What I thought was a meteor might have been something else.

I was on the back porch of my house, three houses from the beach.  Being a pilot, I looked up at the sky and saw a circular object, which at first I thought was a meteor because of its bright light and tail dragging behind.  
I took my phone from my pocket and started to film.  The object moved from northeast to northwest and descended, initially it was traveling at very high velocity and seemed to decelerate extremely fast.  Kept my cell phone camera on it as long as I could, until it disapeared.  
There were no strobe lights or anti-collision lights on it.  
It was bright red, and turned to yellowish, as it advanced.
We spoke via telephone with the witness, and he seemed to us to be quite eloquent and sober-minded.  He describes himself as an aircraft owner, a commercial pilot and a flight instructor.  PD