2000-09-30 - Los Angeles, CA - Formation

5 red lights flying in formations, then disappearing, then an orange object, and a red one reappearing.

At about 21:45 on 09/30/2000, I observed 5 red lights in the southwestern sky moving in formation. Without notice, they broke from formation and formed another formation and remained stationary in the sky for about thirty seconds. One by one, the red lights disappeared, as if moving away at a high rate of speed, not across the sky, but outward, to space I presume. The objects seemed to be bigger at the bottoms than the tops. About twenty seconds later, a red object reemerged where the others had disappeared, along with a bright orange object, larger than the red ones, but of a similar shape. The bright orange object illuminated the sky around it, with a visible vapor trail, and descended in altitude, in comparison with the other red object. As the orange object descended, it got brighter, and for a brief moment, the sky around it grew very bright, similar to the glow of a distant wildfire. The orange object descended quickly until it went below the tree line, and the red object, like the other red objects before it, disappeared. I am a 24 year old male of sound judgment, healthy, who knows what he saw in the sky was truly breathtaking.

((NUFORC Note: NUFORC received multiple reports from the north Los Angeles area about this incident. We are still uncertain as to what caused the event. At least one newspaper reported that it had been caused by sky divers with flares attached to them as they descended. However, one large group of observers at a church function allegedly witnessed the event for a measured 22 minutes, probably longer than sky divers could remain suspended beneath a parachute during a typical jump. We will continue to investigate. PD))