NUFORC Sighting 04850

Occurred: 1997-07-02 21:30 Local
Reported: 1998-11-15 00:00 Pacific
Duration: 15 mn
No of observers: 2

Location: Calistoga (Knights Valley), CA, USA

Shape: Triangle
Characteristics: Lights on object, Aura or haze around object

A Large triangular aircraft passed silently overhead. It had 4 lights in front, a bright light underneath, a wavelike column of yellow-orange light in back.

Last year, on July 2nd, on the 50th Roswell anniversary, I was at my pond with a friend. We saw a very bright light, which looked brighter than Venus, in the Northwestern sky. It was 21:30. It was very high in the sky, and looked like a very bright star. We observed it as it got closer. By 21:40, the sky was dark, the aircraft was very close to us. By that time, we could see 4 lights, two on each side of an inverted, very broad V. The lights looked like the headlights of two cars flying sideways. We could see the air move around the lights, like you can see the air move over a hot road in the summer. The aircraft came down right over us, it was barely over the fir trees around my pond, maybe 100 feet directly above us. There was absolutely no noise, except for a barely audible hum which seemed to encompass everything. There was no noticeable air movement. The aircraft was going very slowly, maybe 20 or 30 mph. At that point, we could see its underside: it was rectangular in shape, light colored, and the very bright light we had seen earlier was right underneath the middle, lighting itself more than the ground. We could see two wings, the tips of which barely went beyond the rectangular underside. The whole aircraft was very large, at least as large as a large commercial airplane. As it started going beyond us, we could see from its outline against the sky that it was triangular in shape, probably dark in color. The back of the aircraft had a vertical column of yellow-orange light. The light moved up and down the column in a seamless wavelike pattern. The pattern was not regular, and when I told my friend that it looked more like a language of some sort than a simple aircraft lighting system, at that very instant, the pattern changed completely. After that, the aircraft started going back up and disappeared behind a hill. I tried to report this sighting to one local newspaper and one TV station the next day. I wanted to find out if anyone else had seen it. I got some chuckles and I did not insist. This year, on July 2nd also, I invited my friend for a sky-watch evening. She could not make it, but 2 other friends came. The sky was perfectly clear. Around 21:30, we saw a very bright light in the South sky, just as I was describing my experience of the previous year. One friend pointed to that light and asked: "You mean to tell me this is a UFO?" Within 2 seconds, the light was gone. It just faded away. My friends went home. Later that night, at 23:00, I went to pick up my daughter from town. On the way back, I saw the same bright light, closer than before, I showed it to my 14 year old daughter, and it was gone before she had a chance to see it. Around midnight, I went outside and saw the same bright light close-by in the Northwest sky. As soon as I concentrated my attention on it, it disappeared. 10 mn later, I looked out my bedroom window and saw the light again in the Western sky. I went to get my binoculars, pointed them at the light, it disappeared. I went to sleep. I am a 49 year old female, and I grow grapes and aromatic plants. I also teach plant propagation. My female friend who saw the large aircraft with me is an herbalist, as are the 2 other friends who saw the lights with me. Neither of us believed or disbelieved the presence of UFOs before.

Posted 1998-11-19

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