Light over Sumner, WA
A witness account on file, unevaluated. Most of the archive rests here, and honestly so.
The report, as filed
I watched the for about 10 minutes. The lights seemed to go into the valley and I never seen them come up or over the hill West of town. Strange very strange… Witness elects to remain totally anonymous; provides no contact information. PD
Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center (record NUFORC #144748). Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.
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Routed to: Federal Aviation Administration · records window 2019-01-26 → 2019-02-12
From the same sky
Related entries
July 10, 2020 · 3:30 PM · TRIANGLE
Sumner, WA
Black triangle flying from Tacoma towards Mount Rainer (West to East direction). Flying over head very high. Thought it was an eagle at first because is was small and looked like it was soaring like an eagle. As it came closer and over head, I realized it was some sort of air craft. Looked like a black triangle. No wings or lights. I did hear the air craft sounds, like a plane flying overhead. Total time of sighting was appx 30 second or less. Flying opposite of regular SEATAC air traffic. And not flying the North/South route smaller planes and helicopters mostly take.
May 22, 2017 · 4:10 AM · LIGHT
Sumner, WA
May 22, 2017 Yesterday was a beautiful warm day. The sky was clear with patchy clouds here and there. As it began getting dark, I was disappointed because as usual, the sky was overcast, and not many stars could be seen. Maybe around 11pm, I was outside having a smoke and looking up to the sky. Night before last, within about 10 minutes, I seen what I think were satellites. Two separate tiny white lights, like specks, no flashing or any other colors just steady white light zoom across the sky. Tonight, all of the sudden I see one solid white speck of light but it's much lower than the two that I seen the night before. Travelling fast, steady white light. I grab the camera but my screen is broken so I can't see what I'm aiming at. Pointed it in the direction of the light which I can see with my eyes but it's already a bit away from me. I did manage to capture a few seconds of it on video but the quality is poor. I had some house chores to do and made a late dinner. Remembered that I needed to send an email with photos attached so went upstairs to do so. I'm borrowing a computer from a friend and not used to Windows 10 and had to figure out how to download the pics from my camera. And I got sidetracked... Next thing I know, it's almost 4am! I turn off the tv and look outside and quickly notice a super bright orange light in the flight path but it seems to be descending. It was very low, grabbed the camera and pointed in it's direction. Then a bright white light comes from same direction and looks to be slowing down. I took five separate videos because the lights were busy - doing something for probably 20 minutes. Two of those videos did not come out. You can hear me on them but no video was recorded until the last few seconds of one. I was surprised and almost couldn't believe what I was seeing. All together, I think there was at least four lights - low, and they would break into different lights flashing - at one point, the first two lights were making a cross of red, yellow and blue flashing very quickly but that doesn't show on the video. I'm a bit embarassed of the quality of my video - it's extremely poor - Canon Powershot, video taken outside my upstairs bedroom win! dow through the screen. Diidn't have another angle accessible for viewing. Got just a bit nervous towards the end of videoing because a couple of the lights seemed to flash close. Don't know how to describe but my friend and I have captured many videos in the past and sometime when capturing unusual lights - it might not be noticed by the person filming at the time, but upon reviewing, it will seem like the light(s) will suddenly come up on you quick. Oh, and my cat kept getting in the way. In one of the videos, there's a weird sound, otherwise, it was quiet outside. I'm estimating some people around the Sumner, Pacific, Edgewood areas HAD TO HAVE SEEN THESE. I have no idea how low they were but from where I was watching, the lights were below. I almost called the cops because I've heard of other people doing that - to see if anyone else had called but it was after 4 am and didn't want to sound like a crack pot.
December 4, 2015 · 6:45 PM · FIREBALL
Sumner, WA
Friday, December 4, 2015, at about 6:50 PM, I am pulling canvas off of a large Star I am making for Christmas. I walked back toward the house to get open the garage door to continue removing the tarp when I see a brilliant light move from East to West in the distance. It appears to be about 20 degrees above the horizon and covers about 30 degrees of the sky moving almost perfectly horizontally with just a slight curve for gravity. It was only visible for two seconds and it appeared to vanish into a cloud. It was such a bright green color, I thought it was a roman candle until I noticed how far away it was. It had a dimmer orange tail. It made no noise. I estimated it to be the size of a BB if held at arms length, but have no idea how big it really was. Years ago, I saw a boloid or large meteorite camping at Spirit Lake when I was a boy (before the mountain blew). It was green as well but not as brilliant green as this. This also moved faster and seemed closer than something in space or in orbit.
August 19, 2015 · 8:25 PM · OTHER
Sumner, WA
About 9:15, went to the library with my dog. We had been seeing a large lop eared bunny in that area for a few nights. My dog loves to chase squirrels and bunnies. She’s too old and fat to catch them but she enjoys the chase and it gives here exercise. Sky was dark, lots of stars, busy flight path (Sea-Tac Intl airport about 15 or so miles away). It was warm out. I sat on a curb facing the Puyallup River (could be a different river name), that runs behind the library. Noticed a white light moving in the sky very high. I could tell that it was moving because I could see movement through the leaves and branches of a big maple tree. I took some pics and only one showed the light and in the pic, it looks like a yellow orb but to my eye, it looked white. I moved into a large parking area free of trees to get a better look and it looked like a planet – it was not twinkling – just a white light high in the sky. I was thinking that if one didn’t have a stationary object to use as a reference point, it would be very hard to realize that it was moving – one would probably think it to be a planet. I watched it for about 15 minutes and tried to take a video of it but it was not visible in the camera. Decided to go across the street and walk over to the field between the Post Office and Mc Lendon’s. There had been a car parked in the library parking lot for two nights in a row while we were there and I wanted to keep distance from it. We began to reach the outer edge of the parking lot when I decided not to walk all the way to the field because I didn’t have my flashlight. I turned to walk back the way we came when an extremely bright white light, which appeared as a large white orb, very low in the sky, caught my eye. It was very unusual. It seemed to be heading in our direction from the middle of town. I moved closer into the McLendon’s parking lot and turned on the recording button on the camera. I could see it very well and it was bright but the recording didn’t show it as it looked to me and I couldn’t see it through the screen of the camera until it was very close. There had to be people that seen this thing! It was so low and bright, it had to have caught someone’! s attention. As it got closer, like almost to the AM PM, it clearly had 5 super bright lights in a row – shaped like princess cut diamonds that sparkled and one red slow blinking light underneath – funny, I did not see any structure to this object for how close it was. It seemed to have a plane sound but very quiet sound of a plane – which didn’t make sense either. I felt like I had been standing there observing this thing for a long time and felt self conscious about it feeling this thing may be a ‘plane’ and here I am recording it in the parking lot, so I quickly turned the camera off after it passed in front of me. If it was a plane – it was the quietest plane I ever seen but then it did not have any structure of a plane. Maybe those 5 bright white lights blinded my vision..? I wish I would have continued recording it to see if it got into the flight path. That’s another thing, I am an avid sky watcher in this town and have lived here over 18 years, I have seen a lot o! f things and I have never seen a plane fly the direction that ! it did…but who knows…watch the recording and let me know if you think you know what it is….Thanks. Source of report indicates that the date of the event is approximate. PD
June 13, 2015 · 9:50 PM · SPHERE
Sumner, WA
Took dog for a walk. We were on our way back home, walking down Elm Street. I turned to my left, looked up and seen a bright orange light in the sky. The brightness excited me because not many known aircraft are bright orange around here. The night was warm, the sky dark and clear, many stars out. I thought to myself, that's super bright. Walked a few steps, looked again and it was coming in my direction. I had my binoculars in my bag as I am always watching the sky. I looked thru them and could see that it was definitely bright orange and sphere shaped and was drifting in my direction. I watched it for about 30 seconds and it just disappeared. I thought to myself, 'that was weird'. And continued walking for about 30 steps and looked back. There was another one or the same one??? It was further back then the last one I seen. So, I stop and look thru binoculars and it looks like the first one but has red tiny spots inside the sphere. I lower the binoculars and suddenly another appears behind where it appeared. I am super curious now and watching the second one which is heading towards the same direction as the one before it. I'm not good with directions so all I can say is that they all appeared just above the flight path, above a field next to Mission Avacados, most of them appeared there, bright red and rose up above the horizon and moved to the east towards Lake Tapps area except one would always move in my direction. One after another they would fade out and disappear. This time, I walked about 1/2 a block to the 4 way stop at Parker Rd & Elm and here's two more. I began watching them and then two more appeared. The ones that closest to me, did not emit any sounds. None of them moved past me. This time one appeared directly across from one and began moving quickly to the other one - I thought! they would collide but it just moved directly underneath. Then moved across so they looked like headlights, coming in my direction and then they disappeared, all of them gone. Sometimes, I get a little paranoid and to get to my apts, there is a big field and I was nervous about it. That's when I fell in a hole and scratched up both of my knees! We come around the corner and no lights. I get in the apt and ask my daughter where the camera is and in my search for it out in the car, I see another bright orange light in the sky. I wanted to video it but once I found the camera it was too late. Throughout this sighting, I seen at least 3 airplanes flying about. The very first observation of these lights was around 10:50 pm The last observation was about 11:25 pm. ;:
June 4, 2015 · 11:45 PM · LIGHT
Sumner, WA
Around 11:45 pm on Thursday, June 4th. I wanted to go outside with the dog to cool off. We walked out the front door of our apt and turned left. She was sniffing around for somewhere to pee, and I see this super bright light, low in the sky. The sky was dark, thin veil of clouds, could barely tell they were there. Lots of stars out. This light was odd because it seemed to be located near the flight path, (Sea-Tac is about 15 miles away) and was extremely low-–lower than the planes flying. It looked like a bright white light and I couldn’t tell if it was moving. Sometimes I get self conscious watching the sky because I can imagine what people think of me always watching the sky at night. My neighbors had their parents in their 5th wheel near where I was standing. I decided to get my binoculars out of the car and hoped I could see from there so that the neighbor’s parents couldn’t see me. I could not see anything from the car so walked back to where I had been. At first, the light looked like one bright white light but as I watched it, it changed to a fiery orange. That’s when I noticed that it was moving very slowly. I could tell because there is a row of decorative tall trees at the barrier of the apts and the mobile home park. The light was above the trees in the beginning but it moved to the left, then lowered a little so it was below the treetops and then moved to the right about 2 trees over. Once it cleared treetops again, it got very orange and at one point, through the binoculars, it looked almost like two headlights. Problem is, I think the kids dropped my binoculars because it looks like double vision so not sure if what I seen was really how it looked. What was odd is that normally when I look through them, if I’m trying to zone in on a single light/star in the night sky these days; it looks like two but far apart. This light looked like two orange headlights close together, really close together. It kept moving to the right now and it moved back to the left one more time and t! hen must have moved away from my sight beyond the trees because I never saw it come out either side or up over the trees again. This whole time, the dog was lying down in the grass and her rope was lying near my feet. Suddenly, a cat walked in front of us and the dog lunged to chase it and I nearly fell. I decided to go in at that time which was about 12:10pm. This sighting lasted probably 10 to 15 minutes. It seems that somebody in our town had to have seen this. I am thinking it was clearly visible near Sumner/Milton border. Many years ago when I lived on Wood Avenue, I had a most amazing sighting – the brightness of that light reminded me of this one as well as how low it was. That sighting lasted about 2 hours and it changed to green, blue and a most beautiful teal color. ((ADDENDUM FROM WITNESS)) Yes, Thursday, June 4th - sorry. ((END ADDENDUM)) We have amended the date of the sighting above. PD