Suspicious Sky Light

Last Sunday, January 10, at approximately 10:45 p.m., I was driving my 1998 Honda Civic east on Skyline Truck Trail. My boyfriend and I were heading toward our home in Jamul.

We noticed an unusual light in the northeastern sky. Unlike most aircraft that fly over these mountains, the light appeared to be much lower on the horizon than usual flight paths. Because it was an extremely bright white light, it took us several seconds before we could see the blinking navigational lights that all planes have. Even though everything about it seemed odd, we figured the light must be from some kind of airplane.

As I commented again on how low it seemed to be flying, a green luminescent light suddenly engulfed my car. Expecting to see a helicopter with its floodlight pointing at me for some reason, I looked out my driver’s-side window. What I saw was a light streaking across the sky, like a shooting star, only this one was green instead of white — and it lit up my car! I've seen lots of shooting stars during my lifetime, but not once did any of them ever give off that much light.

Freaked out by the incident, I called several places (KUSI news, the non-emergency police line, and even the FAA!) in an attempt to find answers. The man who answered at KUSI informed me that they had no idea where the light was from and that a previous caller had witnessed the light originating from Hillcrest.

A woman answering the non-emergency police phone line admitted that they had no idea as to the origin of the green light either and that they had also gotten other calls regarding the incident. She suggested that I try contacting the FAA.

When I called the FAA, an automated voice asked me to "please leave a message" and said, "someone would try to return [my] call as soon as possible." Uh-huh, sure.