Los Angeles Times
A bright red
and green light that appeared to plunge into the Pacific Ocean
on Monday night may have been a meteor, an astronomer said.
About 30 people
from Santa Barbara to Marina del Rey called U.S. Coast Guard and
law enforcement officials about 8:20 p.m. to report what they
thought was a meteorite, a flare or a downed aircraft, authorities
said.
Crews in boats
and helicopters equipped with infrared scopes were sent to search
for crash debris in Los Angeles Harbor and Marina del Rey, but
they found nothing.
Paramedic
Robert Johnson saw the brilliant burst of light in Sherman Oaks
while sitting around a bonfire with fellow firefighters.
"I could
see how people thought it was a plane," he said. "There
were flames coming out, but they were green and large.
"This
thing was hot and just going before it disappeared below the horizon,"
he said. "I thought it was going to crash into something."
Troy Powers,
a museum guide at Griffith Observatory, said that judging from
the descriptions, "it could have been a meteor."
"It might
have impacted the water, although that's pretty rare," he
said. More likely, he said, "it was a meteor, between the
size of a naval orange and a basketball, about 40 to 50 miles
high in the atmosphere."
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