Unidentified Lights Reported over Tacoma, Washington

Location: Tacoma, Washington – 03-12-17

Shape: Circular Objects

We were walking down Borough Road by Garfield Park to our car. My daughter saw 3 hovering lights, white with red and blue and thought it was an airplane, but wondered why they were silent and hovering so low, plus they were too small to be full-sized airplanes, but the lights were very bright.

The group of 3 were in a tighter formation at first. There were more bright white lights hovering lower on the horizon by the water, Commencement Bay Puget Sound.

We noticed 9 lights and actually noticed 11 in one photo, almost as though they were meeting at the spot we saw the first 3, making a formation of some kind. I got my phone to get pictures.

They stayed bright white and spread out, then disappeared, most moved upward into the clouds, a few sideways, probably hovering for close to ten minutes.

This was about 7:45 PM, Sunday, March 12th in Tacoma. We have no idea what these were. I’m glad we got photos.

Dear Mr. Davenport,

Thank you for your reply and information. I looked at photos online of Chinese lanterns and don’t believe that is what we saw as the objects seemed too mechanical and the movement seemed too deliberate, but hovering rather than floating, if that makes sense.

Plus they seemed larger than the photos of Chinese lanterns. They were coming from the horizon. I looked at the map for this area and noticed a Tacoma city park on the water called the Fuzhou Ting at Chinese Reconciliation Park.

I called to ask if they allow Chinese lanterns and if any were lit last night. It seems Chinese lanterns are illegal in Seattle, so I would assume most likely in Tacoma, too.

I am waiting to hear back from someone at the Parks Department to verify. Being it is so chilly and rained earlier in the day, I doubt there were any weddings at the Fuzhou Ting Park.

I am wondering if there is some kind of military goings on with the nearby JBLM. I looked up pictures of drones but these seemed too large to be a drone, at least what photos you can find online.

I also tried to reach the Tacoma Tribune but no one has replied as well as the local Fox KCPQ affiliate. I couldn’t find anything online reporting lights in the sky. It was all very strange, we could not stop watching it.

I can’t believe my Galaxy 5.6 phone was able to capture what it did since the photos are no where near the brightness and clarity of what we actually saw.

We were thinking how could you not notice this but this road is quiet and with the trees and terrain, we were in the perfect spot to see what we did. I was hoping the Fox KCPQ might show the pictures and others might come forward if they saw it but they must not be interested.

I will submit to the online report form as soon as I get an answer from the Tacoma Parks Department about the Chinese lanterns. The person who handles that venue is out until the 22nd so hopefully the other person I left a message with will call me back tomorrow.

I will also see if there is some way to get information from the City of Tacoma about people calling in about those lights. I looked up some videos on youtube and these lights look like what others have seen, too.