KHON2 Honolulu -- UFO's seen over South Shore sky

POSTED WITH PERMISSION FROM KHON2.

Two trails of mysterious lights are seen circling in the southwest sky Friday evening.

It's hard to draw a surfer's attention away from the next wave, but whatever was in the southwest sky Friday evening around 6:20 p.m. drew a crowd along Kewalo Basin and Ala Moana Beach Park.

Honolulu resident Peter Hollingworth described what he and many others saw as two lights circling in the sky, about 45 degrees above the horizon.

Video of one of the lights was recorded from the KHON 2 SkyCam.

"These two little fireballs with a stream behind it," said Hollingworth. "Looked kind of like a shooting star but it just kept going. They changed directions a few times, at first it was coming in then it turned, then it went out then it came back in again."

Hollingworth was surfing with his 12 year old son when the unexpected show began.

"I was a little concerned. I told him come over and sit with me - this might be the last surf session we ever have together because this thing's coming straight for Honolulu. It looked deadly to me it was kind of spooky."

So what was it?

The National Weather Service says nothing showed up on their radar at the time of the sighting and the Federal Aviation Administration didn't report anything unusual.

The U.S. military conducted a missile defense test off of Kauai Friday evening but the test didn't begin until 7:20 p.m.

"This in a sense is an unidentified flying object," said University of Hawaii astronomy professor Gareth Wynn-Williams. "It's something in the sky that's moving that we haven't identified."

Wynn-Williams believes there's a simple explanation behind the UFO's.

"It's probably a contrail of some kind," he said while watching video of one of the lights at his Kailua home.

The professor says contrails are caused by high flying airplanes burning hydrogen based fuels. One of the byproducts of the fuel exhaust is water.

"The air is very cold so the water condenses and forms like drops very quickly and then these drops stay behind the plane until eventually they warm up and they evaporate."

Wynn-Williams doubts little green men from Mars are behind the UFO's.

"Some people just think differently than scientists and they like to look for the fanciest most exciting explanation. Those people would like to think it's little green men, I think that's very unlikely."

According to published reports this is not the first time a UFO has grabbed the attention of Hawaii residents.

In December of 2004 an unexplained streak of light was captured by a camera on Haleakala on Maui moving southwest to northeast. No official explanation has been given for that UFO sighting either.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• hawaii
• ufo
• honolulu
• lights
• sky

[gardenalien]

You know something, it is obvious the science guy is giving a skeptical view of the incident. He has to protect his career, maybe has a family, mortgage to pay etc etc. Until all governments around the world through the UN admits that UFOs are real, scientist will not take the subject seriously.

[SoloPilot6]

Sorry, but it is clearly a contrail. Aircraft flying just above the altitude where contrails begin to form will "pull a con" which dissipates rapidly. And since they are still fairly low, they appear to be traveling more quickly than normal.

This is most likely a military plane, possibly a fighter, using a fuel formulated to reduce condensation trails. As a single-seater pilot myself, I see nothing in that video that looks unusual.

[TheRayBerd]

4 months ago OMG I saw that in real life before the fire ball looking one in Hawaii. I saw it mutiple of times and one time my uncles firends recorded it at Olelo, that video looks like the one they recorded. It was going all around and moving around changing directions and at one time it just stayed still. Then it just vanished.

[MrFlyPR]

I seen five of these over nanakuli on that same day I'm dead serious and trust it ain't no jet I promise if you saw that you would agree.....

[MadHatterTruth]

good video 

[islandmamma]

Why the heck do people always say little green men when speaking of UFO's. Ancient scripts even reveal encounters with UFO's and millions of people world wide witness UFO's. Jeesh, I guess you have to see them to believe them.

[muterino]

I saw UFO and I recorded it (check my profil) and believe in it, and i don't listen what people talk.

[jnoort]

I can't believe this makes the news, and I can't believe ppl won't believe they are contrails. Anyone who regularly watches the sky know that on a bright day, you can see these contrails dozens of miles away. It would not take the most advanced equipment to make accurate pictures of it...

[bevon17]

this same thing happened in washington state about 3 years ago when I was at boxing.

we went for the daily 3 mile run and I saw this same thing

I thought it was a comet.

but the news said the same airplane thing that the man in this video did

[crossman456]

THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT I SEEN LAST NIGHT! On the 12 of nov, in honolulu hawaii, I seen 10 aircrafts, few looked like that one, and others... are near indescribable..

[rush4321]

i filmed a way better UFO in Hawaii 2 days ago,

click my user name and you'll see it.

[GUrep808]

if it was vapor how would it change directions

and if it was an airplane changing directions it would have probaly been a military aircraft

and they would have told us so we didnt think it was a UFO

and i was surfing bowls that day so i could see it too