Mystery lights over Kota Kinabalu

Air traffic control in Kota Kinabalu has spotted unusual activity in the sky in recent years but did not notice anything out of the ordinary this time.

KOTA KINABALU: Meteorologists, policemen, firemen and air traffic controllers are baffled by reports in the social media of pillar-shaped lights moving across the sky over the Putatan area on Tuesday at around 9.30pm.

Sabah Meteorological Department director Abdul Malek Tussin said no reports have been lodged so far with his department on the phenomenon.

He thinks the lights as described could either be natural phenomenon or reflections from other sources but added the department would investigate.

The police and the fire brigade in the Sabah capital said the report on bright lights in the sky was news to them. No one has so far come forward to lodge reports with them.

Air traffic control in Kota Kinabalu has spotted unusual activities in the sky in recent years but did not notice anything out of the ordinary this time.

Aside from the usual bizarre claims of an impending invasion by aliens, some comments in social media attributed the lights to lanterns or flares from the Sabah Oil and Gas Terminal in Kimanis along the west coast. These lights, brought about by weather conditions, have appeared in the past in the west coast.

According to some studies posted by netizens on social media, reflection by ground-based lights on clouds high in the sky could create an illusion of vertical cigar-shaped lights.

There were also postings on such reflections being caused by big flames originating from oil refineries, featured in studies on unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) could also be the origin of the unexplained phenomenon in the sky.