NUFORC Sighting 93550

Occurred: 2012-10-08 22:00 Local
Reported: 2012-10-14 00:51 Pacific
Duration: 2 minutes
No of observers: 1

Location: Long Beach, CA, USA

Shape: Light
Characteristics: Lights on object

Aircraft with white flashing headlights, no other lights, no discernible sound

Okay, this starts out as a pretty boring story, but bear with me – it has an interesting ending. I was standing in our driveway stargazing as I often do. The sky was mostly clear. We're 4 miles south of Long Beach Airport, and the sky was busy as usual with air traffic. One plane caught my attention as it flew south toward the general area of downtown Long Beach about 3 or 4 miles to my west. The only light I could make out was a bright white headlight that flashed every second-and-a-half to 2 seconds. When it reached my latitude, it banked east toward me. Now I could make out 2 white headlights which continued flashing in unison at the same interval. No green lights. No red lights. No other lights. Just 2 flashing white headlights. It was much higher than the altitude police helicopters fly. The 2 lights were about a pinky width at arm's length apart.

At this point I was figuring that it was a plane, and that there was a logical explanation for the missing identification lights. So I took a look at it through my binoculars, and I could make out 2 lights, but before I could bring it in focus it vanished. So then I looked without my binoculars, and after about 4 seconds it flashed once or twice more and then it vanished altogether. The sky was clear. I watched for about 10 seconds. By this time there was a tree blocking my view of where it would be if the plane reappeared, but I was satisfied at that point that it was gone, and that it was a plane with malfunctioning lights or maybe something else. As for its sound, there were several planes in the area at the time and to tell you the truth I wasn’t even focusing on its sound, but I don’t remember any sound coming from it. So I’m not 100% sure. If it made a sound, it didn’t stand out. So I spent the next 15 seconds watching planes, just kind of looking around, and then ! I surveyed the area right above me.

Okay, now here’s where it gets weird.

The plane reappears flying the opposite direction. At least I assume it was the same plane. Same size, same 2 flashing white headlights. I had never seen a plane with that light configuration (I’m 56), so logic told me it was the same aircraft. Then about 2 flash sequences later, when it was directly overhead, poof! Gone.

In all my years of stargazing, I’ve never seen a plane make a 180 degree turn in 15 seconds and then disappear. So I thought that was a little strange.

In the next hour, I saw 2 unusual aircraft, or maybe it was the same aircraft, in the north sky from around Cassiopeia westward. The first of these 2 sightings began as a flash of white light, like a star, in the constellation Cassiopeia. I could make out a dark object either losing altitude or flying NE which flashed again about 3 seconds after the first flash. Then about 3 seconds later it flashed again, and then I lost it behind trees. It travelled about a width of my fist at arm length between flashes.

Then about 15 minutes later, an aircraft with the same description appeared in the NW flying south about 2 miles to my west. It flashed twice, about a 3 second interval, and sometime before the third flash it turned east and flashed about 2 or 3 more times at 3 second intervals and then it vanished. As for sounds, again there were planes in the area but I can’t remember any sound coming from them. So if they made a noise, it didn’t stand out. When it was flying east to west, it looked to be about a mile to my north. Neither of the aircraft appeared to be much more than a thousand feet high.

These sightings happened 5 nights ago. I’ve been watching the skies almost every night since and I haven’t seen anything out of the ordinary, just the usual planes and helicopters. And I had never seen anything like that in my life prior to that night.


((ADDENDUM TO ORIGINAL REPORT))

Aircraft with white flashing headlights, no other lights, no discernible sound

This is a correction to the report I submitted Sunday, October 14, 2012 at 00:51:43 Near the end of my report, it should read: When it was flying west to east, it looked to be about a mile to my north.

((END ADDENDUM))

Posted 2012-10-30

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