Yahoo Answers is shutting down on May 4th, 2021 (Eastern Time) and the Yahoo Answers website is now in read-only mode. There will be no changes to other Yahoo properties or services, or your Yahoo account. You can find more information about the Yahoo Answers shutdown and how to download your data on this help page.

Can somebody tell me what I saw?

OK, just off the bat I'm no UFO nut, and I believe what I saw was from Earth but it's just been baffling me the past several weeks. In January I saw over Marina Del Rey, CA at about 10:30 PM a pair of craft that hovered and did figure 8's at about 800-900 feet. They were not directly above me but I saw them at a distance of maybe a mile or more. They stayed at the same altitude for several minutes until one seemed to go much lower and disappeared. I think it came back and stayed at the lower level but I don't quite remember for sure.

These were not helicopters, blimps, planes, or parachutes. Judging by their motions they appeared to be carried along by the wind, making me believe they were some type of hanglider. But who would put lights on hangliders and go out in the pitch black of night over water at after 10 PM? And the big problem with this theory is there's no place in MDR to get to a height of 800-900 ft. on a hanglider. The closest place I guess to try this is the Santa Monica Mountains many miles to the north.

It is interesting to note that one of them appeared to have one red light that wasn't flashing either on its back or on a side.

I heard nothing in the news, no reports to police stations, nothing. A friend of mine witnessed it as well, but we couldn't stick around because I had to go drive him somewhere. We stayed staring at these objects for about 6-7 minutes, and like I said for almost all that time both remained at the same altitude, doing their quiet piruettes.

I've seen some strange things over the years in the sky, including a Russian satellite burning up on re-entry and the engine blasts of a satellite boosting itself into higher orbit. But I've yet to know what these were.

Update:

OK, I have to admit this seems the most plausible explanation. The only problems I have still is that I've never seen any kind of thing like this done in MDR and don't know where they would launch from. There's Burton Chase Park, but I don't know if that has enough space to launch one of these things (don't know how much space it requires). Also I wonder if anybody has ever thought of putting lights on these things and launching at night. I guess you could, but why? It's not like you can see the ocean or anything, but oh well. To each his own.

No, I did not hear any motors, but then at the distance I was you don't hear motors from helicopters or small aircraft either.

Update 2:

I know what you are thinking about wit the para sails. I thought of that but there's no way a boat can make the twists and turns necessary for the motions I saw from these craft in the small channel of water that is the entryway to the Pacific at MDR, and that's about where these craft were. Moreover, some of the motions of the craft were clearly backwards, as they would head into the direction of the wind, lift, and fall back.

I can only think it must be what the first responder said. But I will tell you that had my friend and I stayed around and they suddenly zipped upward and out of view, we would have been totally freaked.

Update 3:

BTW, I hope those motorized gliders can head into the wind, lift, and fall back, else I don't know what the heck we're dealing with here.

2 Answers

Relevance
Still have questions? Get your answers by asking now.