NUFORC Sighting 63282

Occurred: 2008-05-19 12:20 Local
Reported: 2008-05-19 11:06 Pacific
Duration: 12-20 minutes
No of observers: 1

Location: Surry Nuclear Facility (Surry County), VA, USA

Shape: Disk


Disk Sighted Over Surry Nuclear Power Station, Surry Co., VA

At about 12:20 pm, 19 May 2008, I observed what appeared to be a large, metallic disk hovering very near the Surry Nuclear Power Station. (This is a little more than hour from the time of this writing, so the memory is still fresh and vivid).

I was on my bicycle riding east on the Colonial Parkway (James City County) when I spotted an object over the James River, moving from east to west at a very slow speed. At first I thought it may have been a kite because it was a very windy day (the winds were gusting out of the SW at 20-30mph) and people do come out and fly their kites from the beaches when the winds are good. But when I came to an open spot in the road unobstructed by trees I stopped to get a better look and decided it was much too large to be a kite. It is a about a mile across the channel to the Surry Station and what I saw appeared to be very near the station’s twin domes and it must have been at least as large as they are, and perhaps larger. Besides that the object was moving very slowly against the wind, left to right from my vantage point, and its upper surface caught the sunlight and reflected like a sheet of aluminum foil. Its underside was dark. Then I thought that it might be an advertising balloon or dirigible, but the shape did not seem right. This was definitely a flattened disk. And, because it was so windy it did not seem like a good day to take a blimp up. (And, with security so high these days it does not seem logical that anyone would be permitted to get that close to power station. I have seen military helicopters on training missions over the river, but even they keep a wide berth from the power plant.) I have eliminated the possibility of helicopters and small aircraft because, as I say, this object was hovering/drifting and appeared to be making a very leisurely circuit of the power plant. I walked down to water’s edge to see if I could get a better look, but without binoculars I couldn’t make out any other useful details. I watched it like this for a good 15-20 minutes. In that time it completely circled the station, moving against the wind. It appeared to correct its angle at times, very slowly rocking up and down.

I then decided to hurry home, grab my binoculars and camera and see if I might get a better look. It took me about ten minutes to bike home from there and another fifteen to get back on the Parkway by car. But, by the time I returned to my original position the object was gone. I drove a few miles down the Parkway hoping that it might have drifted elsewhere, but the sky was empty except for a few white clouds. Now, I wish I had stayed until it left. It would have been interesting to see which way it went.


((ADDENDUM FROM SOURCE OF THIS REPORT))

Response To So-Called Explanations Of Previous Sighting

I am responding to Mr. ((name deleted)) "explanation" of what I saw on the 19th of May 2008.

His statement that there is a blimp factory on the NC/VA border is patently false. There is a company with an office in Durham, NC, called Flairships that leases out aerial advertising blimps to various companies, but they did not have any blimps in the air over SE Virginia on the day in question. I contacted other companies that utilize airships (including Goodyear and MetLife), and none of them had a blimp within 200 miles of the James River on that day. Having seen advertising blimps on various occasions over the years, I can assure you that this was not a blimp. I had a close-up view of it under ideal conditions. What I saw had no writing of any kind on its sides. Nor did it have a crew cabin on its belly, a tail assembly, or motors or any other protuberances from its surface. The craft I saw was perfectly smooth and silent. It was also in the range of 300-400 feet long. Even the largest advertising blimps in use today are only about 200 feet long. And they, like the Goodyear blimp, have the company logo prominently displayed on their hull. Otherwise, what’s the use of having an advertising blimp? The idea that a blimp might have been blown from north to south by a southwest wind is laughable. If anything, it would have been blown towards Williamsburg, not away from it. As I said before, the craft I saw moved strongly INTO the wind and was not at its mercy. And, with all of the empty real estate it could possibly encounter along the river, it chose to stop just opposite a nuclear power station? That, in itself, is telling.

I called the Jamestown airport (which is less than a mile from my house) two hours after my sighting, and the fellow in charge assured me that there was nothing even remotely like a blimp in the air that day. Unfortunately, the local airport does not use radar, so he couldn’t tell me just what may have been flying over the river at noon that day.

The “very highly restricted military intelligence community/base” he refers to must be Camp Peary, aka “The Swamp.” This is the well-known CIA training base on the York River. It lies on the other side of Williamsburg about 5 miles from where I made my sighting. Having lived here for the past 15 years, I too have heard tales of remotely piloted vehicles like the Predator drone flying over the base and the nearby York River. But they are never seen over the historic areas or the James River. I know what a Predator looks like, and with its sleek body, long wings and bulbous nose, it was the complete opposite of what I saw. I suspect you could pack twenty Predators inside of what I saw.

Having seen this alien craft up close (at first from less than half a mile away) and then at a distance of about three miles, I am absolutely certain that it was not a helicopter, “military item” (whatever that means), or small airplane. I spent 6 years in the Navy and believe my eyesight is still good enough to distinguish helicopters, Ospreys, and fixed winged aircraft from the absolutely unique craft I witnessed. And the idea that I’d mistake an ultralight for a 300 feet long craft leaves me speechless. I have seen ultralights fly over directly my house while out doing yard work, and I’d know their shape anywhere. Besides, they make as much noise as a flying lawnmower. What I saw was silent.

In summation, I’d like to add that I’ve attempted to get in contact with Mr. Ebersole, as he so obligingly left his phone number, bur he has so far refused to return my calls. All I know of him is that he lives in Virginia Beach, about 60 miles from the sighting area, which, by the way, is home to Oceana NAS. Just up the peninsula a few miles is Langley AFB, a first response base which is tasked to defend US airspace in the event of hostile activity (such as 9/11). This part of Virginia is home to at least a half dozen very sensitive military bases.

I am speculating here, but I suspect that the idea that an alien craft could literally “stroll” past these bases, at midday, right over the heads of millions of people, and not be detected, much less confronted, and then loiter next to a nuclear power station, is something that no one in the armed forces or the intelligence community is willing to admit to. There also appears to be a coordinated effort to discredit valid sightings.

((e-address deleted))

((END ADDENDUM))

Posted 2008-06-12

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