NUFORC Sighting 90243

Occurred: 1998-05-12 03:00 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2012-06-29 23:56 Pacific
Duration: 10 minutes
No of observers: 2

Location: Pampa, TX, USA

Shape: Light
Characteristics: Lights on object

Bright light that would light up the sky and then dim. Also crossed great distances in short amount of time; disappeared and reappeare

I am reporting this retroactively, I am now 31 years old. I was a junior in high school at the time of the sighting, I believe I was 16 or 17 at the time.

It was a weeknight. I was asleep. My room had a window that faced north on the second story of my parent's house. This window had no blind, or my blind was wide open. I can't remember which. We lived on the northeast side of town. In any case, I was awakened from sleep by a bright, flashing light at around 3-4 AM. It was bright enough to wake me from a dead sleep; bright enough to pass through my eyelids and awaken me. At first I thought it was lightning, and shut my eyes to go back to sleep. The flash happened a couple of more times, yet I never heard any accompanying thunder. This was all probably within a matter of 15 seconds. Eventually, the light went from a flash to a steady glow. As if the lightning had changed from a flash to a steady light. That was the point at which I decided I would get out of bed and approach the window, because it didn't seem normal at all. What I saw next has stuck in my mind over the years. It was an extremely bright light which w! obbled and pulsated, varying in brightness from dim to bright enough to light up the entire sky as lightning often does. Sometimes it would flash at it did initially when it first awoke me. It seemed that when it hovered in one place, it was unstable, wobbling from side to side and back to front. I estimated the distance to be many miles, but not more than 10, and the altitude to be in the thousands of feet, but probably no more than 5,000-8,000. At times it would completely go dim, as if it disappeared. Within one or two seconds of disappearing, it would reappear with a flash of light, literally miles from where it had disappeared. Scaling at the distance I estimated, it seemed that it could move 5-8 (maybe even 10) miles in approximately a second. I also observed it doing aerial maneuvers that I have never seen a conventional aircraft perform. For example, a high speed, lateral movement at what had to be thousands of mph, and then an immediate change of direction in! the opposite direction with no loss of speed. I also observe! d it mak ing right angle turns at speeds that a reasonable person would find physically impossible for any known or man-made aircraft. I watched this in awe for a matter of 10 minutes. I actually had a video camera sitting on the desk in my room, but I was so worried that if I took my eyes off the object for long enough to retrieve the video camera, it may disappear. I didn't want to take that chance. Eventually, I ran downstairs to awaken my father because I really wanted him to see it, too. I wanted to have someone else verify what I was seeing, so I wouldn't think I was insane. By the time he came back upstairs with me, it was gone. It probably took me about 2-3 minutes to awaken him and for us both to make it back up to my room.

The next morning, I woke up and went to school as usual. I was there somewhat early, and ran into a friend of mine who lived a block north and one street west of me. His house was probably 80 to 100 yards away from mine. During our small talk, I mentioned that I was pretty tired because I didn't get much sleep the night prior. However, I didn't tell him why I didn't get much sleep, and I did not mention what I had seen to him. What happened next gave me the verification that I yearned for when I had awoken my father that night. He proceeded to tell me that he didn't get much sleep either. He said that he woke up in the middle of the night to fetch some water from the kitchen. Having been to his house countless times throughout childhood, I knew that his kitchen window faced the east, and would have been a prime viewing area for the phenomena I had witnessed. Turns out, it was. He was awake the same time that I was the night before, and had witnessed the same thing I! had witnessed. Neither of us ever officially reported the sighting to the police, and to this day it is something special that we share in common. From time to time when we meet up, we talk about it. I would also like to point out that I come from a family of pilots. I have flown in private planes and commercial planes since I can remember. I was raised at airshows, I have seen probably every type of high-performance conventional airplane pushed to the limit by the best of the best, such as the F-18 Blue Angels, and the F-16 Thunderbirds. I have seen the F-117 in flight, and I have seen the newest Joint Strike Fighter that we have present day. In short, through both experience and observation, I know what a conventional aircraft can and cannot do. Obviously, I have somewhat of an understanding of the limits the human body can endure in terms of G force through conversations with my brother and grandfather, who are both pilots, along with knowledge I have picked up ! throughout my life as a result of my interest in fighter jets ! and any other types of airborne military technology. As far as what I saw that night, I don't know what it was, but I know what it wasn't. I am 100% sure that what my friend and I witnessed that night was something that was not conventional, and probably not man-made. If it was man-made, it is obviously a well-kept secret, as it probably should be.

NUFORC Note:

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

Posted 2012-07-04