SIGHTING: ORANGEVALE, CALIFORNIA (UNITED STATES)

Witness Testimony

"At around 10:55pm i was watching tv in my living room. i entered the kitchen and looked out the glass patio door to my backyard and witnessed three red lights in the western sky. it initially looked like some people were flying 3 drones above our neighborhood several blocks away. the three orbs had a orange/red appearance similar to the red light you would see on commercial drones. the lights appeared solid. i watched them briefly for about 5-6 seconds, enough time to see one of the lights moving upwards toward the other 2. they were in a staggered formation and roughly 25-30 degrees above the horizon. i ran upstairs to get my phone and then went into my backyard to get a better look. the initial 3 orbs had started moving in a nw direction. after about 10 seconds a 4th red/orange orb entered the area from my left. this orb was also around 25-30 degrees above the horizon and and was moving slowly around 25mph. at arms length it was about the size of a penny but exhibited an interesting glowing effect at its core. the closest thing i could compare it to would be the effect you would see from a chinese lantern. it seemed like it couldn't be more than a mile away from where i was located and was heading in a northward direction then it changed direction slightly to a nw direction, following the other 3 orbs which were now getting lower in the sky as they moved away. the 4th orb was definitely lagging behind the other 3 and trying to catch up. as the 4th orb moved nw the chinese lantern effect appeared to lessen and become more of a solid red/orange like the other 3 orbs. i watched the last orb for about a minute before it seemed to fade out. i checked the wind direction for tonight and at 11pm, it's listed as se at 9.2mph. about 15 minutes after the sighting a single engine prop plane flew into the area and did a large circle covering several miles. not sure of the height but it was probably below 10k feet. it was in the general area for about 5 minutes then left. another plane, not sure if it was the same one but seemed to have the same navigation lights, returned about 30 minutes after the sighting and flew the same pattern again. it could be coincidental that the planes arrived. not sure if it's connected. i'm just reporting what was observed."