NUFORC Sighting 12470

Occurred: 1998-09-01 19:30 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2000-03-29 00:00 Pacific
Duration: approx 2 min
No of observers: 2

Location: Avoca, PA, USA

Shape: Triangle
Characteristics: Lights on object

Driving South on I-81 around 20 miles South of Avoca Airport. Saw large object hovering right off the side of highway. Nighttime spotting so shape hard to make out. 3 very bright white lights on front, tiny rapidly blinking red light on side facing us. I am only guessing the shape to be triangle since night sky and bright lights made it difficult to discern

I am hoping to find someone else who has seen what my fiance and myself witnessed at around 8:30 pm on Interstate 81 in PA near Wilkes Barre. We were driving home one evening after spending the day at the Italian festival in Scranton PA. We were on Interstate 81 South near the Scranton/Wilkes Barre International airport in Avoca when we first saw this object. We took notice of this thing because it was extremely high in the sky with 3 huge very bright white lights but with no of the typical blinking lights which are common to known aircraft. We paid little attention to it seeing that we were so close to the airport and chances were that it was some kind of commercial aircraft. We wound our way past the airport on 81 south and continued for another 20 miles or so before we came around a bend in the highway and out of a small patch of trees which are common on this highway when we saw it again. It now was no more than 150 feet off the ground with its 3 bright white lights now hitting us in the face, nearly blinding us. other cars on the road around us began swerving as we did due to the sudden loss of visibility. My fiance began saying things like "What is that? Is that a plane?" I at first thought we were about to witness a horrible plane crash but the thing never crashed. It did not even move all that much! As we got closer to it, I wondered why this thing didn't shoot over us to the north toward the airport if it were indeed a jet coming in for a landing at the airport. As a matter of fact, the craft was not moving horozontally at all. It was making a slow vertical descent over what I could only describe as a small industrial park. I had a good vantage point to judge how high (or low) the craft was in the sky since it was near a radio tower. This huge craft was definitely lower than the top of this nearby radio tower. I quickly opened the sunroof on the car and stuck my head outside the top of the car. the only thing I could hear was the traffic of the other cars and trucks on the highway and the wind! rushing around my head. This craft made no noticeable sound. Later that night I thought that perhaps what we saw was a large helecopter or a harrier jet of some kind. these are the two craft that to my knowledge can hover without horozontal movement. If this thing were a helecopter, it would have had to have been one of those big old Chinooks who's rotors make enough noise to shake the very ground if it were to be at the low altitude that this monster was at. This thing was RIGHT off the side of the highway so a chinook would have been easily heard from our vantage point. I invesitgated the possibility of a harrier jet. I learned that harrier jets were not only way too small to be this craft, but also make a terrible noise when using its engines to hover as this craft was doing. As we passed along the craft's right side, I tried my best to discern a shape of some sort. I could not see any wings at all on this thing to speak of, but I was able to barely make out a very small red light on its right hand side blinking in a very rapid fashion. This red light was very small an was toward the rear of the craft. The shape I could not define to an absolute seeing that it was against the night sky but my eyes saw that the craft was very angular and rectangular from the profile view I had of it. I kick myself every day for not making my fiance turn the car around to get a second look at it. Again, this crat was BIG. The size of a large commercial jet at least. Yet, what kind of commercial jet has the ability to hover? It di not pass us on the highway...we passed IT! It did not move save in a slow smooth downward motion. Again, this was Early September 1998 along interstate 81 near Wilkes Barre, PA at approximately 8:30 pm. i never have reported this to any authority due mostly to the fact I did not know who to contact in this kind of a case. I am not the only one who saw this thing on that particular night as the highway was full of cars and trucks. A friend of mine who used to drive from our college in Columbia county i! n North Central PA to his home in upstate NY told me in confidence even before I saw this craft that he had seen something that matched my description to a tee pace his car and a tractor trailer while he drove home one night on 81 northbound. The craft in his description flew over very quickly and then suddenly slowed and flew over his car and the truck for around 1 mile before veering suddenly and disappearing to the West. The trucker and my friend honked at each other after the craft flew over almost to ask each other if the other saw what they saw. He described the craft as "very large with 3 bright white lights." I hope someone someday will read this and respond either by follow-up post or direct email reply and tell me what the hell that thing was. A little info about myself. I am now a 23 year old white male. Computer Technician. While I held an interest in UFO's and the like, I never gave them much credit until this incident. I have visited other UFO sites in the hopes of finding someone else who has had an experience along I-81 in PA, with no luck. At the time of the sighting, i was a 21 year old college student at a state college in PA.

Posted 2000-04-01

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