1999-08-21 - Surrey, BC - Sphere

Silvery sphere buzzes jet aircraft, suddenly stops and hovers

About noon, I was on my balcony enjoying the sunny weather and clear cloudless skies when I heard a jet approaching off to the right. We are almost directly beneath a southeastern approach corridor to Vancouver International Airport. I looked up to watch the passing commercial passenger jet, which was heading northwest about a thousand feet or so above. I suddenly noticed a strange "light", which seemed to suddenly zip in front of the jet, before coming to a sudden stop. As it moved through the air, it left what looked like a vapor trail that almost instantly disappeared. I thought that the movement seemed very strange, and continued to watch the light, but it did not seem to move, or only moved slightly, as the jet passed by. I believe that the jet was beneath the light when it passed it. My estimate is that if the object at the same or higher elevation than the jet, then it was probably traveling at a velocity of about one thousand miles per hour when I first noticed it, before coming to an instantaneous stop. I rushed inside to get my binoculars, and when I returned, the object was still there. I focused on it and discovered the object was actually shaped like an orb, although I seem to recall that it looked slightly flattened in the vertical dimension. It had a pronounced metallic or pearly luster. The outer edges had a reddish color. The brighter, more reflective center seemed more like a silvery gold color. It was hard for me to guess at the height of the object, as I had no real reference point - other than the passing jet. I reasoned to myself that maybe it was a type of balloon, even if its initial movement did not seem to indicate this. The object did not seem to rise, as you would expect from a balloon. It did start to move, in a sort of random manner until it was finally hidden behind a nearby tree and I lost sight of it. I probably observed it for a period of about five minutes.