Witness photo shot over Long Beach, CA, on March 17, 2009.
LONG BEACH, CA - Eight witnesses watched a saucer-shaped, controlled craft hover and maneuver in the sky here for 26 minutes March 17 - and then saw it disappear when more than 10 helicopters approached in what appeared to be a search mission.
The sighting was very close to Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station.
The reporting witness, who filed the story with the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) database, said she first noticed the object about one mile off the Pacific coast and hovering on the southern horizon.
The craft, she said, took a 160/180 degree turn traveling east - then returned moving west - and then repeated the maneuver as it drifted further south.
While it was difficult to see the exact shape of the object, the witness said the lights on the craft were visibile. At one point, she said the object appeared to be shape-shifting.
From this same vantage point, the witness said she saw a triangular-shaped craft on November 12, 2008, which she sketched and provided a UFO report to the UFOs Northwest web site.
The earlier report, in part, includes a description that they witnessed a "large triangular object in a southwesterly direction coming from the ocean. The object appeared to be moving in a direction parallel to the coast. The object was described as having red lights and apparent windows. The witness stated that the object was an equilateral triangle and no sound was heard in relation to the object."
Following is her complete and unedited March 17 MUFON report.
March 17, 2009 - Long Beach, CA - Long Beach CA UFO Hotspot
From 6:59 to 7:25pm on March 17th, 2009, my sons and I saw another UFO in the skies over Long Beach, California. We were in the backyard of our home taking pictures of whatever might look interesting, as sky-watching is our hobby. We do it at least 5 days a week to relax after a long day and I've been teaching them the constellations.
I then noticed something that didn't fit what we've come to know as a terrestrial craft, whether a jet, prop or experimental aircraft. There was an object that was going from the west to the east and there was no red light visible (FAA REG) as with ALL OTHER AIRCRAFT taking off from the airport.
Then it started to hover and immediately changed direction and again... did not have the FAA green light on its opposite side.
I have almost 60 photos of this sighting... you really must see them all to be able to appreciate what is going on here.
From my vantage point of about a mile off of the Pacific coast, this craft was hovering on the southern horizon - probably above the electric company at the corner of Studebaker and 2nd Street/Westminster.
After hovering, the craft would then make 160-180 degree turns going east, then west, then repeating while slowly drifting further south - over the Pacific Ocean - towards the famed "Redondo Trench". This went on, as can be seen in the properties of my photos, for 26 full minutes.
Shape was unclear
At the time of our sighting this time, it was not clear what shape the object actually was until the photos were analyzed upon download to my computer, and even then, it seemed only the lights were visible. As far as structure and the apparent "shape-shifting abilities", this was one spectacular sighting!
Earlier sighting of 'Mothership'
However it didn't beat the Triangle "Mothership" we all saw last November 12th, and I don't think anything else could! That was reported the same day on UFO NorthWest, if you are interested.
Anyway, I took a few "real-time" photos of the craft, but didn't want to "waste" the pictures and knew the only way to be sure to "get proof" was to take timed shots, so - as a result - most of the almost 60 photos I shot were 8 second exposures at a F 2.5 setting with an exposure value at +2.00 (the highest my camera goes) and certainly showing the true colors of the crafts lights and its flight pattern/path. I used a high-pixel, Sony Cybershot digital camera and did not alter the originals AT ALL!
I have kept their integrity to help you to prove or disprove whatever it was that caused more than ten helicopters to be in the air after it disappeared, and caused them to refuel and return to the search for the next 2 hours or so.
Lights were whitish/yellow
The light appeared to be of whitish/yellow color with a bit of red from time to time, and what got my attention was that the lights and colors did not match the FAA regulations with regards to Red on the left and green on the right and white lights that blink 40x per minute. This thing pulsed and then stayed lit. Then it blinked white lights fast and then went back to pulsing again only to follow it with another blast of bright, solid light for another thirty to sixty seconds.
Shape-shifting - more than one craft?
From where I was, it looked like a saucer, then looked like 2 doing maneuvers together. Then it looked like two orbs that were connected somehow, then "shape-shifting" into something else... more square-round.
I would also like to mention that based on the photos I have taken, I have reason to believe their may have been more than one craft in the sky last night, too. Several shots seem to show what could be mistaken for stars, but upon closer inspection, can be seen to have the same color coding/ shading as the inital craft and in two of my photos, it looks as if their are 2 saucers of another shape that might even be a couple of boomerangs, but on a timed photo, it is hard to tell. You are the experts and I do hope that my final disclosure to you will help figure out what is happening on our planet!
Well, this was absolutely incredible, but did not come close to others I and my family have had and would like to talk with an investigator about.
Eight witnesses
Last night, there were a total of 7 of us and an 8th joined in at the last minute, that witnessed this sighting and the after-effects. Only three of us saw it for the first 20 minutes or so, because I was getting pictures while the boys watched and tried to get neighbors out to see it, too.
What else is interesting is that on March 11th, 2009, there was little to no usual traffic going into or out of Long Beach Airport and around 8:18pm, seven military and police/civilian helicopters flew over our house, seeming to be looking for something on the ground. They flew rather slowly, from west to east and then took a more southerly direction when above Seal Beach, moving towards the Huntington Beach Area.
Scary thing? I took photos of them, too as soon as I heard them coming and watched them go... and the first shot set off the flash which seemingly caused one of the helicopters to turn on and shine a searchlight on us! I had the kids shut off the lights in and outside of the house, got to my computer and downloaded them as soon as I could - just in case I got something I wasn't supposed to have!
I would most certainly like to speak with an investigator, especially since I've had multiple sightings (as has my eldest son) over the last many years and would like to finally share some of them with anyone willing to listen. I am beginning to fear whatever the heck is going on... and there IS something going on. Especially here in Long Beach, California.
Location
Editor's note: The red star on the Mapquest images below shows the witnesses location - very close to the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station.
The reports you are reading about here are raw accounts and may be under investigation by MUFON. If assigned and I get a follow up to this case, it will be reported on.
March 19 update: The witness came forward to this writer - and it turns out "he" is a "she." My apologies to my readers. When you are reporting on raw reports before they have been investigated, little is known about the person making the report. In my capacity as a UFO writer, I am only privy to the same information the public is within the MUFON reports. I somehow assumed wrongly that the report was generated by a male - and that has been corrected in this writing.
Comments
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Bull. The pic has been taken through a window and the 'UFO' is a reflection of the highlights on the spherical cover below it (count the highlights) - either in glass or actually in the camera lense. On enhancing it in Photoshop there is no evidence at all for a saucer-shape behind the lights.
I've lived on the east side of the Seal Beach Station for over 40 years and have seen several strange things in the sky day and night over the years. On Tuesday night March 17, 2009 about 6:30 pm I was driving down Slater west towards Springdale and saw strange blinking lights off in the distance over your area. When I arrived home, Westminster & Springdale I watched them for a few more minutes but they never came close enough to my house to take a photo. Nice job on your images and reports!!!
EMME: LOL Nice try! Too hard for you to accept the mysterious nature of this phenomenon perhaps? Maybe it was chinese lanterns!? What about the helicopters? The triangular craft before that...do us all a favor and do your homework dude.
OCEAN: "c a"? - riveting comment! I'm sold.
Definitely a well documented encounter. Well done!
NWS Seal Beach is used to store nuclear ASROc torpedoes, or was in the eighties. OOps, i guess the FBI will be knocking on my door, but I am ex navy and we always offloaded "special weps" before returning to navsta San Diego.
nukes used to be stored there in the eighties anyway
I was the one who took the photos and made the report. You might want to re-edit your piece here, which is lovely - by the way, because I am very much a woman.
Thank you for taking the time to write such an outstanding piece.
PS: The first few photos you posted were time lapsed at 8 seconds. The darker photo here was a thirtieth of a second exposure.
I am willing to talk with you more of other photos I have over the last year of other things in our skies. And they were NOT ours, either.
Emme, You don't know what you are talking about. There were 9 of us, I've found, and frankly - it was taken in 2 locations at 2 different times. Half from my backyard and the rest from the front of my neighbors home.
I can understand your skeptisism, however, don't you think it is more important to figure out what these things are? And sorry, I don't believe UFO means "Alien", either. It means "Unidentified Flying Object" and what we witnessed it doing was NOT something our aircraft can do.
In addition, as I noted in the report to MUFON, most are TIME-LAPSED SHOTS taken in 8 second bits because my digital camera - a Sony - isn't capable of longer exposures.
Thanks for your time.
It is strange non of the witnesses had a decent video capable mobile phone, that does seem hard to believe. Mabey it is fake reflections. Were they taken in the yard or infront of glass. I want to believe.
My whole family heard and seen the helicopters so did all my neighbors who came out to see what the heck was going on all kinds of copters little and bigit was very strange I knew something happened. I believe you! we are located at springdale and bolsa in HB
Dear Roger, I tried to email but no success. Can you email me. We're trying to reach witnesses to the Nevada City and Long Beach sightings of March 17, 2009.
Thank you.
Kevin Barry-Producer, UFO Hunters
Very thorough and credible report, Patricia, IMO. The first picture with the numerous lights looks just like the one I saw right over my hometown, Santa Monica, in '93, except that the squares that looked like windows were illumed green, and craft was HUGE (of course I was up closer that you were).
I lived right at Palisades and Ocean Ave., it was half mile south of me over the city, not far above the roof tops, and even through the low fog the oblong shape of the silvercolored craft and it's immense size were noticeable.
We had a complete citywide blackout caused by a total annihilation of the main transformers that went off like bombs. My new TV was off when the living room lights started to dim then came up brighter than ever three times, in that moment the air became palpably and tensely full of static electricity, then BOOM! BOOM!, simultaneously my TV screen blew completely white, leaving a permanent dark arc from the power surge at the top of my screen, and then the entire neighborhood went dark. (This was just before I noticed the craft - which I saw when I ran outside to see what the heck was going on).
This event fried all the underground wiring in the city and took over a month to repair with some sections of the city being without electrical power for weeks. Not a word written in any newspapers. Not a word on the news. No credible explanation came forth from any city official or agency.
There was total pandomonium in the the city that night with fire trucks and police everywhere. There was another explosion about ten minutes later just outside my house where I was standing next to a fireman and we both watched a manhole cover shoot 10 feet in the air.
The next day as I was driving home, I saw the Caltrans working on 2nd street bringing up totally charred cable wires. I pulled over and asked him what they thought had happened (the "official" word was that a car on the coast highway hit a phone pole causing the transformers to blow -- yea, right, there as no evidence of that at all).
He just smiled when I mentioned how completely impossible that scenario was. If there had been a power surge for any reason didn't we have limiters, I asked? "Yes, of course we do, and it blew through all of them. We have no idea what caused something like this." But he said that it would take a tremendous amount of juice to produce this effect.
Well, I certainly have a theory. And I wasn't the only one to see the row of green lights.
The '94 earthquake, which leveled SM from 20th to the beach, including my home of 20 years, occurred just three months later (UFOs have routinely been seen out over SM Bay for decades and that was the location of the initial quake that set off the Reseda fault (inaccurately a.k.a. Northridge quake. My grandmother used to see them from her porch in the wee hours of morning on a routine basis. "Green lights over the ocean that can disappear in a flash.").
So who knows? But I will say this, I didn't have a warm, fuzzy feeling that night when I ran outside only to see that huge ship with those green "windows".
BTW, I am not a UFO hunter, while I have always believed in them and know they are around, I have never spent any of time on the subject. So it's not as though I was "primed" to see something. No one was more shocked than I.
Whether the story is true or not the photo is simply an inverted reflection of the reflection from the vent below. Could be refraction through the camera lens and maybe a reflection on a window.
I took the image, inverted and scaled the "lights in the sky" part. Sorry but it fits absolutely perfectly over the reflections on the vent.
I cant believe that no one seen the sighting of these lights on November 4Th. I live in Long Beach,Ca on the wast side of PCH.I noticed my dogs looking up in the sky and they were barking so I looked up and there were two objects in the sky. one red ball and one blue ball just still in the sky. The balls sat still for a few seconds, then they shot straight to the east,then straight south,then straight north.It looked like it did a triangle as it was doing this it looked like the two went into one then disappeared.
patricia davila if you still read this i would like to talk to you...just post something..and i will respond..
Today is 3/12/2010. At around 8:10am, Myself and about everyone driving down Warner, in Huntington Beach, saw this wierd, what appeared almost as a rocket, descending down from about 400-500 ft in the area to the ground. After 10-20 seconds, I noticed it just appeared to be falling by the trails behind it but it was in fact not moving. After about 2 minutes, it then turned into a oval and appeared to be spinning. I could tell I wasn't the only one seeing it as the head's of everyone driving were looking up and many people were grabbing their phones to take pictures. After another minute, it became a spiral and was spinning into the center, much like a vortex. It was the weirdest thing I've ever seen. It did this for about a minute and shot off at an amazing speed, covering a mile a second. After about 20 seconds, it disappeared into the distance, much to far to see with the human eye.
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