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On November 14, 1997 a dramatic group of objects moved across the skies of Washington.  Following is a synopsis of materials received by the National UFO Reporting Center concerning this event, including descriptions of the leading hypothesis, that of the breakup and re-entry of a Russian spacecraft.

It appeared approximately 100 metres from where we were standing on a
second storey verandah looking out to the north.  It was approx. 15-20
metres wide and appeared almost mist like. It was round in shape, there
was no noise or lights.  One of us saw it and then asked the second
person could they see it and when both acknowledged seeing it, it
disappeared, but not in any particular direction. From the first
sighting it was there for about 10 seconds.

Regards
Two Kiwi's who won't sleep tonight!!

So far the explanations have been: METEOR SHOWER, SPACE JUNK.....

I am a Vietnam Veteran, and I'm not on drugs!!

I first spotted the lights while driving home from the gym last night about a little after nine.

At first, I thought it was a squadron of helicopters flying in formation with their lights on. It was moving in unison across the sky. I pulled over and got out of the car.

I observed many flying craft at night while on duty in Vietnam. These lights proceeded in a straight line.

When I got out of my vehicle, I expected to hear some kind of engine noise. There was none.

I have seen thousands of meteors while living in the desert southwest from 1970-85. This was not like any meteor shower I have ever seen. The lights did not arc. And as I said, they moved together.

Space debris......It would have had to have been a huge amount of debris to create this much activity. I cannot fathom how much it would have taken. This was not one rocket!!!

My initial feeling was that it was a few thousand feet. It took up about 25% of the sky space!!!

What do you think??

Many Think Light in Sky Was UFO
The Associated Press
November 15, 1997

SEATTLE (AP) -- Some callers saw many lights in the night sky
across the Northwest. Others said it was one broad streak of light. A
few people even called a UFO group to report the sighting.

``It was the most bizarre thing I've ever seen,'' Dave Way of Keizer,
Ore., told the Statesman Journal in Salem, Ore. ``It looked like
something out of `Star Trek.'''

What it was, was space junk, the body of an old Russian rocket
burning up as it reentered the atmosphere, state and federal officials
said. And whatever was left of it fell safely in the Pacific Ocean off
the coast of Washington, said Milt Maas at the National Weather Service
in Spokane.

The unofficial descriptions were more colorful.

``It looked like a huge bottle rocket moving slowly across the sky,''
June Akiyama, who was in Gig Harbor, told The News Tribune of
Tacoma.

Dale Goudie, information director of the Seattle-based UFO
Reporting and Information Service, said he received 44 calls from
people who said they saw eight objects streaking across the sky from
9:09 p.m. to 9:15 p.m.

``Some people said they weren't going in a linear path -- that they
were actually turning, which surprised me,'' Goudie said.

Callers told KXRO radio in Aberdeen that they saw one intense
streak of light. Others told radio stations and newspapers in
Washington and British Columbia they saw six or seven lights, or even
25 to 30.

Frank Frazee of Centralia said he and his family saw the lights moving
across the sky.

``It looked like a falling star,'' said Frazee's daughter, Janessa, 18.
``It was fire-colored, orange-reddish with a head that was white. It was
cool.''

Peter, the following is what I have on my web site. You will find all the information you asked for. This was my first UFO sighting. You could probably tell from my enthusiastic message to you. Peter, I hope to have you on live this thursday if at all possible. I am the only "Live" TV Show of this kind. If things go the way many predict, related to a sharp increase in sightings, I will probably have you on often. We have added Denver,Co. to our list of affiliates and soon to be Philiadelphia.

(NAME DELETED))

Folks, I am a witness to the spectacular event that happened on Friday November 14th at 9:10PM. I was driving across what is known as the 520 Bridge in Seattle. I was returning home from one of the outpatient clinics I work as a mental health therapist and acupuncturist. At first it appeared as if it were an airplane coming in for a landing. Then all of a sudden, this glowing yellow white light, separated into several smaller reddish orange balls with tails of fire following far behind. I was struck by the sequential formation the 12 to 15 glowing balls maintained. I also was taken with the slow speed at which these spherical orbs symmetrical glided through the sky. As one eyewitness stated "I thought it was the Blue Angels practicing at night". This comment speaks to what appeared to be a tightly orchestrated flight.

The official reports at the time of this writing, range from a SL 12 Photon (Russian) rocket that broke up in re-entry. To a meteor shower from the Leonid cluster scheduled to start on November 17th.

What at this point, could only be called a UFO, lasted approximently 2 to 3 minuets. The speed would be about the same as an approaching aircraft coming in for a landing. I have been told approximently   175 to 200 mph. The objects were travelling east by northeast low in the horizon.

Folks, the first thing I would want to rule out, is a large asteroid  had broken up (or shot down) in our upper atmosphere. Which leads me to what NASA has recently put out, recruiting for all who are   interested to make themselves available, to track (NEO) Near Earth Orbits. Grant money is readily available. President Clinton made available emergency funds for NASA to set up spoters all around the world for what appears to be a REAL and Immanent danger.

f you were a witness to this event, or any other related strange phenomena, please contact Peter Davenport at the National UFO Reporting Center. (206) 722-300 or PO Box 45623, University Station, Seattle,WA 98145 or e-mail: director@ufocenter.com  Peter has asked for you to be brief and to the point.

Sincerely,
((NAME DELETED)) M.S./c CDS III
Producer
 

Washington State Flyover 11/14
 
Okay, it should be easy to dispell all the reports of things in the sky
being UFO's.

If an SL-12 Russian rocket launched a satellite, and it broke-up with
pieces landing in the Pacific and fragments heading inland, it could be
verified.

I neither see nor hear any follow-up action by AP, Reuters, CNN, MSNBC,
or the BBC, to verify from RUSSIAN SOURCES, that an SL-12 Russian rocket
was launched, where it was launched, and at what precise time it was
launched.

Certainly proof of a launch at a time that coincides with the remains
landing in the Pacific and fragments heading elsewhere would end any
mystery.  Are journalists asleep?  Do media services have bureaus in
Moscow?  Is this normal follow-up of a story?  Or should we just regard
any info coming from NORAD or the USAF as gospel?

Doc in Phoenix

Subject: : Last Friday night, 9:10 pm 11/14/97

I saw 8 bright lights flying in formation like birds do, (a "V" shape) and
looked as if they were being escorted by a couple of helicopters.  The lights
were diffused looking, kind of like fuzzy & white, not clear & sharp.  They
also left a trail behind them.  They were going very slow.

I live out in Nine Mile Falls, WA.  They were coming from the Edwards (sic))
Airforce Base direction heading toward Nine Mile Falls (which is just outside
Spokane, Wa) and then past it.  The hills were in the way so I couldn't watch
them any longer.

This happened last Friday night, 9:10 pm, on 11/14/97

I did watch the news that night, & the local news referred to all the UFO
sightings as the schrapnel of a foreign missle that blew up over the Pacific
Ocean.  Bologne!

Just to let you know.

Hi;
 
Just wanted to say congrats on your television appearance. (saw you on the news this evening.)  Unfortunately, I missed the "space junk" myself.  I live near Salem, Oregon and wrote you a report quite a while back on three objects flying in triangular formation which were also seen in your area.  (my last name back then was "((NAME DELETED))" The first report back from NORAD was "space junk" then, too.  In our case, though, I beleive it turned out, according to someone in Canada, to be three satelites traveling in a rare formation. But I got a chuckle out of it anyway.  Must be their standard response.
 
Just wanted to say "Hi" again after all this time.
Keep up the great work;
 
((NAME DELETED))

Dallas Friday night

Peter,
 
First of all I want to thank you for all you have done with your organization. I have heard you many times on Art Bells show and respect how you add a touch of rationality to the subject matter.
 
I am writing you because of something I saw (along with a friend) while flying into Dallas Friday evening. The more I have thought about this the more I knew I should write down what I saw.
 
I was flying from Seattle to Dallas on Flight 18 Friday Nov. 14th. At about 6:35-6:45 P.M. Dallas time, about a half hour out of Dallas/Ft Worth we were high above thick cloud cover. There was a full moon out and the clarity above the clouds was good. As we looked out ahead and to the east (port side of the aircraft), I noticed few lights out ahead of us. I presumed they were other aircraft coming right at us since the lights did not blink like wing lights but as the head lights do at times. There were two such lights and they looked far off but being at night it was hard to tell just how far. I watched for a long time watching other aircraft with blinking strobe lights passing in various directions. these lights (the identifiable aircraft with blinkers) were much smaller in size to the constant lights. What started to seem strange was the fact that the original two lights which were constant began to appear to be closer the nearer we flew, not farther apart as it should be is we were approaching them. Also what seemed strange was the fact that at no point did there appear any other lights such as a green (starboard) or red (port) lights with these two constant lights. I watched intently as I saw a normally lit and identifiable aircraft fly perpendicular to the main light on my left that I had been watching. The identifiable aircraft approached extremely close and behind this light. The light was not a distant star or light on a hill or a beacon as my mind raced to start to explain what I was seeing.
 
The time span now is maybe 15 full minutes of watching these lights. We were approaching these lights which was apparent since the lights were now directly to the port side of the aircraft and no longer in front of us. As we continued on, and our approach to Dallas caused as to slightly alter our approach, these lights became directly to port from us and even closer and seemed to rise higher above the cloud layer than before. I had mentioned the lights to my companion several times since I first spotted them when I had described them first as two aircraft with their  headlights on. At this point I saw a third light low in the cloud cover below these two lights. This third light was hazy as if slightly in the clouds and also seemed larger and closer to us. It had shape to it, almost like it was like a soft cube shape (a cube with rounded corners and puffed up sides. It was not just light). I was seriously questioning that these lights were anything I had seen before. I had made several comments to my friend trying to explain what I was seeing since I knew they were not aircraft like "these have to be beacon lights" or "maybe theyare power lines" always to be followed by, "but we are too high for that".
 
I said to my companion that she should look at the lights. Right about then, I leaned back as we passed the lights. My companion leaned over me and looked now back slightly aft and to port through the windows and said to me "You mean those lights that look like a triangle?". I looked out the window again and now saw that indeed there was three distinct lights, not blinking above the cloud cover in a triangle formation. The third light had indeed come out and was well above the clouds.
 
As we continued to move towards Dallas and begin our decent, the lights remained in a triangle formation eventhough we continued make a left turn towards the Dallas/Ft Worth airport. In other words, even thought they were in a triangular formation while we looked at them to port, they remained in a triangular formation as we viewed them to aft.
 
Within a few minutes we were descending into the clouds and I lost sight of the lights.
 
I have thought a lot about what I saw and discussed it with my companion who also saw them. These were stationary lights at our altitude during normal flight approach about 35-45 mins out of Dallas or slightly higher (with the exception to the third light) which would put them at  least 25-35K feet. The lights were stationary since while we approached they were in front, as we continued they were to the port and then aft of us as we passed. There were initially two constant lights very far apart when first viewed and only slightly brighter and very much closer to each other 30 minutes later when joined by the third light from the clouds. the lights did not seem to move but were stationary though they must have moved since they were closer to each other after viewing them for 30 minutes than at first.
 
I am a 42 yr old businessman in Seattle (your town). I work as a real estate broker. I was a concert promoter for many many years and have flown hundreds of thousands of miles. I have a good grasp of astronomy and can identify the moons of Jupiter with my binoculars and Venus along with my favorite constellations. I grew up with a pilot as y best friend and have logged hundreds of right seat flying in small aircraft so I have an appreciation for what aircraft look like at night and during the day.
 
Though I do listen to Art Bell and have read many books on Roswell and a few about other UFO's, I am not a "believer". I am a curious observer. With thousand s of hours of staring at the skies, of flying all over this country many times over during night and day, I have never seen anything that wasn't identifiable, at least after 5-10 minutes of viewing. These objects were viewed by me for nearly 45 minutes non-stop and I have no explanation that meets any test I put to it. I have replayed the tape in my head over and over. I keep seeing the aircraft passing behind the main left light. I keep seeing the two lights far apart and them seeing the triangle shape after the appearance of the third. I see the third boxy light shrouded ion the clouds then see it clearly in view above the clouds. These objects had to be moving, but in such a way that they seemed stationary. There were no additional lights associated with these white lights. there were no strobes with these lights. While other aircraft came and went from Dallas and appeared across the sky, these lights seemed to sit still.
 
I had to finally admit I saw something strange and unexplainable with my resources. I guess in a way, I wanted to live in denial that I saw anything weird at all, but in the end, had to write this down and send it off as a statement of my very best recollection of what I saw.
 
Sincerely,
 
((NAME AND ADDRESS DELETED)) 2nd Ave NE
Seattle, WA 98125
206-((NUMBER DELETED))
 
p.s. feel free to call me if this is worth your time or if you have any questions

Sightings on Nov. 14, 1997 at about 2100 hrs. Western Wash.

Peter,
Just a quick note. I will send more later. Two whole shifts of officers
observed the long streaks of light that went from one side of the sky to
the other. A Sgt. leaving the station made the observation; he yelled and
the police station emptied into the parking lot. There seemed to be three
long streaks of light which "pulsed" or looked like beads of light. It was
moving fast.

One point I want to stress; I was told that the official "space junk"
explanation included a statement that the "junk" crashed in the Pacific
Ocean. All of the witn's who called 911 and all of the officers I have
contacted ALL state that the lights went FROM the ocean and were headed
across the sky, as in WEST to EAST.
It would be very difficult to explain how the UFO's crashed in the Pacific.
I will send more soon.

((NAME DELETED))

((E-MAIL ADDRESS DELETED))

Fwd: [UASR] Fw:02 The Washington Sightings
 
Mr. Lindemann,

JPG below is screen capture of SatSpy 2.0 satellite tracking
software, loaded with the Norad 30 day orbital element set, which clocks
things expected to decay within 30 days.

According to "Rediron4@swbell.net" it shows SL-12 rocket booster grund
track near Seattle & B.C. at about the 9PM Pacific Time on 11/14.

((NAME DELETED)) in Phoenix)

((NAME DELETED))
 
 Colored lights blazing across sky may have been meteors, or rocket
 
              John Gillie; The News Tribune
 
              Was it a rocket or a meteor shower?
 
              Whatever the answer, Western Washington was treated to a
              light show Friday night, and those who saw it gave rave
              reviews.
 
              "For a minute, you could have convinced me it was the
              mothership coming to Earth," said one awed observer of
              what astronomers said was a highly visible meteor shower
              Friday night.
 
              "It looked like a huge bottle rocket moving slowly across the
              sky," said June Akiyama. Akiyama and her friend Leslye
              Stewart were northbound on Washington 16 in Gig Harbor
              when they saw bright lights in the sky. They and a handful of
              other motorists there pulled off the road to watch.
 
              Tom Dyer of Lakewood said he was in his car at the corner
              of Gravelly Lake Drive Southwest and Washington
              Boulevard Southwest a little after 9 p.m when his son spotted
              the multicolored lights in the sky.
 
              When Dyer looked up, he saw three or four rows of white
              lights and could see an outline.
 
              It looked like "an oceangoing cruise ship," he said.
 
              Al George, director of the Pettinger-Guiley Observatory near
              Puyallup, had a down-to-Earth explanation for what was
              happening in the night skies over Washington and a
              prediction that the best is yet to come.
 
              "This was a precursor to the Nov. 17 Leonids meteor show,"
              George said.
 
              But late Friday the U.S. Air Force was offering a second
              possible cause for the streaking lights. KING 5 television
              broadcast a telephone interview with Maj. Wes Davis, who
              was said to be speaking from the Pentagon. Davis said a
              section from a Russian rocket had re-entered Earth's
              atmosphere Friday night, off the Western Washington coast.
              He said that might have been what people saw.
 
              Regardless of the cause, at police departments and weather
              stations across the region curious onlookers lit up the phones.
 
              "We've just been deluged with calls," said a Tacoma Police
              Department duty officer. "We've had reports from Roy to
              Browns Point."
 
              A supervisor at Pierce County's Law Enforcement Support
              Agency, which handles most police 911 calls in the county,
              said operators handled about two dozen calls about the lights
              in the sky.
 
              That supervisor said she was on the way to work when she
              saw the dancing, multicolored lights above the horizon.
 
              "It was just huge," she said. "There were two bright lines one
              atop the other."
 
              Some five or six tons of meteorites reach the Earth every
              day, according to George, the astronomer. Sightings increase
              in mid-November because the Earth crosses a field of debris
              orbiting the sun at this time every year.
 
              "It can be rather spectacular," he said. "Some say it can even
              look like a jetliner burning as it crashes to Earth," he said.
 
              Though the shower often appears to be right overhead, much
              of it is miles away and tens of miles in the air.
 
              "The chance of getting hit by a meteorite is about one
              fifty-thousandth the chance of being hit by lighting," said
              George. "So go out and watch it and enjoy. You won't need
              a meteorite umbrella."
 
              The shower should peak Monday, he said. The weather man
              predicts clear skies.
 
              © The News Tribune
 
              November 15, 1997

Dear Peter -

I just heard part of the conversation on Art Bell about the unusual sky Friday night.

I was in Friday Harbor (San Juan Islands) having dinner at Katrina's.
The entire restaurant got up and went outside to view the incredible
lights moving slowly across the sky.

Just thought I would let you know that close to 20 of us left our seats
to go out front and watch.   The musicians were probably wondering why
we all left.  They ended up outside too.
 

Sincerely,

((NAME DELETED))

UNITED STATES SPACE COMMAND

NEWS RELEASE

DIRECTORATE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, Headquarters, U.S. Space Command,  250 S. Peterson Blvd, Ste 116, Peterson Air Force Base, CO  80914-3190

Phone: (719) 554-6889  FAX: (719) 554-3165  DSN: 692-6889  E-Mail: noussppa@spacecom.af.mil
 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Release No. 41-96

November 29, 1996

Update on Russian Space Probe

Peterson AFB, COLO. -- U.S. Space Command (USSPACECOM) has developed new information indicating that te Russian Mars '96 spacecraft likely came down on Nov. 16 instead of Nov. 17 as earlier reported. Any debris surviving the heat of this re-entry would have fallen over a 200-mile long portion of the Pacific Ocean, Chile, and Bolivia. We now believe that the object that re-entered on Nov. 17, which we first thought to be the Mars '96 probe, was in fact the fourth stage of the booster rocket.

Confusion has surrounded key events and times in this mission, including the last stages of the rocket burn, the separation of the Mars '96 probe from the rocket, and the final re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere of the booster and the probe. USSPACECOM has now completed an extensive post-event analysis that has led to this new conclusion which supports Russian statements about when their Mars '96 probe re-entered the atmosphere. The area where any debris surviving this re-entry could have fallen is located along an approximately 50-mile wide and 200-mile long path, oriented southwest to northeast. This path is centered approximately 20 miles east of the Chilean city of Iquique and includes Chilean territory, the border area of Bolivia and the Pacific Ocean.

The following is a chronological version of this space mission as observed by USSPACECOM:

The Russians launched a SL-12 (Proton) four-stage rocket booster from the Tyuratam space launch facility at 3:49 p.m. EST on Nov. 16. Aboard the booster was a spacecraft known as the Mars '96 probe destined for the planet Mars.

The USSPACECOM Space Surveillance Network (SSN) tracked the rocket and boosters throughout the first three stages of launch, and observed, recorded, and reported an object re-entering the Earth's atmosphere at 7:49 p.m. EST, Nov 16. Absent an indication at the time of any problems with the Mars '96 probe, U.S. space observers ascribed the Nov. 16th event as the booster stage re-entry -- which would be normal for a multistage rocket of this type. The planned separation of the fourth stage booster from the Mars '96 probe was not observed because it occurred out of view of U.S. space sensors. The USSPACECOM Space urveillance Network did track a single object associated with this launch after monitoring the first three stages, which at the time was believed to be the booster's fourth stage still attached to the Mars probe.

On Nov. 17 it became apparent that the Mars '96 mission had not achieved its intended trajectory to Mars. USSPACECOM continued to track in near-Earth orbit a single object thought then to be the probe attached to the fourth-stage booster. On that morning, the Russians requested, through NASA, USSPACECOM assistance in locating the Mars '96 probe. USSPACECOM impact predictions were forwarded to the Russians and Australians since initial predictions indicated that the re-entry would take place over Australia. Updated analysis of tracking data and orbital parameters placed the final impact of any surviving debris in the Pacific Ocean 150-200 miles off the coast of Chile at approximately 8:30 p.m. EST.

On Monday, Nov. 18, the Russians announced that a failure on board their spacecraft prevented the probe from achieving its intended trajectory. The Russians also said their probe had likely re-entered the atmosphere on Nov. 16 between 7:30 and 8:30 p.m. EST. Based on this information, USSPACECOM analysts began a detailed review of all available data which ultimately led to our refined conclusions.

USSPACECOM is not able to estimate what portion, if any, of the Mars '96 spacecraft might have survived re-entry. The United States' interest in providing this information is to clarify earlier preliminary U.S. reports that portions of the spacecraft re-entered over the Pacific Ocean hundreds of miles off the Chilean coast. We are now convinced that any impact of the probe that might have occurred on Nov. 16 would be within the area described which includes portions of Chilean and Bolivian territory.

The Russians are in the best position to address the materials on board their spacecraft and whether any portion of the spacecraft might have survived the heat of re-entry. On Nov. 27, U.S. officials shared this information with the Russians and provided information to the governments of Chile and Bolivia concerning the Nov. 16 Mars '96 re-entry over portions of their territories.

Hello,
 I writing to you because I heard you on Art Bell's show last night.  My
family and I live in Mission BC.  My wife was in the back yard when the
space junk went over our house.  I asked her to describe what she saw.  She
said it was a large ball of light with a tail of fire very much like a
meter.  There were about a 12 balls in a tight group.  They were that low
that my house was luminated. She thought that they landed in Hatzic Lake
about 1mile east of our home.  She thought this because they just seem to
peter out. We did not hear of any junk getting pick up here. Hope this was
a help.

((NAME AND E-MAIL ADDRESS DELETED))

November 20, 1997                                                               L97-94.dah

Peter Davenport, Director
UFO Center
<Dir.UFOcenter.com 1-206-722-3000

SUBJECT: Celestial sighting - Friday, November 14, 9:12 to 9:15 PM

Mr. Davenport:

My wife ((NAME DELETED)) heard your interview with Art Bell last night and gave me
your phone #.  Since you were on the phone at the time I promised to send you a copy of my article which will appear in the December issue of the ((NAME OF PUBLICATION DELETED.)).  I am the editor and the one who made the sighting.  Port Ludlow is located near the mouth of the Hood Canal.  I was in front of our house which is approximately 1/4 mile due west of the Port Ludlow Day Marker (N47-55.27/W122-40.89)   Please advise if you need any additional clarification.  Is there any definitive information regarding the identity of the object?

I SAW THE LIGHT ((NAME DELETED))Friday, November 14, 1997 @ 2012 hrs. is emblazoned in my memory forever. No, it was not a white light of death.  No, it was not the "green flash" sought by mariners for many  millennia.  In today’s vernacular, it was "AWESOME" — "COOL"  —  "NEAT" —  WOW! — "WAY OUT",  and all those kind of
words wrapped into one.  My  reaction was "HOLY TOLEDO"!!!, which I involuntary shouted at the top of my lungs.
 
What was it that I saw?  Simply stated —  it was the most spectacular vision I had ever encountered.  The photos on TV did not even come close to equating the out of this world phenomenon that I saw.   My first reaction was "no one will ever believe me on this.  I sure hope others saw it too". I know I am old and foolish but to be believed, I must have others to
confirm my vision.

At first, I was convinced that the vision was a lost comet colliding with earth and that I was witnessing that "Big Bang" that all the si-fi gurus have been warning us about.  No it was not scary.  Just awesome!!!!!

It all started as I was commencing on my usual evening stroll.  The night
was one of those befitting Port Ludlow and the Olympic Peninsula.  Every
star was in its own multi-dimensional extragalactic setting.  The moon was
almost full and about 1/3 of the way to its zenith.  I had just finished
locating the north star and the big dipper when a brilliant orange glow
started growing about 30 degrees above the north west horizon.  At first
there was only one orange mass with a half dozen bright spots of varying
size and light intensity.  The largest piece was about the size of a large
star but much more brilliant and emitting a pulsating white light.  The
others were tracking with it making a mass in the sky that appeared larger
than the moon.  All the pieces appeared to be disintegrating and left a
huge trail that reminded me of a contrail from a high flying jet at sunset.
 But this contrail was multi-colored.  In between the bright spots were
millions of sparkling particles spewing out colored lights that reminded be
of my days in physics where we had to identify metals by their color in a
flame.  As a background, the contrail had a cosmic glow.

Just as I was coming to grips with the awesome sight of the first mass, a
second one appeared.  The two masses were flying in formation, separated by
about 30 degrees of sky.  The second one appeared to be slightly closer to
me and below the first one.  It too had the same configuration of several
white  star like points with a similar technicolor contrail.  The two of
these masses produced an orange glow that completely masked the bright
moonlight.  I could have easily read a paper in the glow.

The two masses progressed across the sky, obscuring the north star and all
it’s associate heavenly bodies in a very stately manner.  Unlike a shooting
star or the fireball that I saw in my youth, this  bizarre light mass was
moving slowly but steadily across the heavens.  It must have taken 1&frac12; to
two minutes for them to traverse from the western  to the eastern horizon.
As they went, the stream of off-gassing sparkling particles extended from
horizon to horizon.  As the leading edge of the light show  neared the
eastern horizon, each mass appeared to lessen in intensity.  However, I
sensed this was due to the higher air density.  Finally the leading lights
disappeared below the tree line of Tala Point while the technicolor
contrail persisted for a few more moments.

As I collected my thoughts, I seriously considered not saying anything
about the event.  But my excitement was easily read by ((NAME DELETED)) as I entered.
I was bursting to tell about what I saw.  Quickly, we turned on the TV and
good ol’e Art Bell on the radio to determine if I was nuts or what.  Much
to my delight, the reports started coming in.  Yes , I did see the
lights!!!

For the next several hours, I was transfixed by descriptions from other
sightings.  The cause ranged from "The Martians have landed, to a cluster
of space rocks, to a Russian booster rocket.  No one has convinced me that
they really know what it was.  However, I am convinced it was the return of
some space travelers making a spectacular fireworks style reentry.  No
matter what others may say — there is no doubt in my mind — I SAW THE
LIGHT!!  If this is what the Magi and Wise Men saw, it is no wonder we are
still telling the story.  Wow have I got a story for my grandchildren!!!!

Sincerely,

((NAME AND ADDRESS DELETED))

Let me enumerate:

Identifying the Launch
The SL-12 originated from a launch of a Russian financial satellite called
Kupon (see http://www.msnbc.com/news/123297.asp).  Kupon went into a
geo-stationary orbit, leaving behind the upper stage of the SL-12 (Proton)
in a 400 km by 180 km, ~50 degree inclination elliptical insertion orbit
-- Seattle is a 47 degrees latitude.  Typically, for this type of launch
the Proton upper stage can stay in orbit for about 1 to 30 days.
Re-entries are very common. At Seattle's latitude, a 50 degree orbit
(similar to that of Mir, with an inclination of 51.6) will appear to
"turn" as it passes over-head.  I've witnessed this tyupe of satellite
transit many times.

Confirming the Re-entry
You can get the orbital elements (Keplerian two-line elements {TLEs} )
from the net.  They're available from NORAD and if you don't trust them,
other independent groups post TLEs.  Download a freeware program called
TrakSat from the net. Enter the TLE for Kupon's Proton upper stage, and
you will see that the ground track passed over Seattle at about 2100 local
on 11/14/97.

Directions of Travel
Satellites can travel in virtually any direction, depending on the initial
launch azimuth and the booster.  A retrograde satellite travels east to
west, against the earth rotation.  However, launching a retrograde
satellite is constrained by energy limitations of launching against the
earth's rotation and geographic downrange obstacles, such as population
centers.  To date, the Russians have launched only a handful of retrograde
satellites.  The US, however, launches numerous polar-orbiting weather and
spy satellite into such orbits.  (Kupon's booster would have been
travelling from SW to NE.)

Reentry Footprints and Radar
When I was in high school, I witnessed a re-entering Soviet Cosmos
geodetic satellite.  It took two minutes to transit the horizon and
appeared to be trailing blue-white "sparks."  I went on to learn more
about about spacecraft re-entries at the library and learned that a large
satellite (like Skylab or Salyut) can spread debris over thousands of
miles.  The portion of a large satellite  that re-enters first is the
usually the high density, low cross-sectional area  parts.  This means
that it's conceivable that NORAD defense radar could have detected only
the bulk of the SL-12 (that is, the portion having a large "radar
cross-section"), which re-entered over the Pacific, while lighter, high
cross-sectional pieces continued to re-renter along the ground track,
spreading debris over Puget Sound.  In fact, some of the pieces could be
so small as to just barely or not show up on radar at all.

My Two Cents
Anyway, I'd like to tell Mr. Davenport that going on a radio show and
flaunting specious and poor research only hinders the efforts of dedicated
methodical UFO researchers who've taken time to educate themselves and
carry out an unglamorous, painstaking investigations.  It's easy to
sentionalize and roil up speculation; it's difficult to embrace a sober
search for the truth...

RE: Russian Rocket Breakup Sighting
 
I live in West Seattle at ((DELETED)) 41st Ave SW. My name is John ((NAME DELETED)). I was
walking my dog ((DOG’S NAME DELETED)) on Saturday night between 9 and 930PM and was
able to witness the entire event of the alleged Russian rocket reentry.

I was walking westbound on SW Juneau between 41st and 42nd Ave SW.  This
street points due west and looks out on Puget Sound.  I had a great
view.  As I was looking west, what appeared in the distance (way out
over the sound or Olympics) were two parallel orange-red colored tails.
One was above the other. The upper was wider.  By my recollection, they
appeared in the westerly sky  just north of west and continued toward
me.  My first thought was that they were the rocket trails of incoming
ICBMS!  Their paths were very horizontal, almost flat.  As I stood at
the intersection of SW Juneau and 42nd Ave SW with my mouth open, they
basically came closer to me and I could see they were made up of MANY
glowing particles which had a bright champagne color.  To me, the
leading edges of the parallel bands were conical (pointy end first) and
then fanned out, but to a resticted border.  The bands looked like the
glowing beams made by a flashlight with many glowing dust particles in
them.  It was very pretty.

The particles themselves varied in size, but to me they looked like
glowing pebbles with trailing tails.  Their color was bright champagne.
The bands passed over to the north and NOT directly overhead.  Their
direction of travel was to the northeast.  The bands passed at what
appeared to be a relatively slow, constant speed.  The bands did pass
behind the tops of 60' tall trees which were a half a block to the north
on 42nd Ave SW. So as the bands passed directly to the north of me, they
were partially obscured. Approximate elevation above the horizon maybe
was 60-65 degrees.

As the bands were going out of view, I looked at the back end of the top
one.  One of the larger particles now had an orange color and appeared
to drop down toward the ground.

When I got home, my first reaction to my wife was that something had
broken up in space and reentered the earth's atmosphere.  That's what it
looked like to me.  But then again, I've never seen anything like this
before.

I've been listening to your reports on Art Bell from the time of the
initial event.  Bell really hyped the alien spacecraft angle on
Saturday, which is unfortunate.  My angle is that this rocket or rockets
were shot down using Star Wars technology.  How about that?

Fwd: NW LIGHT SHOW 11/14/97
 
SHARING LIGHT,  ((NAME DELETED))

 
11/14/97:
1st sighting:  9:05 pm,  Pacific Beach. Wa.
( Excited phone call from Lauri ((DELETED)) to detail what she & her 9 yr.
old stepson had just witnessed.)

*her beachfront home is just south of Joe's Creek.  Her 2 story chalet
is all glassed front.  Shortly after 9, her living rm. became
illuminated by a bright light being reflected from a phenomenal light
display in the sky above her ocean front.

*She described their first sighting as, 2 comet like heads positioned
perpendicular to one another (head to head) Each had a tail that seemed
to be swaying.  The balls (heads?) of white shimmering light parted,
leaving a dark space of sky between them.

*The balls re-configured into a tight open triangular pattern, with a
ball of light at the front of each tailing  side of the angle.

*They could now see 4 separate smaller balls of light tailing each of
the larger "HEAD LIGHTS".  A total of 10 separate spheres.

*It was as though they wanted her to see them !  They descended and
momentarily slowed so that they could see directly into the irridescent
larger balls of brilliant white light.  Inside of the spheres they could
see shimmering gold and silver lights.  The silver was likened to small
reflecting mirrored particles.  The 2 larger balls began to change to a
brilliant red-orange.

*The 4 pair of smaller spheres began to glow blue-green in color.  All
of the spheres reconfigured to elongated ovals.

*As a unit they seemed to accelerate and took a right angle turn inland,
following Joe's creek,  moving over Hwy 109 and the Olympics towards
Victoria.

(the R.V. campsite on the N. side of Joe's creek had been filled to
capacity on the afternoon of the 14th.  This is not a usual happening in
this tiny ocean front village even during summer months.  Most of these
visitors disbanded on Saturday rather than staying over til Sunday.)
!!!!

11/15/97
*This day, military helicopters swarmed over the Pacific Beach area and
left following the little stream of Joe's creek moving easterly toward
the Olympics & Victoria.

11/16/97
*The state posted new road signs on Hwy 109.  Circular signs worded
with, TSUNAMI  EVACUATION  ROUTE
with an arrow pointing to Ocean Beach Road (east)

----------------------------------------------------

Lauri (Brenner) Spencer was host on Positive Insights, a radio talk show
on KLAY.  Together, we interviewed Bob Gribble.  He will not forget the
black out that occured just as she was about to describe to him of her
personal UFO contacts.  Our ABC affiliate in Olympia was knocked off the
air also.  These being the only 2 bldgs. in Tacoma & Olympia that had
these experiences this day.

I will call Marilyn Childs next week and provide her with the additional
informations that preceded the Nov. 14th event.  She is not feeling well
and I don't want to confuse her thought processes with my own knowings,
even though the news is GOOD!.

Bob Gribble had given me all of his records to copy and input into my
files for the Boeing Space Division, during the latter 60's.

Nov. 14 NW sighting identified

Peter,

In the course of my research for the article I'm preparing, I came
across a very definitive identification of the objects that passed over
the Pacific Northwest Friday, November 14.

The objects are evidently associated with a Russian Proton booster that
launched a satellite Nov 12th 1700 UT from the Baikonur cosmodrome in
Kazahkstan.  The satellite itself (which did not re-enter) will be used
by the Central Bank of Russia for global accounting and communications.
The four-stage Proton booster is indeed designated as SL-12 by US
agencies.

The orbital decay was very acurately predicted (+/-3 hours) and tracked
by Alan Pickup (http://www.wingar.demon.co.uk/satevo/).
That info is designated 25047, 97-70 C, Kupon Platform,
launced  November 15.22.  Pickup, who seems to be
something of a genius about such things, is doubtful any fragments
survived.

I've traced the mis/dis-info about the direction the objects travelled
(east to west rather than west to east as observed) to NORAD.
Meanwhile, Pickup's computations are extremely compelling.

Thought you'd be interested in this info.

 MULTIPLE FIREBALLS DAZZLE U.S. PACIFIC NORTHWEST
Thousands Witness Spectacular Events; Theories Vary

Shortly after 9:00 pm local time on Friday evening, November 14, residents of
the U.S. Pacific Northwest witnessed what one person described as "the most
bizarre thing I've ever seen... like something out of 'Star Trek.'"

Several brightly luminous objects flew in formation across the night sky,
from west to east, reportedly visible from parts of British Columbia to as
far south as Sacramento, California.

Radio and television stations in the Seattle, Washington metropolitan area
were flooded with calls. The Seattle-based UFO Reporting Center Hotline took
more than forty calls in one hour. By 11:00 pm, the three network TV
affiliates in the Seattle area, KOMO, KING, and KIRO, all featured the
sightings as their lead news story.

On Saturday morning, CNN showed a brief video clip shot in Seattle which
showed several large, luminous objects with very long trails of glowing
debris arcing over the city.

According to the Associated Press, the phenomenon was the result of a Russian
rocket breaking up and burning as it entered the atmosphere from orbit. The
AP quoted Milt Maas at the National Weather Service in Spokane as saying that
pieces of the rocket fell harmlessly in the Pacific Ocean off the Washington
coast. However, other pieces clearly flew eastward over land, and there was
some speculation that debrise may have fallen in eastern Washington.

CNI News received more than a dozen email reports from people who witnessed
the extraordinary aerial show, and additional mail from people with theories
on what it was.

Some agreed with the "official" story that an aging Russian SL-12 (Proton)
rocket, used for launching satellites, came down more or less as previously
predicted by the U.S. Space Command in Colorado Springs, which tracks all of
the thousands of man-made objects (including numerous fragments of defunct
rockets and satellites) currently orbiting the earth.

A writer named Dave reported that "an excellent video of the lights was
recorded by a Vancouver, B.C., TV station [and] was shown on the local news
(KING 5 TV, Seattle). It looked exactly like the films of the demise of Space
Lab over Australia years ago. Definitely man-made debris re-entering the
earth's atmosphere."

Other writers pointed out that the annual Leonid Meteor Shower is nearing its
peak (the actual peak date is November 17) and that this year is predicted to
be one of the most spectacular meteor showers in the past 30 years.
Occasionally, so-called bolide or fireball meteors create a display similar
to that seen on Friday night. But it would be highly unusual for a group of
bolides to fly across the sky in perfect formation, as was reported.

Several witnesses commented that the luminous objects seemed to be moving
very slowly. One witness estimated the speed at 200 miles per hour. Several
commented that there was absolutely no sound. One witness contacted the Art
Bell "Coast to Coast" radio program Friday night to say that he had seen a
triangle-shaped object. However, nearly all witnesses reported a group of
bright, moving lights.

"These things were flying in formation.... straight across the horizon, but
low. My wife thought it was planes at first, flying in formation here in the
valley," one witness wrote.

Another writer reported: "My friend called me from about 10 miles south-east
of Everett (Washington). He saw what he described as a 'circle of white
lights.' At least 6 or 7 lights, maybe more. It appeared as if they were
attached to something. They were not blinking and not rotating. Entire circle
of lights was about the size of thumbnail at arm's length. It was decending
'very quickly' in a nearly vertical fall. He watched it until he couldn't see
it any longer because the trees in his yard blocked the view. Total duration
of sighting was perhaps 30 seconds."

Yet another witness in Aberdeen, Washington said he was alerted by a
phone-call from a fellow worker at 9:07 pm "that there was a 'really low
flying aircraft outside'.

"I moved to an exterior landing which just happened to be facing north and
couldn't believe what I saw," he said. "A large group of mixed-size objects,
red-orange in color, were traversing the sky from west to east approximately
30 degrees above the northern horizon. Most of the smaller objects appeared
to be 'spark like' in appearance and slowly winked out... Two red-orange
colored objects larger than the rest appeared to lead the smaller objects.
Approximately fifteen seconds before it passed from view, a third large sized
object appeared to break out... ahead of the two large objects.

"I have seen dozens of meteors in my life and this was most emphatically not
acting like any meteor I've ever seen," this witness wrote. "It maintained a
constant speed and a slightly downward course."

Noting that the local KOMO-TV news was reporting the cause of the phenomena
as "space junk," this witness added: "If that's the case, 'something' in the
space junk ejected before impact and you and I will never know the truth
about this one."

Some witnesses clearly were not buying the official explanations.

Mary, a resident of Wenatchee, Washington, wrote: "I thought at first I was
seeing a reflection of traffic [in the window], because the lights I saw
(four of them) were not moving that fast, and there was a definite formation.
I told my husband to look, and he and my son ran out in the parking lot, just
in time to see them disappear over the plateau, moving east... It is pretty
ridiculous to expect anyone who saw it to believe it was ANYTHING that
plunged into the Pacific, or anything as random as meteors. There was
definite formation to it, and... SO LOW OVER THE LAND...

"I could SEE these objects passing between me and the hills," Mary insists.
"I could SEE that the objects were between us and towers.  It was BELOW the
mountain top, IN THE VALLEY.  It was no optical illusion, as I had PLENTY of
time to watch it, resume eating my dinner, look up again and watch some more,
before I decided that it was not a plane, not a reflection, not a fireball.

"I don't chase aliens or UFOs, and there is absolutely no reason for me to
make anything like this up," she added. "Why is it so hard to expect
government or media to tell the truth, even if the truth is 'We just don't
know what it was'?"

Dear Peter:
Here is the article as well as a couple other things I've written. I
hope you like them. Thanks for the NORAD number. The guy there was
very personable. "We track over 8,000 natural and manmade objects a
day. Most fall back to Earth over water or other unpopulated areas.
Lucky me, I just happen to get one which falls back to Earth near a
population center." When I asked the guy at NORAD for specifics on the
Russian rocket, he said, "I don't know about that. You would have to
call the Russian Space Agency." I got the number but I was on deadline
so I didn't have time to call.
((NAME DELETED))
 

((FOLLOWING ARTICLE FROM THE COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD))

Residents report seeing last week's "space junk"
By Brian Gawley
Herald staff writer

One week ago, in a county far, far away....

The National Weather Service said they were meteors falling to Earth over the Pacific Ocean.
The national radar tracking system said they were the remains of a Russian SL12 booster rocket falling back to Earth.

Those who saw them said they were "the most incredible thing I ever saw."

Soap Lake resident Phyllis Duran said she and several other people saw the lights locally, including some people driving in the Quincy area. "I've never seen anything like it," she said. The lights were spotted over Seattle by the president of KOMO, Seattle's ABC station, Duran added. They also were seen in Issaquah, 20 miles east of Seattle, by the pilot of KOMO's traffic helicopter.

She said the lights were first spotted in Sacramento at 8:30 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 14. At 8:45 p.m. the lights were moving due east. They passed over Wenatchee, Moses Lake, and Spokane, Duran said. They were seen last in Vancouver, B.C.

Duran questioned the official explanation that the lights were simply space junk because they traveled parallel to the horizon. "When space junk enters the atmosphere, it usually does so at an angle. There is no way space junk traveled parallel to the horizon for 1,500 miles (from the first sighting in Sacramento to later sightings in Idaho and British Columbia)."

Pictures are available on the Internet at www.artbell.com, the Website for radio talk show host Art Bell, she said.

According to Chief Deputy Tom Windsor of the Okanogan Sheriff's Office, their 911 center received "two or three calls" regarding the lights from the Colville Indian Reservation and towns west of Wenatchee. The 911 dispatcher there called the National UFO Reporting Center in Seattle.

The National UFO Reporting Center in Seattle records UFO sightings from across the country. According to director Peter Davenport, beginning at 9:18 p.m. on Friday, the center was receiving between four and six calls a minute. Port Angeles, Bellingham and the entire 360 area code (Western Washington outside of the Tacoma-Seattle-Everett area) lit up the group's switchboard, he said. The center received 300 calls since Friday. They weren't able to get any data from those callers due to the volume, only name, location and phone number. Thousands of people must have seen them based upon the reports, Davenport said.

A policeman in Grays Harbor County spotted them and the reported sightings continued northward. Along the Washington shore, witnesses reported seeing "multiple large lights" in a symmetrical V-shaped formation with a single one zipping all around the others, Davenport said. A camper at Lake Cushman reported "five or six or seven" large round lights in a V-formation went over his head, lasting between 30 and 60 seconds. It was a clear night and they were going roughly northeast, he said.

A caller from Lummi Island (between Everett and Bellingham) reported seeing the lights overhead to the north and traveling to the northeast. Sightings were reported in Vancouver, Bellingham, and Blaine, so it may have turned easterly, he said. Three dozen callers all reported seeing the same thing, a symmetrical V-shaped formation of large, bright lights. Reports also were received from Tonasket, Leavenworth, Okanogan, Concrete, Methow, and Nine Mile Falls.

On Sunday at 1:15 p.m., a resident of Sandpoint, Idaho reported seeing the lights. Her daughter asked, "What are those lights?" The woman said they were from the nearby ski area. When she realized they were not from the ski area, the woman stopped her car, got out and watched. She reported seeing seven disc objects which were 20 times the size of Venus as seen in the night sky. They were in two rows with four on the top and three on the bottom. "It was the most bizarre sight I've ever seen in my life," the woman said.

The center considers these sightings to be unconfirmed until they can get written reports, Davenport added.

According to Dale Goudie from the UFO Information Center, witnesses reported seeing anywhere from one to eight to 20 large, bright objects in the sky. They were moving in a non-linear fashion and were awfully big to be meteors, although they could have been.

The organization was formed in 1982 with an agenda of getting verified information concerning possible UFO sightings. The organization verifies information about unexplained sightings through government documents obtained using the Freedom Of Information Act. They don't criticize the government. He received 44 calls before the Associated Press story hit and 66 calls afterwards, Goudie said.

NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) is based in Colorado and Wyoming. It is a radar system which tracks everything in the sky above North America, a large part of the Atlantic Ocean and the North Pole.

This agency is supposed to detect and track objects such as falling satellites and warn the public, Goudie said. (The descent of Skylab in 1979 is an example.) If those lights were space junk, then why didn't the agency warn the public as they did in 1979 when Skylab fell, Goudie said. The lights weren't falling though, he added.

NORAD's public information officer Scott Johnson said the agency tracks 8,000 objects a day entering the Earth's atmosphere, some only the size of a baseball. Most of these objects fall to Earth over unpopulated areas or water so no one ever notices, he explained. This Russian rocket launched on Wednesday, Nov. 12 just happened to fall back to Earth off the U.S./Canadian West Coast.

The agency can't predict where these objects will land, they can only give people a window of when and where they might land, Johnson explained. He compared the re-entering space junk to a rock skipping across a pond. "We lose track of it once it starts breaking up. We can't predict where it will land, that depends on how the rocket booster (or whatever other piece of space junk) was designed, what its weight is, what its mass is, and other factors."

The National Weather Service reported the lights were a meteor shower, yet they did not continue the next night, he said. Goudie felt their explanation was not satisfactory. If the government is flying unconventional aircraft over restricted airspace, then they should inform people nearby, Goudie said.

A National Weather Service spokesman said that agency doesn't track meteors, only the weather. The report of a meteor shower was not an official determination made by that agency, he said. It came from someone who talked to an Associated Press reporter who called the agency shortly after the lights were spotted, the spokesman explained. "It is hard for us to have an official position on something we don't track."

So residents are left to wait for the return of the mysterious lights, and to wonder.
 
 

Hi Peter,
Here is one of the reports on the light cluster.  When any more come in
I'll forward asap.  Take Care,  Mike

Portland, Oregon - November 14,1997 at 9:10 p.m. one adult, two 13 year
olds, and one 8 year old in a car (plus many others on the street) all
saw a cluster of white blinking lights moving slowly north near the
intersection of Interstate 5 and Ballinger Way (NE 205th). The lights were blinking
slowly. It looked like a mass of brighter and dimmer stars. We heard no noise.
The effect was similar to what you would see if you had twinkling lights
spread across two or three large shapes. There were dim trails after the
shapes. It maintained an even altitude and moved slowly across the
sky.(Email Report)

(Directors Note: I happen to live only a few miles from where this
phenomenon just took place. At the time of writing only an hour and a
half has gone by. I will check the skies tonight and issue an extra edition
upon further developments.)
 

Hi, Heree's one more set.   MIke

I got this off another list, friends.  Also, after this one, is the url
for the location of the Seattle Times, where I got their side of the story,
which is pretty tame, of course:

 UFO ROUNDUP
 Volume 2, Number 44
 November 16, 1997
 Editor: Joseph Trainor

MYSTERIOUS BRIGHT LIGHTS
SEEN IN PACIFIC NORTHWEST

Thousands of people in the USA's Pacific Northwest
region watched Friday night, November 14, 1997, as
mysterious bright lights slowly crossed the night sky.

The lights were first spotted at 9:06 p.m. Pacific
time on the western horizon.  One witness, David Way
of Keizer, Oregon, said, "It was the most bizarre thing
I've ever seen.  It looked like something out of Star
Trek."  (See the Salem, Oregon Statesman-Journal
for November 15, 1997)

The National UFO Reporting Center in Seattle,
Washington was bombarded with thousands of phone
calls from eyewitnesses.

NORAD and the U.S. Air Force said the "lights"
were debris from a Russian SL-12 space rocket
"burning up as it reentered the atmosphere."

"Whatever was left of it fell safely in the Pacific
Ocean off the coast of Washington, said Milt Maas
at the National Weather Service in Spokane," Wash.
(See the Providence Sunday Journal for November 16,
1997, page A-3)

Yet eyewitnesses from Bellingham, Washington
to Sacramento, California reported seeing the "bright
lights" cross the vault of sky from west to east.

In Seattle, videotape of the lights was aired on
all three network affiliates--KOMO, KIRO and KING--
at 11 p.m. the night of November 14.  According to
one viewer, Glen Boyd, "Video I saw showed a large
array of lights with trails behind them, traveling across
Puget Sound."

The lights remained in view from 9:06 p.m. to
9:17 p.m., a total of 11 minutes.  Much too slow to be
conventional meteors or "space junk."

According to Skywatch International, "At approx-
imately 9:15 tonight, a formation of as many as twenty
lights traveling from west to east was seen by
thousands in the Pacific Northwest and Seattle in
particular."

Witnesses watched the event from Alki Beach in
West Seattle, on the shore of Puget Sound.  One man
reported, "The objects to be looking like 'sparks coming
out of a Roman candle' but traveling slowly across the
horizon," adding that "the objects traveled in a line and
appeared so close he thought 'they were going to crash
in downtown Seattle.'  He also said he could see smoke
coming from the objects.  Some reported seeing 'a large
triangular-shaped craft.'" (USENET Item)

One caller telephoned the Art Bell radio show and
reported seeing "wreckage" in Ellensburg, Washington
(population 12,361).  Ellensburg is on Highway 97 about
100 miles (160 kilometers) southeast of Seattle.

According to John Erickson of the Paranormal Times,
in Portland, Oregon at 9:10 p.m. "one adult, two 13-year-
olds and one 8-year-old in a car (plus many others in the
state) all saw a cluster of white blinking lights moving
slowly near the intersection of Interstate (Highway) 5 and
Ballinger Way (NE 205th Street).  The lights were blinking
slowly.  It looked like a mass of brighter and dimmer stars."

Oregon witnesses heard no sound associated with
the overflight.  "There were dim trails after the objects."
(See the Paranormal Times for November 15, 1997)

In Klamath Falls, Oregon (population 17,737), witnesses
described "three large objects" covered with "blinking lights"
moving slowly from west to east.

In Sacramento, California (population 369,365), witnesses
reported seeing "a bright light streak" in the northern sky.
Friday night's overflight was the biggest mass sighting of
anomalous lights in the night sky since the March 13, 1997
event in Arizona.

I'll snip the following story for space.  It can be found at:
 

http://www.seattletimes.com/extra/browse/html97/junk_111697.html

Hi Peter

I saw two objects.
They were moving west to east. Orange Slant angle was about 10 to 1 accross my field of view.
Angle above the horizon was about 1.5 fists. From about Northgate on I-5 Time was about 2115 Hrs

((NAME DELETED))

 Dear Mr. Davenport:

Your work is most appreciated, and I'm sure that in time it will be a key
contributor to eliminating the ignorance in which a small secret segment of
the government is trying enshroud its citizens.

There is a technical issue which you've probably considered, but I feel
compelled to bring it up just in case.  In the Phoenix March 13 case, the
huge triangle craft glided/moved for about 100 miles from about 8:15 to 9:15
PM.  Then at around 10 PM the military dropped a long string of vertically
dropping flares shaped in a slightly irregular arc near the south mountains
which erratically disappeared behind the mountains.    (as illustrated in the
video of a superimposed mountain profile with the lights/flares,  Discovery
Channel: Anatomy of the Phoenix Lights)

Under the category of:  if they did it in Phoenix why not try it again with a
new twist in the North West.  Is it possible that when real ufo's were
detected via satellites, they then engaged in areal disinformation to confuse
the issue to the non-expert public.  In the case of the Nov 14 strings of
sparking/fiery lights (most unusual for ufo's) could they have been pulling
strings of flares at altitude behind low noise, black, tow planes originally
used to light battle fields.  Then you would get real ufo sightings
interspersed with their strings of sparking/fiery flares (areal
disinformation).  Then just as in Phoenix they could concoct a cover story
after gauging public reaction to confuse the whole issue --like space junk
(in Phoenix March 13, the concoction was military exercises).

A very small segment of the government has been putting out verbal
disinformation for decades, why would they not take the next step and put out
areal disinformation at night.  Everyone knows they've done much worse than
that.

No need to answer, this is just for your cautious consideration.

Thanks again for your good work,
((NAME DELETED)) (Dave from the Bay Area)
 
 

I thought you would like to see this posting from an internet newsgroup.  I
second Jerry's enthusiasim for heaping praise on you.

Well done, Peter

Mike ((NAME DELETED))

Kent, WA

From: ((DELETED))
To: ((DELETED))    Subject: UFO Community Gets Fair Press In Seattle.
Date: Tue, 18 Nov
 

It's Nov. 17th, l997, and it's time for the 5:00 news.  The anchors give a brief run-down of the day's top stories, and then show yet another 'clip' from the "Seattle Lights" video.  They then announce that they will present a story on the National UFO Reporting Center, and the man who runs it, Peter Davenport.  As they break for a "word from our sponsers", I hunch up my
sholders protectively, tighten my stomach muscles and grit my teeth.  I am getting ready to take a beating.  Yup, I thought, here it comes they are going to ridicule the UFO believers once again!  There'll be all the usual condemnations and jokes, yea, the "giggle factor".

It never happened!  Instead of what I expected, I was pleased and very surprised at the fair and serious coverage.  Peter was fantastic on camera!  He was dressed in a suit and tie, and looked like a bank president or a professor. His soft spoken manner and ready smile struck a balance, somehow with his business like delivery and bearing.

You betcha! I was proud to have Peter Davenport speaking out on network T.V. about UFOs. I was proud to have him representing the UFO community, I was proud to have him representing me!

Peter and all those assisting him deserve a big hand!
 

Wa. Lights

I heard your report on the Art Bell Program last week & again tonight in
replay .  Is there anything new to report?, as of right now  there is no mention here
on the web sight .   My curiosity is Piqued (sp)  I did see the lights that
night  at approx .9:12 pm.  That is just an estimate for time as all clocks
are different .  I was in Bellevue, Wa. looking North ... The lights that I
saw were coming out of the WSW going NNE. I and others who saw this "EVENT" are looking for a plausible answer . If you cannot reply yourself ...can the websight be updated faster ???

                                         Thanks much
                                         ((NAME AND ADDRESS DELETED))

Peter,

As discussed over the phone with you, I am writing on what I saw at
approximately 9:12 pm on Nov 14th. As I stated first, I am a ((DELETED)) with the
((DEPARTMENT DELETED)) Department in ((DELETED)), WA.
((DELETED)) sits exactly east of the Pacific and south of the Quinault River,
about 20 miles north of Ocean Shores.
At about 2112 hours., I was outside the ((DELETED)) moving some
((DELETED)) cars around in the parking lot. As I exited the car (Which was
facing north), I looked up above the ((DELETED)) roof and saw the
lights in the sky. The best description of the lights I can provide
would be that which looked like 2 jets with sparks coming out of the
rear. The picture seen on Art Bell's site is what I saw
(http://www.artbell.com/images/wa-pat15.jpg).
The two lines of lights were travelling in an east, northeasterly
direction at almost the same speed. There was NO deviation in the
diection of travel by any of the lights. The lights all seemed to stay
together in a pack. At that time, I yelled for another officer, ((DELETED)),
to come outside and witness what I was seeing. ((DELETED)) came outside
and we both watched the lights for another 45 seconds to a minute. (I
had seen the lights moving for about 00:01:30 minutes). This only
stopped due to obstructions in our line of sight.
I did little deviation in my viewing area. I was standing approximately
200 yards east of the ocean and 100 yards south of the river in the
middle of the police station parking lot. From my line of sight, I saw
the lights at approximately a 35 degree angle up (point of reference, my
arm straight out in front of me and I'm 5'11"). I first saw the lights
at about 12 degrees to my left, over the ocean. I followed the lights to
an approximate 40-45 degrees to the east and lost sight over the
fire station, which is next to the police station compound.
I was later told by another officer in the town of Queets, which is 30
miles north of Taholah on the coast, that some witnesses there had seen
the lights moving from west to east northeast, north of Queets.
I hope this can help you out on where the location of the lights flew
over. If you need more information, you can write me at,
((NAME DELETED))

Sincerely,
((NAME DELETED))