Sighting in Geraldton

Recently there was a sighting in Geraldton WA (My hometown)

Hundreds of people (including my parents and a skeptic friend of mine) saw three orange lights hover over the city slowly in a triangle formation. They stopped over the city centre, then headed out towards the ocean where two headed south and the other one shot off north - all at incredible speeds.

This is the explanation that one journalist put forward, any thoughts?

UFO explanation

(You have to scroll down a little bit to see the story)

Heres the link to the original story about the lights, my mother and grandmother even get a mention in the article!

UFO Story

(scroll down to LIGHTS LACK EXPLANATION)

Why don't you try an experiment get an orange bag and have a go.I'd be interested to see how it goes.

A friend of mine who is an aeronautical engineer gave me some reasons why the bag thingy wouldnt work but I cant remember them all.

Heres some reasons why It couldnt have been a bag from a friend of mine

-it was completely the wrong colour to be an orange bag
-not dark enough
-the light didn't flicker at all
- no candle is going to burn that steadily for overhalf an hour without melting the bag

Was this ever debunked or explained? I remember hearing about it way back when it happend.. interesting i stumbled back on this.

Just thought I'd let you know that I saw an "orange ball" zoom across the skies of Geraldton around 1977 (+/-)...and it wasn't a balloon - it was going way too fast.

As for "Tatey's" reasoning - if they were balloons as he said they were, how come they went off in multiple directions? Definitely not balloons.

They do exist...whether they are man made or otherwise, who knows.

Cheers

JS

I doubt the prank balloon explaination too. As to what it could be, who knows?

Are there any top secret military bases in the area?

Originally posted by Ezekiel

UFO explanation

the Tate guy, who offered that explaination, is embellishing or whatever...

30-35 years ago, i couldn't recall that there were orange trash bags on the market

next- - we kids always found that those thin, light, strong bags that come from the dry cleaners made the best candle powered UFOs

next- - we never used wire to construct the UFO, we used the wood strips that are used in regular kites. cross the wood sticks, tape together in an "X" & put your
candle at the X...tape the wood strip ends to the inside of the plastic bag.

take it out to a clearing at night, light candle& it will launch itself!
it will resemble a large bell jar, glow the color of flame (yellow-orange)

but these primitive 'UFO's are not likely what the witnesss saw in the sky

[edit on 2-7-2006 by iCEdTenG]

skadi
Are there any top secret military bases in the area?

yes, not so secret, but exmouth is just up the track.
i,ve seen strange lights off the west coast.
some in the sky as well.

Originally posted by Skadi_the_Evil_Elf

Are there any top secret military bases in the area?

Congratulations!

You've won the weirdest thing I've heard all day award!

Come on, how would anyone know if there were any top secret bases near there house?

Yes there is a Spy Base in Geraldton. About 30kms out on the Mullewa Rd. at Kojarena. Upgrades have been made and should be in use by early 2010. Said to be a small version of Pine Gap with those golf ball dome thingys. There is a lookout at the site, but rumours persist about people tempting fate and trying to get closer....only to be stopped from men with rifles and guard dogs.
Staff are brought in from the US and some special locals get recruited, but they always answer with "classified", "can't tell you what I do there".
There is no airstip....unless they built one since I last looked on Google Earth.
I hear crop circles have also been found, but that's something a farmer would keep quiet.

Whoa, a four year old thread bought back from the grave. So this is what a retro thread looks like.

According to astronomical observer Tom Smith, from the Perth Observatory, it was a prank:
Claims UFO sightings hoaxes
Monday, August 26, 2002. Posted: 10:30:06 (AEDT)

The Perth Observatory has put paid to claims of UFOs circling the night sky of Geraldton, saying local people are practising a very old prank.
Geraldton police, the Department of Conservation and Land Management and the observatory have been receiving calls from residents describing three bright lights in the sky in a triangle formation.
Aircraft and flares have been ruled out.
But astronomical observer Tom Smith from the Perth Observatory says similar reports are received from the metropolitan area from time to time and the prank is not new.
"We're pretty sure the kids are getting up to pranks. I'd rather not go into detail, we don't want them happening all the time and definitely not during the summer months - there's a good possibility of starting bush fires, that's why we don't want to say too much about it," he said.

His statement lead me to think he meant chinese lanterns, but such an explanation would be inconsistent with both the claims that 'They stopped over the city centre', and that 'two headed south and the other one shot off north - all at incredible speeds': either one of the two sides lied, or it was some genuine sighting that took place during a wave of pranks, who knows? Thanks for bumping it

In response to previous posts. Yes there was an incident with Chinese lanterns - we all know about that. But why is it every posting goes back to that story. Chinese New Year doesn't happen all year 'round does it - I'm pretty sure if people were going to pull a UFO prank they would come up with something new....this is over being old.
Just because we live in the country doesn't mean we are brain dead rednecks. People here can tell the difference between a piece of paper with a candle in it and what was seen.