NUFORC Sighting 42370

Occurred: 1991-11-27 20:15 Local
Reported: 2005-02-25 11:01 Pacific
Duration: 1-2 minutes
No of observers: 2

Location: Brighton, MI, USA

Shape: Circle
Characteristics: Lights on object, Aircraft nearby

Large object with two bright lights, passed overhead silently. Half-circles connected by rectangle.

Approximate Location: Lat: 42.50 Long: -83.76 UFO approximately 300 - 500 ft in width minimum. Altitude 800 to 1000 feet minimum.

Craft is best described as two semi-circles connected together with a single beam. The rounded edges of the semi-circles were on the outside edge of the craft.

The craft moved in a perpendicular direction to the beam connecting the semi-circles. The craft was totally silent. Only two small white lights were present at the semi-circle edges, which neither changed in color, or intensity. The under body of the craft is thought to be a light grey.

The velocity of the craft was anywhere from 50 to 100 mph. The direction of travel was S-SW to N-NE. The duration of the event was approximately 1 minute, thirty seconds. Nothing of an extraordinary nature occurred except the appearance of the craft.

It was about a quarter after eight o'clock, myself and a friend were leaving my home. It was a clear night, and as we was walking to my car, I was gazing at the stars. Not many stars were present, as there was a slight haze present in the upper atmosphere. A small group of stars caught my attention and were approx. 30 degrees above the horizon and directly South of my home. Not seeing anything unusual, I proceeded to walk to my car, I put the key in the door, then glanced back at the small group are stars again. I then noticed that two tiny lights were moving together and at a fixed distance from each other.

The lights appeared to move in our direction. I immediately pointed the lights out to my friend. The lights appeared to be a great distant apart, not something you would expect to see in the night sky. I assumed at first that there must be two objects, flying together. The object appeared to be very low to the ground, not more than a couple of hundred feet. Thinking I could get a good look at the object with my spotlight which I keep in the trunk of my car, I quickly unlocked the trunk, and proceeded to retrieve my spotlight. As I proceeded to get the spotlight, my friend continued to watch the lights. After a few seconds I had I plugged the spotlight into the cigarette lighter, and pointed the light at the lights.

The light was not able to illuminate any part of the object. I panned the light between the lights, hoping I could see something. At this point I realized that the object had to be at least 800 to 1000 feet high, and that the lights were about 300 - 500 ft across. I deduced this simply by estimating the distance away that the object was. It was flying at a low altitude and it was huge. The object flew directly over our heads, and passed over my home. I continued to shine the light at the object, but saw nothing. I considered the lights belonging to a single object is because they moved toward us, and did not vary in position with respect to one another, I therefore assumed that they were connected to a single object.

The lights passed directly over us, and no sound was emitted by the object. I specifically asked my friend to listen for anything. We heard absolutely nothing. The object traveled at what seemed to be a constant altitude, with a constant velocity. The lights did not change in intensity or color. The object did not rotate or maneuver in any unusual respect. It glided over, not making a sound as it passed.

We attempted to chase the object in an automobile. We drove several miles north along the service drive of U.S. 23. A heavy cloud front was approaching in from the north, and we gave up hope of following the object. We stopped and stood outside of the vehicle looking up at the approaching cloud front.

While standing outside of our vehicle, a craft emerged from a the clouds. The craft which appeared was fully lit with running flashing running lights, and landing lights. The landing lights had illuminated the clouds just before it emerged. Looking carefully at the craft, we noticed about 20-30 red lights which appeared to be mounted to the front of the craft. They were brilliant red, like heat lamps used at restaurants. There appeared to be no pattern to the way the lights were mounted on the aircraft's front, it did seem that there was some type of surface area to whatever was holding the lights. I have never seen anything similar before or since that was mounted to the front of the aircraft.

Almost immediately after the aircraft appeared from the cloud, the roar of jet engines was very loud. Was stuck me as odd was the amount of noise generated by this aircraft, and it's low velocity. We thought immediately that it must be a helicopter because it was moving very slow. The craft traveled West to East, crossed over the expressway (U.S. 23), and headed in the general direction of Detroit Michigan. I would estimate that the craft was about one thousand feet from the ground, and traveled less that one hundred and fifty miles per hour.

After waiting around for about a minute for something else to happen, we left the area and proceeded South to my home. We could still see aircraft that emerged from the clouds, it stayed on course, and was disappearing into the horizon. We did not see that aircraft again.

When we returned home and discussed what had happened, my friend stated that she saw the shape of the object as it passed overhead. The shape she drew was basically a circle cut in half and separated, then a rectangular bar connecting the halves.

As stated above, I could only see the lights mounted on the edges which seemed to shine toward the center of the object, but I could not make out any shape. I believe my vision was impaired because I was holding a bright spotlight that I was using to illuminate the object. I believe my friend was being sincere about what she had seen.

I can say with a high confidence that whatever this object was, it was a single object, it was traveling at a very low altitude, and there was absolutely no sound generated by this object.

The following Monday, I called the FAA at Willow Run Airport and reported the incident to a FAA investigator. He said that he would look into it, and call me back. I did not remember his name, and I am not sure that he gave it to me.

On Wednesday of that week, I called again to the FAA, and talked to a Mr. ((name deleted)) (sounds like - ((deleted))), he said he had heard nothing of the report. He asked around the office, and found no one who remembered the report. He then asked me about the incident, and I told him everything, with of course the exception of the actual visual sighting of the craft (shape as described by my friend). I told him it must have been a blimp.

The following Friday, I called the FAA back, and asked what the about progress of the investigation. Mr. ((name deleted)), then told me that he passed the report the Mr. ((name deleted)), and that he would contact me.

About an hour later, Mr. ((deleted)) called. We had a long discussion about the event. He told me he personally had contacted all major airports in the area, which was an extensive list I must say, and they had no reports of a blimp in the area. He then contacted Goodyear and asked them. According to Mr. ((deleted)), no blimps were operational in Michigan.

He went on to tell me what happens when a craft appears on radar. When a craft has a transponder, it relays the aircraft's ID code back to the control tower. No aircraft were operating in the vicinity at anywhere near the altitude given. Then we discussed the possibility of large aircraft without a transponder. The control technicians are responsible for recording all incidents of these so called "primary targets", none of the airports reported any primary targets in this area. He contacted all the airports in the surrounding area, and nothing was found.

I must say that Mr. ((deleted)) went far beyond my expectations of a FAA investigator. He was very frank and honest about the entire situation, and had gone far beyond his duties to attempt to identify this aircraft. At the end of our conversation, he told me that this report is not closed, and will remain open.

My hope is that one day someone will be able to review historical radar data to determine whether the object that we had seen did actually show up on radar.

One thing is for certain, it was not a figment of our imagination, a meteor, or swamp gas.

Posted 2005-05-24