THINK ABOUTIT UFO|UAP SIGHTINGS REPORT

2007: The Comet Over Pandan Reservoir, Singapore

Moments after dismounting his daughter from his bicycle at Singapore’s Pandan Reservoir, a father watched his son point east and shout — and saw a huge, silent, comet-like object streak past just above the clouds, its greenish-blue body trailing a long yellow tail, too large and too close to be a shooting star, gone in ten seconds with no sound, no explosion, and no trace.

This report’s stated date (July 1, 2007) does not match the well-documented, Channel NewsAsia-covered Singapore “green fireball” event that fits every other detail of this account almost exactly — that event is independently dated to January 2007. See Researcher’s Notes.

Date: Filed as July 1, 2007. This is very likely a date error — see Researcher’s Notes: multiple independent sources (Channel NewsAsia coverage, contemporaneous blog commentary dated January 7, 2007, and later retrospective pieces) describe a closely matching Singapore fireball event dated to January 2007, not July.

Sighting Time: 7:30 PM

Day/Night: Night — just after dusk

Location: Pandan Reservoir, western Singapore

Urban or Rural: Suburban/park — Pandan Reservoir is a recreational park and reservoir area within urban Singapore, not rural countryside. Corrected from the original field’s “Rural.”

No. of Entity(‘s): Undocumented

Entity Type: Not Applicable — no entity described

Entity Description: Not Applicable

Hynek Classification: NL (Nocturnal Light) — point or extended luminous source observed at night. This fits: no solid structure was ever resolved, only a glowing, comet-like light with color and a trailing tail.

Duration: 10 seconds

No. of Object(s): 1

Description of the Object(s): A comet-like object with no distinct solid shape, flying from north to south just above low clouds. It displayed a yellow light at the front, a greenish-blue glow as its main body, and a long yellow trailing light resembling a tail. The witness judged it larger than a jumbo jet based on its apparent size at that altitude, though this was a visual impression rather than a measurement.

Shape of Object(s): No distinct shape — described as comet-like

Size of Object(s): Undocumented precisely; witness impression was that it appeared larger than a jumbo jet at the altitude observed

Color of Object(s): Orangey-red afterglow of sunset in the background sky; the object itself displayed a yellow light at front, greenish-blue as its body, and a long yellow tail

Distance to Object(s): Undocumented — the witness judged it to be “just above some low clouds,” implying a relatively low altitude, but gives no measured distance

Height & Speed: Height undocumented beyond “just above some low clouds.” The object crossed from north to south and was out of sight within 10 seconds, indicating high speed, though no figure is given.

Number of Witnesses: At least 3 (the reporting witness and his two children). Broader Singapore media coverage of the closely matching event describes sightings reported from multiple locations across the island by numerous other unnamed members of the public.

Special Features/Characteristics: The witness explicitly worked through and rejected several explanations in real time: a shooting star (dismissed due to the object’s apparent size and low altitude, atypical for a meteor at the “top of the atmosphere”), a jet fighter (dismissed because a jet could not produce the observed greenish-blue light and tail), and a large kite (dismissed due to size and speed). He heard no explosion and found no subsequent reports of a crash, and could not determine whether the object burned up or flew onward, since it remained glowing above the cloud layer until it passed from view.

Case Status: Probable natural phenomenon (fireball/bolide meteor) — this account matches, in near-total detail, a well-documented Singapore fireball event covered by Channel NewsAsia and discussed by Singapore astronomy commentators, who identified it as a meteor. See Researcher’s Notes for the date discrepancy that prevents a fully certain match.

Source: Reported to Think AboutIt. The witness also cites a Channel NewsAsia report featuring an interviewed family and a blurred cellphone video of the same or a closely matching phenomenon.

Summary/Description: I went cycling at Pandan Reservoir, in the western part of Singapore, with my two children. After admiring a beautiful sunset on the west side, the orangey-red spectacle had subsided and the sky was bathed in the last light of dusk. Just after I dismounted my daughter from the rear of my bicycle, my son pointed to the east and shouted, “Daddy, look!” I saw something flying from north to south. It looked like a comet with a long tail. My first thought was that it was a shooting star, but I immediately dismissed that thought, since shooting stars usually appear at the top of the atmosphere and are tiny. This one was just above some low clouds, and looking at its size, it should have been bigger than a jumbo jet. I had never seen something like that flying so near to where I was.

My next thought was that it was some kind of jet fighter, but a jet fighter could not have emitted that greenish-blue light and long yellow tail. In fact it looked like one of those remote-controlled kites, but it was too huge and flying too fast to be a kite. It may have been something that had dropped from space, but looking at its size and height, I would have expected it to crash onto earth instead of burning off. But I could not hear any explosion, and there were no subsequent reports of a crash. It was out of sight after 10 seconds. As it was glowing above the clouds, I could not tell if it burned off or flew off.

Related Cases: Undocumented on this site, though this account matches, in most particulars, a widely reported Singapore fireball event covered by Channel NewsAsia and discussed in contemporaneous public commentary — see Researcher’s Notes

Detailed Report

This is a rare entry in the archive where the witness does most of the analytical work himself, working methodically through and rejecting several conventional explanations in real time rather than jumping straight to “UFO.” A father cycling with his two children at Pandan Reservoir, just after sunset, was alerted by his son to an object crossing from north to south, low over the clouds: a comet-like form with a yellow light at its front, a greenish-blue glowing body, and a long yellow tail. He first considered and dismissed a shooting star (wrong altitude and size for that), a jet fighter (wrong light color and tail for that), and a large kite (wrong size and speed for that), before concluding it might be space debris — while noting that its apparent size and low altitude should have meant a visible crash or audible explosion, neither of which occurred. This precise combination of details — greenish-blue coloring, a trailing tail, an early-evening timing around 7:30-7:40 PM, a roughly 10-second duration, and coverage by Channel NewsAsia including an interviewed family and a too-blurry cellphone video — matches, almost feature for feature, a widely reported Singapore “green fireball” event that multiple independent sources date to January 2007, not July. Singapore astronomy commentators who discussed that event at the time identified it as a fireball meteor (a bolide), a natural, if visually dramatic, atmospheric phenomenon. Given how closely this account tracks that event in every detail except the stated date, the January dating should be weighed seriously as the more likely correct one, though this page preserves the originally filed July date rather than silently overriding it.

RESEARCHER’S NOTES

The Comet Over Pandan Reservoir — A Likely Date Correction and a Probable Fireball

• Classification Assessment: NL fits the observed facts — an unresolved, glowing, colored light with no solid structure. Whether NL is the most useful category for what is very likely a natural meteor rather than any kind of craft is a separate question this page does not resolve, but the classification itself matches what was seen.
• Source Chain Assessment: The single biggest issue with this filing is the stated date. Multiple independent sources — a Global Voices piece published January 7, 2007 discussing the event as recent news, a Wikipedia-derived summary citing a Channel NewsAsia video of a cellphone recording, and later retrospective Singapore media pieces on historical local fireballs — describe a Singapore green fireball seen around 7:40 PM, traveling across the sky, captured on a blurry cellphone video aired by CNA, with an interviewed witness family. Nearly every distinctive detail in this report (the CNA coverage, the blurred cellphone video, the evening timing, the greenish-blue coloring, the comet/tail appearance) matches that January 2007 event far more precisely than coincidence alone would suggest. The stated July 1, 2007 date is preserved here as originally filed, but should be treated with real skepticism pending further verification.
• Evidentiary Weight: No photograph or video is included with this specific submission, though the witness references a separately broadcast, low-quality cellphone video from another family shown on Channel NewsAsia — consistent with the January 2007 event’s own documented cellphone footage. The witness’s own methodical process of elimination (ruling out meteor, aircraft, and kite explanations in turn) adds credibility to the observation itself, independent of the exact cause.
• Pattern and Comparative Context: Bright meteors, or fireballs/bolides, producing brief, colorful, tailed streaks with no sound and no confirmed impact are a well-documented and unremarkable astronomical occurrence — Singapore and neighboring Johor Bahru have had several independently confirmed fireball sightings in other years, some captured on dashcam or phone video and formally logged with the International Meteor Organization. A witness’s impression that such an object is “too big” or “too close” to be a meteor is common and understandable, since bright bolides are frequently misjudged as far closer and larger than they actually are.
• Geographic and Historical Context: Pandan Reservoir sits in western Singapore, an open, low-light-pollution recreational area well suited to skywatching, which likely contributed to the clarity of this sighting relative to more built-up parts of the city-state.

This witness did the honest work of ruling out the obvious explanations himself, in real time, and still came away without a firm answer — which is exactly the position this page leaves the case in, pending resolution of its likely date error. Weighed against independently documented reporting of a strikingly similar Singapore fireball, most probably from January rather than July 2007, this looks far more like a well-observed natural meteor than an unexplained craft. It is filed here as a probable natural phenomenon, not a confirmed one, with the date discrepancy flagged rather than silently resolved.

“As it was glowing above the clouds, I could not tell if it burnt off or flown off.”