting I have had in 40 plus years.

My 2 children, 12 and 8 years old, and I were sitting on a grassy knoll in a local park watching radio controlled gliders. I heard an approaching airplane and layed on my back to looked up at the sky to watch the plane begin its' landing approach to the local airport.

As it passed overhead I noticed a small round, very bright, solid white object at a very high altitude, directly above me. It was slowly moving westward when it stopped. When this happened, I asked my 12 year old if she could see the object. She said she did and asked what it was.

I then asked my 8 year old if he could see it. After 5 seconds or so, he also saw it. Just as my 8 year old spotted the object, it slowly started to move in a north direction for maybe 10 seconds, then stopped. Within a few more seconds, it changed direction and moved south east to a spot directly over us again. The white round object had completed a triangle pattern.

After about 3 or 4 minutes, we saw the object seem to tilt down towards the east and it now appeared to have a faint outline of chrome or silver to it. It stayed like this for only 3 or 4 seconds, then appeared to rotate back up to its' original horizontal (?) position.

This day was fairly windy - 10-15 mph surface winds with a much faster high altitude wind due to a cold front system moving in. The white object never gained altitude or drifted in any direction other than the original 3 directions mentioned.

My estimate was that it was at or above 40k feet as there were 2 high altitude jets passing through the area that created vapor trails and the white object appeared at this altitude or higher.

My children and I watched this object for over five minutes - I had checked my watch.

Posted 2006-12-07