The Collinsville, Connecticut UFO Incident, December 13th, 1999 - Alternate Explanations - Part 4

Orbital Debris
Obviously the first mundane explanation we should consider would be the contrails. Considering their odd angle of descent and the flashes seen one would likely postulate that the witnesses’ might have seen orbital debris falling back to Earth. However, after a closer inspection of the facts surrounding known decayed orbits that day this is not possible and is therefore eliminated.
• Orbital Data for 12/13/99

Meteors
Still on the contrails, meteors are also a possible explanation for what the witnesses’ saw that day. Considering the data this can not be entirely ruled out, however existing documentation lists very few meteors known to leave any contrail type phenomena, especially not in the length of duration that was seen.

According to the following chart of this year's Geminids (www.imo.net...), compiled by the International Meteor Organization, the peak was actually 12/14/99; on the date in question, at the time of the sighting, the rate was roughly 38 per hour

Aircraft
Obviously conventional aircraft are known to regularly cause contrails, so this can not be entirely ruled out. However, considering there are no major air-traffic lanes over Collinsville there is no apparent reason for that number or orientation of contrails to have been observed.. Here are some more issues with this theory:

• [color=gold] The closest airway is significantly south of the sighting location, there is no way contrails from that airway would be seen at the location.
• The apparent “burst” and “flash” of the trails seem to defy any known conventional phenomena.

All in all this explanation can not be completely ruled out, however—logic and available facts point to no likely way that any mundane explanations could apply to the observed contrails and their very odd flight characteristics.
• Further Data

Balloons

Obviously there are few alternate explanations for the actual UFOs. In my opinion balloons is a ridiculous theory, BUT we must consider everything. I know of no known balloons that would remotely fit the description and flight characteristics of the UFOs, as well account for the humming sound. Also the overall look and color of the UFOs do not match any known balloon, let alone the ball that was floating around the bullet-like craft, which then proceeded to go off in its’ own direction in an apparent vanishing act.