North Of Highway 401, West Of Highway 400, Toronto Meteor Sighting

Posted: February 18, 2009

Date: January 19, 2009
Time: Approx: 8:08 p.m.

Number of witnesses: 1
Number of objects: 1
Shape of objects: Resembled a falling star.
Weather Conditions: Clear night sky with some clouds, and it was cold, sub-zero celsius.

Description: Meteor Sighting

On Monday, 19 January 2009, I was driving north on highway 427 in Etobicoke ON, and approaching the eastbound ramp to highway 401, when I started watching a commercial passenger plane that had apparently just taken off in an eastward direction. As I was merging onto the 401, the plane was still ahead of me and slightly to the east. I'd guess it was a few hundred feet above the ground. It was approximately 8:08 p.m. when I saw what looked like a shooting star low in the sky, falling straight down, in a slightly westward direction. From my angle, it appeared to be slightly behind and below the passing plane. So at first I thought it might have come from the plane, but then later I thought it must be a meteor because the plane wasn't high enough for a dropped object to heat up from friction. The object was bluish-white hot in colour. So it probably entered the atmosphere from space and started burning up on the way down. I watched it for two or three seconds before it would have reached the ground. I didn't actually see it hit the ground, as it went out of sight behind the skyline of some low buildings. From my angle it appeared to have landed north and east of the Radisson Hotel in Rexdale, and to me it appeared to be quite close, maybe a kilometer or two away. However, it's hard to judge distance when you don't know the size of an object, so it could have been much farther. As I watched it fall, the object flared up and got brighter, and in the last second or so several orange sparks were flying off it in a sideways direction. I thought it might start a fire if it hit a building, or at least leave a scorch mark on the ground where it landed.

TV/Radio: I called 680 News in Toronto to report it, and the man said he had received three other calls about it last night.

[Note: This fireball/meteor report is included for reference purposes - John @ UFOINFO.]

Thank you to UFOINFO for this report. http://www.ufoinfo.com/