NUFORC Sighting 62392

Occurred: 2008-03-24 20:45 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2008-03-28 11:06 Pacific
Duration: 1 - 2 min.
No of observers: 2

Location: Las Cruces, NM, USA

Shape: Unknown
Characteristics: Lights on object, Aircraft nearby

Saw 2 white lights fly very close to airplane then disappear by fading away.

On March 24th or 25th My wife and I were out for a walk about 8:45 PM in Las Cruces, NM. It was a clear night with bright stars and no clouds. I saw two lights moving from the west towards the east in the sky moving at what appeared to be a constant speed and in a straight line, about as fast as a small airplane would be going. The two lights had just flown almost directly over the Las Cruces Airport. The two lights were bright white color and were not flashing or blinking. One was in front and was a little larger and brighter than the one following it. Their alignment was straight with the path and the distance between the lights remained constant. They remained the same brightness until right before they disappeared which I will describe later.

I could not hear anything but I didn't think that was unusual. I pointed the lights out to my wife and remarked how it might be an airplane except the lights weren't blinking and there were no red lights. I said it seemed strange for a plane to not have flashing or blinking lights. It crossed my mind that it could be a UFO but I still thought it was probably a plane. She said it was a plane.

We watched it and within a few seconds noticed an airplane flying west by northwest. The second plane had flashing red lights and non flashing white lights and didn't seem unusual in any way. The plane and the lights we saw first were heading in a way that they looked like their paths would intersect. They looked as if they were on a collision course. So we watched, not really excpecting them to collide, but just watching.

When the plane and the lights intersected, it was hard to tell if the lights passed under or over the plane. Their intersection appeared to happen almost directly overhead. So far there was nothing really strange except for there being no flashing lights accompanying the two white lights. The strange thing that happened was: immediately after the plane and lights intersected, the two white lights faded away to nothing. the fading away was fairly fast but not instantaneous. It seemed to take about a second for the fading to be complete. Then the two white lights never reappeared. There were no clouds and the airplane had just passed through the same part of the sky immedialty before yet it did not fade out of sight or even get dimmer momentarily. The airplane was still visible and continued on it’s way.

We both thought what we had just seen was very strange. I suggested it might have been an alien spaceship but my wife dismissed that idea. I really can’t think of a good explanation for the lights fading away like that and a few people who I described it to also thought it was weird.

Neither my wife or I had been drinking or smoking anything. I have not drank ( or smoked anything ) in over 23 years. I am a computer scientist working for the Army at White Sands Missile Range and my wife is a Chinese immigrant. It might be possible to check with the Las Cruces airport to see if 1 plane or 2 planes where flying over the area just to the east of the airport at around 8:45 PM on those nights. I will try to remember exactly which night it was.

NUFORC Note:

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

Posted 2008-03-31