NUFORC Sighting 147083

Occurred: 2000-11-15 21:00 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2019-06-26 07:15 Pacific
Duration: 15
No of observers: 2

Location: Albuquerque, NM, USA

Shape: Other
Characteristics: Lights on object, Aircraft nearby

Seven red orbs followed by two F15s.

It was November 2000 and I was stationed at Kirtland AFB, 512th SOS. My family (wife and newborn) had just come back from the movie theatre. I parked my POV in the duplex and prior to getting out of the POV I have always scanned the area (situational awareness). I walked to the back door and something told me to look up, I saw 7 red orbs following each other. Yes, this is Abq and hot air balloons are rampant but these were not balloons as it was around 2100 hrs. The mountains are to my east and these red orbs were in southern direction. The 7th and 6th orb simply faded out. Orb #5 shot up into the sky to a much higher elevation. Number 4 thru 1 were still in a southern direction but began to veer southeast. All of the orbs seemed to be slow moving when from the west came two F-15s. I could tell they were as their dual afterburners were blowing trying to play catch up. These two 15s WERE NOT FROM KIRTLAND (as KAFB only had F-16s (single engine afterburners)). ! Number 4 disappeared, #3 turned south and shot faster. These two F-15s were now following the last two remaining orbs and never caught up. The remaining two orbs (#2 and #1) just a continuous exact same distance from the 15s. I immediately went in and switched on the TV to see anything was being reported. Nothing ever came up in the news. Our birds (helicopters and fixed wing acft) never flew in a southeastern direction to include commercial acft. Those two jets were scrambled from another base to catch these orbs as my sister unit (F-16 "Tacos") are a reserve unit and no one would have been there to ready the acft.

NUFORC Note:

Witness indicates that the date of the sighting is approximate. PD

Posted 2019-06-27