Mysterious lights were spotted in the skies over the Hawaiian islands on Tuesday night, with witnesses capturing photos that have gone viral.
Multiple sightings from all across Oahu, Maui and Lanai were reported to be seen, claiming the phenomenon to appear as a bright zigzag light overhead, Hawaii News Now reported.
The Defense Department, however, confirmed that they had conducted a test of a land-based missile system from the Pacific Missile Range Facility at Barking Sands on Kauai about the same time that mysterious lights were seen and photographed in the skies above Hawaii.
On Tuesday, many viewers contacted Hawaii News Now wondering what they were seeing, describing the lights as squiggly lines that appeared in the sky for a few minutes shortly after sunset.
"Super bright...this long line...then it went into this loopty-loop," said Carie Matthews, a North Shore resident. "It was crazy. I've never seen anything like it."
"It was just a zigzag...almost looked like letting air out of a balloon," Bryan Cuelho from Waialua said. "The first thing that came out of my mind was UFO."
Xander Amatore, 10, from the North Shore said, "It was like a streak of light. It was white. It was really bright. It went kind of in a loop, but as it went down it was in a zigzag."
On Tuesday night, a U.S. Navy spokesperson told Hawaii News Now that he was unaware of any military operations that would have coincided with the light.
But early Wednesday morning, the Department of Defense retracted the statement and said that a missile launch had taken place on Kauai just prior to the lights being spotted.
"During the test, a simulated ballistic missile target was acquired, tracked, and engaged by the Aegis Weapon System," the Department of Defense said. "Several fire control and engagement functions were exercised during the test."
More pictures can be viewed here.
