Occurred: 1972-10-01 23:00 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2001-06-08 00:00 Pacific
Duration: 30+ minutes
No of observers: 0

Location: Pickens/Pumpkintown, SC, USA

Shape: Chevron
Characteristics: Lights on object, Electrical or magnetic effects

Slowly moving boomerang shape with four bluish-white lights on each leading edge; made a humming sound.

In Octber of 1972 while I was a student I was driving with a friend on a Sunday night returning home from a double date via a country road. We both noticed a bright white light moving slowly from left to right circling a large hill. We thought that it was a ranger plane and drove on without interest until we noticed that it seemed to be following us. We could see it sometimes in front and sometimes behind us. By this time we were driving from 40 to 50 MPH, depending upon the curvature of the road, trying to keep the opject in sight. Thinking of the height of a broadcast antenna, the object may have been 1000 feet above ground and seemed to be the size of a small fingernail held at arms length. We also noticed that the FM car radio was being affected by unusual static. After several minutes of driving during which I either increased or decreased speed trying to view the object better, it finally veered off toward a large empty field and stopped at what looked to be only a few yards off the ground. I stopped my car and asked my friend to get out with me. My friend, a large, burly "country boy" at first would not leave the car, but later consented to do so. We observed the object for several minutes until we noticed that it was moving. We watched in awe as this object slowly soared into the air moving upward at a 45 degree angle. It looked like a "chevron" or "boomerang", with the pointed edge at the front. The two ends were both squared off, not pointed or rounded. We saw four bluish-white lights on each leading edge. The object moved slowly, perhaps 20-25 MPH and was possibly 250 feet above the ground and about 500 feet away. At that height and distance I probably could have obscured most of the object with my open palm held at arms length. We could clearly see the outline of the main body of the object, which was dark, against the night sky (the moon was almost full), and it was absolutely plain that there was nothing between the two sides of the "chevron" - so we could clearly tell that it was not an airplane. The object made a steady humming sound, not a droning or cyclic sound, like a generator. The sound was not very loud - my friend and I talked as it passed by us - and the sound faded as the object became more distant from us. The object moved across the road to a distance of several hundred yards where again it looked like only a single light as when we first noticed it, and stopped. My friend and I got back in the car and moved forward on the road trying to keep the object in sight. The object began to move and gain altitude and once again a sort of chase resumed, where the object would be either in front of or behind us as we tried to keep pace with it. The object suddenly stopped at an altitude of perhaps 500 feet, and we stopped directly below it, watching it from inside the car. The object remained motionless for about 3-4 minutes, and then suddenly shot straight up and disappeared. Since that occurance I have retired from a career in the military, where I was exposed to all types of airborne craft. I have never seen or heard any type of jet, plane, or helicopter that even remotely resembles what I observed that night.



NUFORC Note:

Date is approximate. PD


Posted 2001-08-05

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