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LEHI -- The mystery of the Unidentified Flying Object over Utah County on Friday night has been solved.
While some thought it was a remote control plane, a paraglider or an alien, it turns out, it wasn't so sophisticated after all.
Andrew Smith, 33, of Lehi, filled garbage bags with helium, attached some flashing LEDs to a wire frame and let it float into the sky, and confuse a few along the way.
"Most people just get a kick out if and laugh and have good fun and some people go into panic mode, when there's no reason to panic," Smith said. "Bottom line is, there's usually a pretty good explanation even though they can't figure out what it is at the time."
He did it as part of a contest to promote the website Freelancer.com, but the contest was only an excuse to put together another craft to launch. Smith, a kinetic artist by trade, said he's been putting together this kind of thing for the last 10 years. This is the second time he has heard of anyone seeing his airborne crafts. Last year, he released another that caught some attention as well.
For him, the crafts aren't about inducing speculation or mystifying people, but rather about the creation process.
"It's about thinking outside the box," he said of both the crafts and his profession. "Sometimes things like this help that endeavor."
Written by Roger Cary with contributions from Sam Penrod.
