Fireball over Houston, TX

The report, as filed

I live on a suburb on the northwest side of Houston known as the Bear Creek area. I was doing a little cleanup up in my back yard at about 7:30PM this evening and a bright orange light caught my attention as it was approaching from the west in a direction that I usually observe airlines as they pass overhead to land at Houston Intercontinental Airport. It began to curve to the north and a second orange light appeared paralleling it a little further to the west. These were no ordinary craft. They were much brighter that the landing lights that we often see on aircraft. They were solid without any blinking or pulsing normally associated with known aircraft. They were a color orange that was almost as intense as looking at a welding arc with almost the same sort of sharpness. Very orange. The first thing I thought of was all the reports of the orange fireballs that many people have been sighting lately. These were definitely self directed. Piloted! They were moving about as fast as a normal aircraft. I would estimate that they were at about 3 to 4 thousand feet in altitude. They appeared to be roughly 500 ft apart. They continued to head in a northwesterly direction at about the same altitude paralleling each other when another one came into view trailing behind the more westerly one at roughly the same distance. They were in a rough 90 degree pattern all moving in the same direction. All of this transpired within approximately 30 seconds. At this time I rushed to call my wife and 18 year old son to see this. They came out quickly to observe what I was seeing and at that time another light appeared further back and more to the west. At maybe 800 ft. further back. As we observed all 4 lights they continued to move in a northern direction and began to fade out one by one. They remained the same brightness till within the last 15 seconds or so when they began to fade and then totally disappear. All of this transpired within about 3 minutes before they were totally gone. They all appeared to remain at about the same altitude and speed the entire time. There was no sound heard by any of us. I attempted to bring out a camera to photograph them, however they were to far away to capture them by the time I was able to retrieve one. I am 58 years old. My father was in the Air Force for 18 years of my life and I have lived on and around many Air Force bases in the U. S. and in Europe. I am very familiar with many different aircraft and the required lighting that they display. These were not at all “normal” aircraft. I can also state that my wife, my son and myself have all seen other unexplained craft in the sky at various times in the past, with some that were defiantly not terrestrial. These were some of the most unusual we have ever seen.

Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center (record NUFORC #115227). Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.