UFO revealed to be kite with lights

• Tweet

VANCOUVER, Wash., March 9 (UPI) -- A UFO flashing lights in the night sky over Vancouver, Wash., has been revealed by its owner to be a large Chinese-made kite.

Witnesses reported what they thought was a flying saucer-type UFO dancing high over Fisher's Landing on the Columbia River last month, emitting a display of electrified colors, The Columbian of Vancouver reported Wednesday.

The reports led to a media frenzy and an outpouring of public opinion but a guy wanting to be known only as Mike identified flying object -- made of parachute fabric into a triangle shape, standing 7-1/2 feet tall with a 13 foot wingspan. He said the lights on his kite are made up of hundreds of colored LEDs, powered by an onboard rechargeable lithium ion battery with a small onboard computer that sequences the lights into repeating patterns every 4 minutes, the newspaper said.

Mike says he isn't breaking any federal rules or regulations flying the $500-plus kite he bought online because he has discussed his flying with both the Federal Aviation Administration and with Vancouver police. He says he keeps his kites lower than 500 hundred feet as required where he lives.

He says people watching him work his multicolored, parachute-fabric, sky-flying baby are agog when he does his thing.

"It's amazing," members of the Carpintero family told the Columbian. "It's really pretty."