NUFORC Sighting 53779

Occurred: 1985-06-10 22:10 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2006-12-03 16:31 Pacific
Duration: 6 minutes
No of observers: 5

Location: Gainesville, FL, USA

Shape: Cigar
Characteristics: Lights on object

Myself & 4 children (age 1 - 14) driving at night saw a bright light (looked like a large light with a straight tail moving fast) ahead of us in the sky. At first, I thought it was Haley's comet which was due later that year, but quickly realized it was not.

We pulled over to the side of the road which is something I would never do because of safety, but this situation was overwhelming. (No other cars were on this road).

This "light" then came directly beside us moving about 5 miles per hour. It was cigar shaped (looked like an airplane with no wings), as long as a football field, made no sound, had a large light near the front and smaller ones down the side (which is why it looked like a comet with a tail - from a distance.

It was just above the treetops just to our right (It was so close we could have thrown a stone at it).

My son got out of the car and walked down the sidewalk beside it as it slowing traveled by. (I kid him now, that his photo is probably hanging on some martians wall!) We were sooo amazed.

I kept assuring the children that this had to be some special project the government was working on and that I'm sure others had to have seen it and we would watch the 11:00pm news to hear what it was.

We were not afraid (I didn't believe in UFO's at that time). We were just amazed.

Anyway, we tried to follow it by going around the block and heading in the direction it was going. We went to the next street over and pulled over hoping it would fly over us, but it never did. So, we went home and watched the news.

The news man said they had recieved numerous calls of a UFO, but "all I can say is what they tell me to say - it was falling space junk. It was spotted entering the atmosphere as a fire ball" (about 10 minutes before we spotted it). "It was sighted from Tampa to Georgia." --- What we saw was definitly not falling!! A

nd at that moment my eyes swelled with tears, because I realized that what we had seen was so rare that very few people would ever get to experience something like this in their lives.

In the newspaper the following few days, people that had spotted it came forward describing what we had witnessed, but no one had come as close as we had. I did not tell anyone except close family members, because my husband was in law enforcement and I didn't want people to think his family was looney. (Of course, some of my relatives didn't believe it either, and I don't blame them - I probably wouldn't have believed it either.)

Needless to say I and my children (who are now grown) definitely believe in UFOs and really feel blessed to have experienced this. I believe that God created the universe and it only makes sense that there is more life elsewhere.

NUFORC Note:

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

Posted 2006-12-07