2017-02-24 - Santa Fe, NM - Fireball

February 24, 2017 - Approximately 20:30 - I was traveling from Santa Fe, NM to Albuquerque, NM. While getting into my vehicle, I notice a large light high up in the sky that I thought was the Planet Jupiter, although I thought that it appeared to be 3 to 4 times larger than what I am used to observing from my home in Albuquerque. As I began driving, I noticed that the object appeared to be shimmering and changing from a golden color to a light shade of red or pinkish orange. After I had traveled approximately 3 miles, I noticed that the object appeared to be increasing in size. As I passed the La Cienega exit the object had doubled in size and now appeared to be near the size of a street light and the colors became more vibrant. The object was gradually losing altitude and traveling in roughly the same direction as Interstate 25 (from north to south), and appeared to be moving slightly inward toward the interstate. It became obvious that this was not a commercial aircraft as it appeared to be within a distance of less than 3-5 miles from my location and the object appeared to be at least as big as 2 to 3 airliners. There were not any other lights on the craft, and no definite shape could be seen due to the brightness of the light the object was emitting. At this point the object appeared to be at half the altitude it was at when I first observed it, I would estimate somewhere between 3000ft. to 5000ft.

It was at this time that I brought the object to my passengers attention. She observed the object for the next couple of minutes, stating in agreeance that the object was not a plane and that is was descending toward the earth at a steady rate. As I reached the Cochiti Exit I noticed that the object was now at about ¼ of the original height, and we agreed it was flying somewhere between the Cochiti Pueblo and Interstate-25. My passenger was attempting to take a picture as we were approaching the Budaghers exit but was having difficulties focusing on the objects as we were traveling at highway speeds. Around a mile before the Budaghers exit, the object appeared to begin moving west and away from the highway. I decided that I would exit at the Budaghers off-ramp and attempt to get a few pictures or videos. As I was exiting the off-ramp the object was visible until I had my vehicle almost pointing in its direction of travel. The object “blinked out” and was no l! onger visible. I stopped and continued to observe the sky in this area for another five minutes and never observed the object again. The event occurred over a period of twenty minutes, and a distance of at least twenty-five miles.

As I returned to Interstate 25 and drove south toward Albuquerque I noticed two military helicopters to the far southeast, near the backside of the Sandia Mountains. I live in an area of Albuquerque where Blackhawk helicopters often fly near my home when they are performing training exercises so identifying the helicopters was not difficult. I also want to note that the object appeared to begin moving in a westward direction at the time my passenger took her first picture with the flash turned on, on her camera phone. I also thought I would mention that there are radio towers everywhere in the area and the light of the object was much larger that the lights on the towers. This all may be coincidence but interesting none the less.