Fireball over Downers Grove/Chicago, IL

The report, as filed

It was 9:03pm Tues July 28th. I was sitting on patio in backyard facing south talking to a relative who was facing north. I was looking up at the sky as I often do watching the planes fly into the city when I suddenly saw one solid orange/red ball of light appear as though it came from the southwest heading East towards Chicago. Growing up directly under one of the many flight paths to one of the busiest airports, ohare, ive seen my fair share of planes. These were no usual aircraft/helicopter/drone. No blinking lights to indicate aircraft. It was not a meteor or comit there was no tail/debris trail. The first one flew in our line of sight for approx. 30 sec before shrinking to a tiny speck in the night sky (on the same horizontal plane as it appeared.). As the first one vanished, two more appeared flying in the exact same trajectory as the one previous. Same speed, same altitude. One about a thumbs length in front of the other (if holding thumb out sidewa! ys up to the sky). Those two repeated the same as the first, passing before us in a perfectly horizontal line as they diminished to specks as quickly as they had appeared. Best way I can describe it read as though they materialised/dematerialized by illuminating/extinguishing. They appeared to head in the direction of the city but never descending - 2 more appeared. Same path, same distance apart same everything. Then two more and same thing. It appeared as though once they got closer to the city the went from solid orbs of light to specks instantaneously. Was able to see them through binoculars but couldnt identify anything more then orange/red glowing orbs. We were left dumbfounded by what we saw. Hope someone else besides us got to see it also!

Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center (record NUFORC #158141). Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.