W. Washington State: 9/10/01 Two bright white burning, falling objects, one may have hit the ground
While enjoying an evening walk near sunset (Appx 8:00 - 8:15 p.m.), we heard a small child walking on a perpendicular street exlaim "wow, fireworks". He and is two parents and a small child stopped and looked toward the sky in the SE, yet north of Mt. Rainier. The two of us looked in the direction they were looking and saw what might be described as a falling object, very white in color, falling quickly toward the ground. It looked almost like a Roman candle fire ball or some form of signal flare, but it was falling quickly. No planes appeared directly in the vicinity, although 3 commercial flights were lined up for a Sea-Tac landing in the distance. It's trajectory was not perfectly straight, nor it's speed steady. It struck me of how a piece of plywood would fall from the sky, falling fast, then slowing and even changing it's horizontal allignment slightly as it "caught air". This first object appeared to stop burning before it hit the ground (if it hit the ground)at about 25 degrees above the horizon. My partner then stated that she could see another object, dark in color, falling very fast in the sky above the first. I could not see it with my naked eyes but she continued to watch it and tried to point it out to me. Within 10 to 20 seconds, this object appeared to burst into flame and burn in the same manner as the first object. It's rate of fall and trajectory was similar to the first. This object continued to burn and possibly did hit the ground. Our view of it was obscured by a tree in the neighborhood, but we saw it flame down to within 5 degrees or less above the horizon when it went out of view, still very bright. We did not hear anything nor did we see any smoke or any sort of a flash when it hit the ground. The object flamed long enough to come down west (toward us) of the Cascade foothills in the vicinity of the White River valley SE of the City of Enumclaw. We continued to watch the sky but did not see any further activity. We could not say for sure that the planes changed their courses, but the closest did seem to stay higher than the following two. Upon reaching our home I did try to contact the closest FAA office in Auburn and was dismissed by the operator as a nut. She stated in broken english that they had no reports of any such activity, laughed and then hung up the phone. We assume it must have been some sort of space junk but are curious about why it would fall for some time, then appear to "catch fire" and then burn until it hit the ground.
While enjoying an evening walk near sunset (Appx 8:00 - 8:15 p.m.), we heard a small child walking on a perpendicular street exlaim "wow, fireworks". He and is two parents and a small child stopped and looked toward the sky in the SE, yet north of Mt. Rainier. The two of us looked in the direction they were looking and saw what might be described as a falling object, very white in color, falling quickly toward the ground. It looked almost like a Roman candle fire ball or some form of signal flare, but it was falling quickly. No planes appeared directly in the vicinity, although 3 commercial flights were lined up for a Sea-Tac landing in the distance. It's trajectory was not perfectly straight, nor it's speed steady. It struck me of how a piece of plywood would fall from the sky, falling fast, then slowing and even changing it's horizontal allignment slightly as it "caught air". This first object appeared to stop burning before it hit the ground (if it hit the ground)at about 25 degrees above the horizon. My partner then stated that she could see another object, dark in color, falling very fast in the sky above the first. I could not see it with my naked eyes but she continued to watch it and tried to point it out to me. Within 10 to 20 seconds, this object appeared to burst into flame and burn in the same manner as the first object. It's rate of fall and trajectory was similar to the first. This object continued to burn and possibly did hit the ground. Our view of it was obscured by a tree in the neighborhood, but we saw it flame down to within 5 degrees or less above the horizon when it went out of view, still very bright. We did not hear anything nor did we see any smoke or any sort of a flash when it hit the ground. The object flamed long enough to come down west (toward us) of the Cascade foothills in the vicinity of the White River valley SE of the City of Enumclaw. We continued to watch the sky but did not see any further activity. We could not say for sure that the planes changed their courses, but the closest did seem to stay higher than the following two. Upon reaching our home I did try to contact the closest FAA office in Auburn and was dismissed by the operator as a nut. She stated in broken english that they had no reports of any such activity, laughed and then hung up the phone. We assume it must have been some sort of space junk but are curious about why it would fall for some time, then appear to "catch fire" and then burn until it hit the ground.
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Enumclaw
USA
1-3 Minutes
1-3 Minutes
47.27
-122.03
unknown
WA
Occurred : 9/10/2001 20:10 (Entered as : 09/10/01 20:10) Reported: 9/11/2001 21:44 Posted: 10/12/2001 Location: Enumclaw, WA Shape: Unknown Duration: 1-3 Minutes Characteristics: There were aircraft in the vicinity or aircraft chasing the object
W. Washington State: 9/10/01 Two bright white burning, falling objects, one may have hit the ground