NUFORC Sighting 53184

Occurred: 2006-10-28 20:00 Local
Reported: 2006-10-31 11:55 Pacific
Duration: 30 minutes
No of observers: 2

Location: Sedona, AZ, USA

Shape: Other
Characteristics: Lights on object, Aura or haze around object, Changed Colo

At approximately 20:00 on the night of 10/28/06 my girl friend and I observed an object in the sky from our home in Sedona Arizona. The object appeared to be at flight level somewhere between 30,000 AND 50,000 feet, located above a point midway between Kayenta and Flagstaff Arizona. At first we noticed a tight triangle of lights with one of the lights brighter than the other. At first glance I thought it was an aircraft but then because the lights were not strobing and because it maintained a fixed position I realised it was not a conventional fixed wing aircraft. Then a "V" type of extension of lights began to light up extending upward and back from the central lights. These were amber colored changing to orange and then later almost a bluish color , then the lights receded back to the nucleus. I considered the possibility that this was a blimp and we were seeing it an angle when the craft abruptly gained altitude in a straight verticle motion. No blimp could have executed such a maneuver . It was an almost instantaneouss gain in altitude of what I would estimate to be 500 to 1000 feet. It remained in that fixed position, occassionally gaining and losing altitude in a similar fashion for almost 30 minutes. I got a pair of binoculars and observed that there were indeed three lights in a tight triangle but that around those lights was a kind of glow of an almost milky quality. Then the craft disappeared. I was looking at it through the binnoculars and told my girl friend "I've lost it" . Putting the binnoculars down I saw points of light that appeared one after another in a large triangle pattern progressing to the northwest across the sky in what could only be desctribed as " great leaps". At first I thought that perhaps these were four or five air craft with strobes on flying at different altitudes , creating a triangular pattern. However if that had been the case they would have continued across the sky. Instead they vanished. I believe it was the craft we observed making its way ac! ross the sky and then vanishing from sight.

The night sky was completely clear. There was a crescent moon and none of our view of the object, either when it was in a fixed position or when it "leaped" across the sky was obscured by mountains. Sedona is a low light community so the visibility was excellent that night. I am a former private pilot and flew a twin engine Senecca over this part of the country for several years. The object did not conform to any type of civilian or military aircraft with which I am familiar. If the lights streaking across the sky in a triangular pattern was indeed this craft then there is nothing currently being flown which can remotely approach the speed at which this craft traversed the sky.

Posted 2006-12-07