2009-07-28 - Poway, CA - Disk

Fireball and disk seen north of Poway, CA 92064

Location: 12600 block of Robison Boulevard, Poway, CA 92064. Facing northwest, looking toward Rancho Bernardo. We came home at approximately 2045. I noticed that my wife and daughter were standing outside at the top of the stairs (2nd story apartment) looking in the aforementioned direction. I came back outside prior to the appearance of the objects. The objects were viewed in the same approximate vicinity.

My wife was initially looking at a large white bird (I believe that it was an owl, we do see those around here on rare occasions.) I was able to go outside in time to see the bird fly away from a tree just above the mountain horizon. Within 15 seconds of the birds departure, my wife and I witnessed what she described as a fireball moving at a very high speed across the horizon from east to west at perhaps a 20 degree angle, disappearing from view as it went behind the mountains. I witnessed a second object, described later in this report.

Here's my description of what I saw: The first initially looked like a meteor. I've seen plenty of them. After a brief retrospective moment, it seemed odd because this had a distinctive shape and appeared to be much closer than a meteor. We both agreed that the first object did have a "fireball" quality to it, although it was not like anything we have ever seen before. She did not see the second object.

I describe the second object as a rounded disk with a dull, white glow. It did look different than the other object, although the intensity of the light emitted from both objects was similar. The big difference is that I could see a clear disk-shaped outline to the second object. After a brief and partially witnessed vertical climb (partially obstructed by a tree), it went in to a downward dive at a tremendous speed. I'm not qualified by any means to estimate the size or distance of the object, but if I was forced to render an opinion, I'd say that this would be an object 100 feet in diameter at a distance of 10 miles from our viewpoint. That would certainly mean a low-flying object.

I'm a skeptic, I always love a good debunk. I was thinking about meteors and bird flocks, reflections on the birds and such.

The kicker: At 9:00PM, we heard the rumble of jet engines and witnessed two aircraft fly over the area where the objects were witnessed. They were cruising from west to east. This is an uncommon flight path. With the exception of distant commercial flights, we do not ever see military aircraft in that direction. These were jet fighters, I am confident that these were jet fighters, as I have lived near a military airbase for my entire life. I was very surprised to see this. We do have MCAS Miramar about ten miles in the opposite direction, they use a very specific flight path for training and have never to my knowledge done training that requires loud engine noise over civilian territory at night. They do have fighter jets ready to go at any moment, this is a well known fact, although I can't source it for you folks. Sorry! The fighter jets were probably about 15-20 miles away from us and were flying at a low altitude, 8,000-10,000 feet. Please bear in mind that I am not an expert, this is just an estimate based upon my very limited base of knowledge.

This was the first time that either of us had witnessed an event like this. We always hoped that it would happen some day, and this was quite unexpected. Possible debunks: The white bird/owl. We both agree that the first object was not possibly the aforementioned bird, as this was in a slightly different vicinity and looked nothing like a bird. Regarding the second object, I've never seen any flying creature move like that.

We saw what we saw and did our best to transcribe it. We're hoping that somebody else witnessed this and can perhaps explain what we actually did see.