BANNING, CA — A Banning resident was stargazing this week when he noticed three strange lights in the sky. He wasn’t the only one. Several Yucaipa-area residents also saw objects moving high and fast in the sky in an inexplicable way.
First, thinking they were drones, he watched them. Then, he recorded them. Now, questioning whether we are alone in the universe, he asked neighbors in a social media group. Their answers may surprise you. (See the video below)
It was about 9 p.m. Thursday when Victor Ruiz was relaxing on his patio, staring at the night sky. “I was next to my fire pit when I saw something fast darting across the sky,” he told Patch. “First, I thought it was a shooting star, as it was really bright.”
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Then, he saw there were actually four separate lights.
“It almost looked as if it had split up into pieces,” he told us. That’s when he grabbed his phone to zoom in and see the anomaly more closely. “The lights were making slow, then fast and random movements, changing directions very quickly,” Ruiz said. “Eventually, I lost them behind the clouds.”
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He stayed outside another 20 minutes before it got too cold, his neck craned, staring at the sky, seeking any further view of the lights.
He went to social media to ask friends and neighbors what they thought. The reaction was mixed, and he knows even fewer people would believe it without the video.
Video shared by Victor Ruiz, Banning, CA.
One commenter shared several possible “logical” explanations for his sighting, ranging from a NASA satellite reentering the atmosphere to supersonic testing.
Two people in the Yucapia area saw something in the sky they couldn’t explain the same night.
One described where he was when he witnessed a similar incident: “I saw something to the north east of Bryant Street and Oak Glen Road, in the Yucaipa/Oak Glen area. Interesting.”
Another suggested they saw something odd in the Yucaipa sky. “We were at the DQ for ice cream, and saw something too low to be a plane but decent in size. It disappeared fast, and freaked me out,” she said. “Good to know others have seen this too.”
When commenters suggested the sighting was drones, Ruiz shared that he is a drone pilot. “I fly drones, but they definitely don’t look like this.” He suggests that drones can go up to about 1,600 feet if you remove the restrictions.
Another commenter saw the video and made a judgment call.
“I’m thinking it is UFOs. I think it would be arrogant to assume we are The Only Living Creatures, Humans in the WHOLE UNEXPLORED GALAXY. I believe it’s possible!!”
Regardless of whether people believe he saw something, Ruiz likes that he’s gotten people talking. He’s lived in Banning for about six years now, and everywhere else he’s called home has had too much light to see the stars.
“I do star gaze more often in this area,” he said. “This is the first time seeing anything like this, let alone recording it. I’ve always wanted to see a UFO, to see if it was a real thing, and was excited when my time came.”
What do you think?
The National UFO Reporting Center has cataloged UFO sightings since 1974, and since then, well over 17,000 sightings have been reported in the Golden State. With more data points than ever, they are helping to debunk or acknowledge that sightings are unexplained and unexplainable… for now.
Of the reported incidents, the center explains many as planes, rocket launches, Starlink Satellites, Drones or even “space junk.” Still, that leaves plenty of California sightings that remain question marks, according to the center.
If you’re uncertain whether you’ve seen a UFO, the National UFO database offers some suggestions that may explain your questions. Otherwise, share your experience. After all, the truth is out there!
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