Light over Santa Barbara, CA
A witness account on file, unevaluated. Most of the archive rests here, and honestly so.
The report, as filed
Bright light that vanished
Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center. Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.
Ask for the records
What would the paper say?
For a dated, located U.S. sighting, FAA radar data and ATC communications are the records most likely to exist. Through Aletheca, the house instrument, anyone can commission the request — filed, chased, and published in the open, refusals included. The draft goes over already written: the records sought, and the date window they would live in.
Routed to: Federal Aviation Administration · records window 2005-11-08 → 2005-11-25
From the same sky
Related entries
August 19, 2023 · 12:02 PM · SPHERE
Santa Barbara, CA
I saw one bright orb in the sky approximately facing SW. I saw the object again at 1:10pm while on a bike ride in goleta. The object didn't seem to move but seemed to hover high in the sky. I lost sight after clouds rolled in.
July 28, 2023 · 9:00 PM · TRIANGLE
Santa Barbara, CA
An extremely large triangular ship flew directly overhead. Size was comparable to a large military cargo carrier aircraft. There were three bright lights at each corner, but no structure was discernable between the lights due to the darkness. After watching it fly away, grabbed phone and managed to catch some video before it disappeared toward the mountains. Made no sound at all, even though if it was any kind of conventional aircraft, being so close it would have been heard.
May 17, 2023 · 3:30 PM · OTHER
Santa Barbara, CA
Square shape with orbs on corners. Flat in another dimension - exposed by wobble. Continued north until no longer visible. Aircraft, possibly an airline, traveling east, recorded in video. The video was too large to attach. [NUFORC annotation: Balloon - Possible]
December 16, 2022 · 3:47 AM · UNKNOWN
Santa Barbara, CA
I was in a Lyft on the way from Agoura Hills up to the Santa Barbara airport. It was the middle of the night and very dark. The driver and I were having good conversation, when suddenly she just pointed to the sky and we both went silent. We couldn’t make sense of what we were seeing. The sky was filled with a horizontal, orange glow. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, a very, very brightly lighted object appeared and rose into the sky, disappearing into the night. It almost looked as though it had fire trailing after it, but not a long trail. It all happened very fast, as it seemed to disappear into the dark clouds. After that, both the driver and I kept searching the sky, wondering if we would see it again. We had no idea what it was, and the remainder of the ride was fully comprised of discussion about it. After the first sighting, we did see it again about two minutes later, but we did not see an object. We only saw that same orange hue in the sky. A horizontal glow. The Lyft driver thought she saw it a third time a few minutes later, just for a second, but I didn’t see that one. We kept talking about it, trying to make sense of it. We thought perhaps it was a missile or rocket or something, but that didn’t make sense, and it didn’t align with what we had seen. It was the orange horizontal glow across the sky that was very distinct and strange. We had no idea what it was, but by the end of the ride, we both agreed that it must have been a UFO. Neither of us had any ever seen anything like it in our entire lives. (I only finally thought to make a video by the time the Lyft driver thought she saw it a third time, but even though I wasn’t able to catch it, I figure I’ll upload it anyway. I also have a recording of us when we saw the first two.)
April 24, 2022 · 8:00 PM · LIGHT
Santa Barbara, CA
At 8 pm, while outside enjoying a warm evening, a long-duration (10 seconds) flasher appeared of brightness -6 (brighter than brightest Venus) in the southern sky at 50 deg declination. I refer to these sightings as flashers based on the typically instantaneous flashes of varying brightness that are almost a guaranteed viewing if one gives a half hour or more of continuous observation. As a 54yo lifelong skywatcher, I have seen well over 50 uap including close-ups, daytimers, and shapeshifters. I haven't seen an extraterrestrial that I am aware of. Over 50% of the sightings have been flashers. 0% were common satellites. The light of a flasher typically is of point-source starlike intensity vs dull, reflected light from satellites or planets. Normally the flashes are instantaneous or microseconds in duration but a few have been of seconds-long duration. Flashing light is a great way to send information I hear.
February 13, 2021 · 7:30 PM · UNKNOWN
Santa Barbara, CA
I was pacing around my front porch, on the phone with my cousin. It was about 7:30pm. She was talking to me about our aunt, as she's talking to me I stare up at the night sky and I see this really bright star to the left of our big sticky gum tree, which caught my attention. As she is talking I move over to my left to get a clear view and notice that the bright star that formed a small triangle with two other fainter looking stars. As my cousin is still talking to me, I'm staring at (what I thought was a constellation) the triangle of stars, the top star looked like it was moving. I then realize that all three stars that formed the small triangle were slowly moving downward. I then interrupted my cousin to explain what I was seeing, as I was talking to her the three star looking objects slowly faded out, with the brightest light that was on the left being the last to fade into nothing. After I hung up, I went on a skymap app I have on my phone, to try and map out where I saw the triangle of lights. The small triangle of lights looked like it was in a larger triangle of stars. Which I believe was, Y Uma (the point), Dubhe (bottom left), Merak (bottom right). I have never seen anything CLOSE to a UFO before. I'm still trying to rationalize this!