NUFORC Sighting 4172

Occurred: 1998-03-07 18:17 Local - Approximate
Reported: 1998-06-24 00:00 Pacific
Duration: 2 minutes
No of observers: 2

Location: Benson (Just outside of), NC, USA

Shape: Fireball
Characteristics: Aura or haze around object, Left a trail

A comnet shaped object suddenly appeared in the sky and appeared to move across the sky slowly until it turned away from me and disappeared.

I was driving East on Intersate 40 just outside of Benson, NC on my way to Wilmington. It was just before sunset and the sky was darkening at the apex when a light caught my eye coming from the southeast. It looked very much like the Hale-Bopp comet that was present in the sky last summer. The light was bright in the end pointing north and it seemed to spread out and fade away from the object in a southern direction. When it appeared I thought it might be an asteroid, but it remained visible in a somewhat stationary position for too long. I quickly asked my girlfriend who was in the car with me to look up and she was immediately able to point it out. For the next two minutes or so it remained visible and seemed to very slowly move from right to left in our field of vision. Then suddenly it seemed to turn away from us swinging the tail of light towards us and then it sped towards space and quickly disappeared. We watced the sky for about an hour longer and saw nothing of the object again. My girlfriend and I are both in our early twenties and are recent graduates of UNC and NC State respectfully. Neither of us had ever claimed to have seen a UFO before or since.

NUFORC Note:

We suspect that the witness observed the apparent double launch of ICBM's from a U. S. submarine off the coast of Florida. We have amended the date and time here. PD

Posted 2002-03-19