CARLSBORG — The strange unidentified flying objects seen in Sequim-area skies Friday night have been identified.
They are kites.
“They are kites with LED lights on them,” said Clallam County Undersheriff Ron Peregrin today.
That was the first impression of Carlsborg resident Ed Evans, he said Monday after he had posted photos and videos of the lights on his Facebook page.
“At first I thought they were some kind of fancy kites,” Evans said.
“But they were really quite bright and shimmering. I don’t think they were kites.”
The sheriff’s office confirmed otherwise today.
“We did verify that they are kites,” Peregrin said.
“They belong to a citizen in that area.
“He has two of them. One is blue and one is red.”
The resident — Peregrin did not know his name, and the deputy who investigated was off-duty — “didn’t do it as a joke,” Peregrin said.
“He just had kites and was flying them,” Peregrin explained.
“When you have LED kites, you fly them at night.”
LED, or light-emitting diode, is a semiconductor light source.
LEDs are used as indicator lamps in many devices and are increasingly used for other lighting.
Evans and his wife, Carolyn, saw the lights above his Woodcock Road home west of Kitchen-Dick Road and near Sequim Valley Airport, beginning at about 9:45 p.m. Friday.
The lights were aloft for about 90 minutes. The Evans did not report the sighting to the sheriff’s office.
Peregrine said Monday he was unaware of the sighting or any reports of it.
But on Tuesday, a deputy who had known that a resident owned LED lights confirmed that he had flown them Friday and alerted Peregrin.
Earlier report:
By Jeff Chew
Peninsula Daily News
CARLSBORG — The strange unidentified flying objects posted in photos and videos on Ed Evans’ Facebook page appear to be undulating colored lights trailing a brighter, larger light.
It is anyone’s guess what the lights in the sky were that Evans saw above his Woodcock Road home west of Kitchen-Dick Road and near Sequim Valley Airport, beginning at about 9:45 p.m. Friday.
He and others spotted the subtle nighttime spectacle. The sight lasted for about 90 minutes, he said, then disappeared just as quickly as it appeared.
“When I first saw them, I thought they were kites,” said Evans, a retired church pastor who drew no Biblical conclusions.
Evans’ wife, Carolyn, brought the lights to his attention at first.
“My wife called me to the dining room window to look at them when she was letting the dogs out to do their business for the evening,” he wrote on his Facebook page.
“At first I thought they were some kind of fancy kites. But they were really quite bright and shimmering. I don’t think they were kites.
“A neighbor out for an evening walk rang my doorbell to tell me about them. I’d never met the neighbor before. Pretty weird.”
Indeed, an Internet search shows that kites are sold online that light up using LED lights.
LED, or light-emitting diode, is a semiconductor light source. LEDs are used as indicator lamps in many devices and are increasingly used for other lighting.
Sequim resident Amanda Lynn Bacon also spotted Friday night’s lights in the sky.
“I never found out, but they were like red and blue LED-type lights,” Bacon said.
“Someone thought that they may be lanterns that were let off at a wedding, but I know they were not. They were in two straight lines and would sometimes touch.
“It was really creepy.”
Clallam County Undersheriff Ron Peregrine said Monday he was unaware of the sighting or any reports of it.
Evans said he did not report it to the Sheriff’s Office.
“This is the first I’ve heard of it,” Peregrine said.
“We had a couple reports quite awhile ago. They turned out to be planets.”
Peregrine, however, remained open-minded about what it could be.
“I wouldn’t discount anything,” he said.
“Anything is possible.”
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
