NUFORC Sighting 17100

Occurred: 2001-03-30 21:30 Local
Reported: 2001-04-02 00:00 Pacific
Duration: 15 min
No of observers: 2

Location: Disputanta, VA, USA

Shape: Diamond
Characteristics: Lights on object

Multitude of extremely fast flashing lights in a small area of the sky.

On Friday evening, March 31, 2001, ((sic. Date os sighting was 30MR01. PD)) I was working at my PC. The window was cracked open and I heard an approaching car and looked out the window to see if someone was coming down our driveway. We have a gravel driveway that leads to a country road. The driveway is approx 1/4 mile long. It was about 9:20 p.m. or so...I was not aware of the time at that point. As I looked out the window and saw the car was headed to another house by the main road, I noticed lights in the sky. They appeared to be those of a plane initially, but there was NO noise at any time! There were yellow lights and red lights and I was startled because it seemed to be flying at a very low altitude. It appeared to be coming head on rather than across the sky. It was located on the other side of the road, off the road, back towards the woods, near the tree tops. I understand that they were coming from the East. I continued to watch and then called my husband as I left the office to go outside for a better view. I couldn't get the words out because I had to sneeze and by the time my husband got to the front porch it had disappeared. I told him to wait as I was going to get the video camera as I felt "something was very different about this plane and it would be back." Only a few minutes passed and I returned to the front porch and I would guess it was around 9:25 or so. The rest is recorded on the video tape. I would say that in retrospect, that the so called quick movements made by the aircraft as perceived by me, probably resulted from my zooming in and out. I used the night vision mode. The camera is a Sony Digital 8 , Model DCR-TRV310. There is quite a bit of air traffic in this area, BUT we can hear the planes without any difficulty whatsoever. That is what is very odd about this, unless the objects were so far away that we couldn't hear them. It was cloudy that evening and you could not see the stars with the exception of the one I recorded close to the moon. I am assuming that was a star. The "planes" seemed to appear from the woods in the East. At the beginning of the video there are two...which my husband reasons are planes. They are traveling at different altitudes from south to north the best I can tell. My last shot of the event films an object going the other way, from north to south, back towards the woods. (To be continued)

Multitude of extremely fast flashing lights in a small area of the sky.

Part II of report After reviewing the video several times in different modes, I might accept someone telling me that these are planes. But in order to do that, I want to video tape again, during the evening on a clear night and compare the two. I find it very difficult however, for anyone to come up with any explanation for the visual display of rapid-fire light activity (similar to a seventies psychedelic rock concert) in such a small airspace. I find it difficult to believe that FAA would allow planes to fly so close to the ground and/or allow the number of planes (as represented by the flashing lights) we saw in such close proximity to one another. To take this further, IF you view the tape in frame by fame mode, you can actually see the smaller objects moving from one point to another, at such a speed and in directions that defy what I, with no knowledge of physics, know as possible. It is difficult to see initially, but the parts are noted with my commentary (which I hope you will ignore!) about "twinkle, twinkle little stars" and then later, with "they are like mosquitoes." There are frame views of the objects that show two round lights and also parts that show how the objects appear to be turning 360 degrees on an imaginary axis, then close up (like a clam) and move. On the frame by frame close ups, they look like a diamond shaped object. In one of the views , unless this is all my imagination or camera foolery, the object looks like it rotates, gets very dark on one side with a finite line showing a very dark underside and starts to collapse before heading to another location. Today I shot some more video of the area in daylight. Hopefully that may help in orientation of the landscape. Perhaps I am making more of this that what is actually there. But it is something I have never seen before. Also, I guess it could be tricks played by the camera and the way it films light? I have no idea. Would appreciate hearing what you think after viewing the copy of the tape. Rather than emitting objects, which I did not see, I felt by movements that this was some type of exercise or manuevers and the object went back (not all) into another object? I know....CRAZY! End of Report



NUFORC Note:

We received the lengthy video tape on 16AP01, and we have looked at it several times. We agree with the witness that the lights "strobe," and we agree that they move in the night sky. However, although we cannot be certain yet, our suspicion is that she may have been video taping aircraft in the distance. We will investigate a bit more, but the strobing patterns are not inconsistent with aircraft, or perhaps helicopters. PD


Posted 2001-04-28

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