Recreation of the January 2007 Dubai sighting, in which a couple watched a hovering, multicolored object dive toward them and reveal a disc-shaped underside before vanishing after twenty minutes.
THINK ABOUTIT UFO|UAP|ENTITY SIGHTINGS REPORT
2007: The Dinner-Plate Belly Over Dubai, United Arab Emirates
On the evening of January 1, 2007, a man and his wife on their usual walk through Dubai watched a multicolored object of green and yellow lights hover and move rapidly between south and southeast at an estimated 10,000-15,000 feet — until it dove toward them, its lights went dark, and they found themselves looking up at a solid, disc-shaped underside “similar to the bottom of a dinner plate,” hanging in the sky for a total of about twenty minutes.
Date: January 1, 2007
Sighting Time: Between 7:15 and 7:30 PM
Day/Night: Night — a chilly evening, sky scattered with white clouds
Location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Urban or Rural: Urban — Dubai city. Filled in from the original blank field.
No. of Entity(‘s): Undocumented
Entity Type: Not Applicable — no entity described
Entity Description: Not Applicable
Hynek Classification: Corrected from the original NL (Nocturnal Light) to CE-I (Close Encounter I) — close-range observation of a resolved object with no physical trace or interaction. The object was not left as an ambiguous point of light: it dove toward the witnesses and revealed a solid, disc-shaped underside at close enough range for them to describe its form directly, consistent with how a similar correction was applied to this archive’s 2007 Kuantan, Malaysia orange oval case.
Duration: Approximately 20 minutes total
No. of Object(s): 1
Description of the Object(s): Initially appeared as multicolored green and yellow lights, at first mistaken for a helicopter or airplane, moving rapidly between south and southeast while hovering at an estimated altitude of 10,000-15,000 feet. As the witnesses continued watching, the object dove toward them; its lights became invisible at that point, and they were able to see its underside directly, describing it as disc-shaped, “similar to the bottom of a dinner plate.”
Shape of Object(s): Disc-shaped underside, described as resembling the bottom of a dinner plate, observed once the colored lights were no longer visible. Filled in from the original blank field using the witness’s own explicit description later in the narrative.
Size of Object(s): Undocumented
Color of Object(s): Green and yellow lights, described as moving in a rotating or spherical pattern around the object while it was hovering/in transit; the object’s underside itself, seen later, was not given a specific color beyond its plate-like appearance
Distance to Object(s): Undocumented precisely, though the object’s dive toward the witnesses brought it considerably closer than its initial estimated 10,000-15,000-foot hovering altitude
Height & Speed: Estimated 10,000-15,000 feet while hovering and moving rapidly between south and southeast; the object then dove toward the witnesses’ position before its lights went dark, revealing the disc-shaped underside
Number of Witnesses: 2 direct witnesses (the reporting witness and his wife). A friend living in Sharjah, roughly 25-30 km away, also reported seeing an unidentified object that evening when contacted by phone, though no detail comparison confirms it was the same object. Filled in from the original blank field.
Special Features/Characteristics: The witness specifically notes a habit of stargazing, which drew his attention to the object initially. He first mistook it for a helicopter or plane before confirming with his wife that she could see it too. The object’s colored lights disappeared entirely once it dove toward the witnesses, at which point only its solid, disc-shaped underside was visible. No photograph was taken; consumer mobile phone cameras in January 2007, prior to the launch of the first iPhone later that year, were generally poor in low-light conditions, which may help explain the absence of any image despite a 20-minute viewing window.
Case Status: Insufficient Data — a two-witness account with a resolved shape description and a specific behavioral detail (a dive that revealed a solid underside), but no photograph and no independent corroboration beyond a secondhand, distant claim
Source: Reported to Think AboutIt
Summary/Description: My wife and I were out on our usual evening walk. It was a chilly evening; the sky was scattered with white clouds. I have a habit of looking into the skies and often look at the stars. That evening I saw this multicoloured (yellow and green) light and first mistook it for a helicopter or a plane. I then fixed my glance and asked my wife if she was able to see the object I was seeing in the sky. She said “yes,” and then both of us looked up. The object was moving at a rapid speed between south and southeast; it was hovering at around probably 10,000 to 15,000 feet. As we kept on talking, it made a dive towards us, and suddenly we were shocked to see its belly, similar to the bottom of a dinner plate, but the lights were not visible at that point in time. The total hovering time was about 20 minutes. I then called my friend who lives in Sharjah, and he also claimed to see the UFO, but of course he was much further than we were.
Related Cases: Undocumented — no confirmed related case identified in the archive at this time
Detailed Report
This account describes a sighting in two distinct phases. In the first, a self-described habitual stargazer noticed multicolored green and yellow lights moving rapidly between south and southeast at an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 feet, initially assuming it was a conventional helicopter or aircraft before confirming with his wife that she could see it too. The lights continued in what the witness describes as a hovering, rotating pattern for some time. The second phase is the more distinctive: the object dove toward the witnesses’ position, and at that point its colored lights simply went dark, exposing a solid, disc-shaped underside the witness compared directly to the bottom of a dinner plate. The full event, from first notice to the object’s disappearance, lasted an estimated 20 minutes. A phone call to a friend in Sharjah, roughly 25-30 km to the northeast, turned up a claim of a similar sighting that evening, though the account offers no shared descriptive detail to confirm the two were seeing the same object rather than two separate, coincidental sightings. No photograph exists of the event — worth noting plainly, though also worth placing in context: in January 2007, days before the first iPhone was even announced, consumer mobile phone cameras were far more limited than they are today, particularly in low light, which may account for the absence of any image despite the extended viewing time.
RESEARCHER’S NOTES
The Dinner-Plate Belly — Dubai 2007 and a Light Show That Went Dark
- Classification Assessment: Corrected from NL to CE-I, since the object was ultimately resolved as a solid, disc-shaped structure at close range, not left as an ambiguous point of light — the same reasoning applied to this archive’s 2007 Kuantan orange oval case.
- Source Chain Assessment: This is a first-person, two-witness account with a secondhand, unconfirmed corroboration from a friend at a considerable distance. Two fields (Urban/Rural and Number of Witnesses) were left blank in the original filing despite the answers being directly available in the witness’s own narrative, and have been filled in accordingly.
- Evidentiary Weight: No photograph accompanies this account. Given the era — January 2007, before smartphone cameras became commonplace or capable in low light — this gap is more explainable by available technology than by any deliberate omission, and should be weighed with that context rather than as automatically suspicious.
- Pattern and Comparative Context: A multicolored, actively lit object that goes dark on close approach, revealing a solid disc-shaped body, is a specific and relatively unusual presentation within this archive — most similar cases either resolve a shape immediately or never resolve one at all, rather than transitioning from lights to structure mid-observation.
- Geographic and Historical Context: Dubai is a major, densely built urban center with substantial air traffic; the sighting date, January 1, falls just after the city’s well-established New Year’s Eve fireworks tradition, though the described 20-minute hover, resolved solid underside, and lack of any explosive or pyrotechnic behavior do not match a fireworks or aerial-display explanation.
A twenty-minute sighting that shifted midway from colored lights to a resolved, dinner-plate-shaped underside is a specific and unusual account, corroborated only loosely by a distant phone call and left unphotographed in an era before smartphone cameras made that routine. The case stands as Insufficient Data.
“We were shocked to see its belly similar to the bottom of a dinner plate.”
