NUFORC Sighting 43498

Occurred: 2005-03-16 18:36 Local
Reported: 2005-04-16 04:30 Pacific
Duration: 2 sightings: 40 sec. and
No of observers: 1

Location: Auburn/Lewiston, ME, USA

Shape: Light
Characteristics: Aircraft nearby

Videotaped bright white ball of light travelling at a high speed across the horizon at two separate times, 10 min apart in 2 locations.

I live on Fairview Ct. in Auburn. On 03/16 around 6:36pm I was going out to my car to put some dishes in it to take to my grandmother's house. Well, I had parked on the side of the road in front of my house so my wife could get out of the driveway earlier and when I was at my car I heard an airplane above me.

I looked up to see it, and it was pretty close due to me living not far from the Lew/Aub airport. I was checking out the lights on the plane and thinking to myself how cool would it be to see a UFO that close with the lights and all. I have a prior interest in the subject. No sooner than that, I looked to my left (while still gazing up) and I saw a bright white light traveling from left to right far off in the distance but above the horizon.

I stared at it for a few seconds trying to make out what it was and when I realized that there were no blinking lights, I went into my house and grabbed my video cam and got about 20 seconds of footage before it disappeared. It didn't zigzag at all, just a straight path across the horizon. It moves behind some trees and then disappears. The sky was clear except for a haze around the horizon so I think it just may have moved into the haze.

My plans that night were to go to my grandmothers first and then to church for worship team practice and then to my friend's house to hang out with some buddies one of who is a huge UFO buff. Since I know he loves this stuff, I brought my cam in the car with me to show him the footage.

Well, I get to my grandmothers and pull over to the side of her building on Lincoln Street in Lewiston and before I got out of the car I called my friend on my cell to tell him what I got. Two seconds later as I'm talking to him, I see the light again! Still going in the same path (left to right). I told my friend that I would call him back and threw my phone down and grabbed the camera again and caught some more footage before it disappeared behind a building. This time was much quicker but clearer than the first. I had zoomed in too much on the first and totally distorted part of the footage.

I really have no idea what it was but I'm pretty sure it wasn't an airplane because it was a solid bright white light only, no flashing lights or colored ones. I called Lifeflight the next day to see if maybe their copter was in the air and they said that it was around 7pm but they said the only lights they use are landing lights and only when they are landing. Lifeflight is an emergency service for our local hospital.

Whatever it was did not make a sound as far as I could tell. It was too far away when I shot the vid at my house and when I shot the vid at my grandmother's there was too much traffic driving by to here much of anything other than the cars.

I did some more research in the next few weeks and a friend of mine got me in touch with a local newspaper reporter. I brought the video to him and he wrote up an article about it and tied it in with a recent visit he took to Nevada and Area 51.

You can read the article by following this link: http://www.sunjournal.com/search/story.php?ID=102716

He also checked with the local drug enforcement agency and unofficially they stated that they did not have a search copter in the air on that night but officially they would not confirm nor deny that they did. He also checked with the local airport manager and they said that he checked his flight logs and helped the reporter rule out other possibilities.

A friend of mine mentioned the possibility of it being an iridium flare so we checked into that and found out that there was one in the area on the night in question but the altitude was too high and flares do not last as long as the light I videotaped and are of a different shape. Mine was totally round and white and very bright.

The tape was taken in a Hi-8mm format. I have made only one copy on VHS and that was given to the reporter. My video camera is a Sony CCD-TRV68 which has an s-video out so I will try to have a friend of mine transfer the video into a digital format on his PC in the near future.

I would be more than happy to provide the original for analysis if needed, as long as it can be returned to me because it has one of a kind footage of other family events on it as well.

NUFORC Note:

We will contact the witness, and invite him to submit a copy of the tape for our examination. We will confirm whether the date was March 16, or April 16. PD

Posted 2005-04-16