NUFORC Sighting 47586

Occurred: 1973-05-01 09:00 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2005-11-09 16:19 Pacific
Duration: 3-4 minutes
No of observers: 1

Location: Gaithersburg, MD, USA

Shape: Disk
Characteristics: Lights on object

Disk-shaped object with sequentially-flashing green lights around the perimeter -- 5/73 -- flying low.

Note: I have entered this before -- but in July 1973 by mistake. It was in the SPRING. ..

I was entering Rt. 70S from Fields Road (70S is now 270). The ramp dumps you onto the road about 50 feet before you go under the Shady Grove Road underpass.

Just as I was heading under I noticed something round up in the sky. As I emerged from the underpass I was already looking up to see if I could see the object. At first I couldn't and I wondered if it had changed direction, when all of a sudden it came into view, not high, but at a much lower altitude than at first. It was crossing the highway in front of my car going roughly from NW to SE. I think it was flying too low for legal airspace.

At that point, since I was almost under it, it looked just like a big black disk, but a second or two later it got far enough away to see the edge of it -- which was a band of sequentially-flashing green lights. That's when I knew this wasn't anything ordinary.

It continued in the SE direction -- I sped up to about 90 MPH because it was the only thing I could do to see more, but I couldn't keep up ... I think it must have been traveling 300-400 mph.

I watched the object go into the distance and noticed that it kept descending, so that eventually I was looking straight out at it. My location on Rt. 70S was high ground, and in 1973 there wasn't much built up along it, so there was a pretty clear view of this object.

After awhile it was so far that I couldn't even make out the flashing lights anymore. It began to veer slightly toward the east. ....

The next morning, in almost the exact spot, WPGC announced that the Air Force said that the object reported by some observers the day before was 'an experimental airplane with sequentially flashing lights.' The announcement did not include anything about the fact that this object had no wings of the type our aircraft usually has. ...

The sighting occurred about 9 a.m. over a highway that in those days wasn't as busy as it is in 2005, but there was other traffic besides myself.

I'll never forget this and am still hoping to find someone else who saw it and did the research to find out what it is.

Since the radio announcement said the Air Force made the statement, and the object did kind of veer off toward Andrews AFB, I never talked about it for 28 years. (I can draw a sketch of what I saw if I could talk to a researcher.)

NUFORC Note:

Witness indicates that the date of the incident is approximate. PD

Posted 2005-12-16