NUFORC Sighting 132970

Occurred: 1999-05-15 05:45 Local
Reported: 2017-03-03 23:27 Pacific
Duration: 10-15 minutes
No of observers: 2

Location: Airway Heights (rural; N of Fairchild AFB), WA, USA

Shape: Disk
Characteristics: Lights on object, Emitted beams, Aircraft nearby, Animals reacted

Saucer flashes white light rapidly, hovers over nearby railroad tracks, then swiftly disappears, chased by military aircraft.

It was late spring 1999. I want to say it was mid- to late-May, as I clearly remember it was warm enough to have the windows open in the early morning. I was preparing to attend a local community college that coming summer, so that was 1 reason I was up that early.

The other reason I was up that early was because I have been a radio hobbyist since I was 6, when my father turned me on to shortwave radio (I'm 41 now). I branched out into AM & FM DXing, CB, scanners, & Radio kits. I would often get up early on days with clear skies to try & catch the early morning "skip" of CB operators on the East Coast & the Caribbean.

That morning, I was sitting next to the open living room window in the 14' X 56' mobile home I lived in with my best friend's father (I was paid by the state of WA to live with him & be his caregiver), we lived on the northern edge of a small mobile home Park on the corner of US HWY 2 & Rambo road. The window faced North. To the north were open wheat & hay fields for miles, until they reached the small mountain ridges to the extreme NW of Spokane, which were directly north of my location.

I was tuning around on a Cherokee CBS-1000 base station, when a slight movement out the window caught my eye. I turned to look and saw a bright white light flashing rapidly blinking way off to the north. It was just starting to get light out, but the sun had not yet risen. After about 30 seconds, the light stopped blinking completely. In its place, I could barely make out a small darker colored object hovering in the sky over the small mountains, some 4-5 miles away.

At 1st I thought I was imagining things. So I got out a pair of 12 X 50 binoculars & looked. In the dim light, I could clearly see a "typical ufo" shaped, grey colored object. As I watched it, it seemed to be getting larger, & that is when I realized it was moving towards me.

Now mind you, directly to the south of my location was Fairchild Airforce Base. To the NE, directly North of Airway Heights, which I was about 1.5 miles west of, was a NORAD radar installation. Also, directly North of me, about 1.5 miles, was a NOAH Doppler radar station. About 3.5 miles to the NW was a "top secret" underground medical warfare research facility (it was widely known about around Airway Heights, 1 of those secrets everyone knows).

Anyways, as I watched the object slowly grow larger & larger, I eventually put down the binoculars, and watched it with my eyes. It slowed moved across the sky in my general direction, about 30-40 feet above the ground. After a couple minutes, it passed over the railroad tracks about 1/2 mile N of my location (it's the main East- West BNSF & AMTRAK line), and it suddenly stopped moving. It sat motionless about 10 seconds, then it slowly sank towards the railroad tracks, until it was about 10 feet off the ground. It again sat motionless for about 10 seconds. It then rose back to it's original height, about 30-35 feet. It sat there about 20 seconds, then a rapidly pulsing red light appeared underneath the object. It appeared to be aimed at the ground below it, but I am not sure what it did, if anything. The light disappeared after about 10 seconds.

Then, the object rose slowly to about 100 feet in the air. Suddenly, my neighbor to the west of me, about 60 feet away, her dog started barking like mad. So I leaned out the window, & her dog was on his chain, on his hind legs, staring at the object, & barking a lot. I noticed my neighbor, a woman in her late 40's, was standing on her porch, also watching the object.

So, I got up & went out on my porch. I yelled over to her, do you see that thing up there? She turned suddenly & said oh my Lord, you can see it too? We then both turned back to look N at the object. By this point it had been hovering at about 100 feet for a full minute. As we both watched, it slowly started to move off to the N. When it was about a mile away, it suddenly shot N at an incredibly high rate of speed, and began to ascend. Within about 3-4 seconds, it was completely out of view. Just after it disappeared into space, I saw a brief flash of light, like when a plane is high overhead & the just set sun shines off of it.

Suddenly, the air raid sirens at Fairchild went off. Within a couple minutes, 3 UH-1 Hueys flew over the mobile home park, headed N in formation at about 300 feet in elevation. Right after that, I heard jet engines going into afterburner, and 2 F-16C Fighting Falcons took off from Fairchild heading west, then immediately banked & went N at a very high rate of speed, at about 800 feet in altitude. I soon lost sight of the fighters, but the Hueys slowly moved back and forth over a large area from the NW to NE. They briefly hovered over 1st the underground germ warfare lab to the NW, then the NORAD station to the NE, then over the NOAA Doppler station to the N.

I wwnt back inside, but continued to watch from the window. The Hueys then started heading back to Fairchild. When they got close to the railroad tracks, 1 Huey broke off & lowered until it was about 20 feet above the railroad tracks, while the other 2 headed back to the base.

The Huey above the tracks, its starboard side door opened, & I watched through my binoculars as an airman in a flight suit & helmet with mic, lean out the open door with what appeared to be some sort of sensor. It was white, and had two 1-foot long tubes that came out the bottom. The soldier pointed the object at the ground, in the same approximate area the object hovered & set off that pulsing red light, & he pulled a cord out of the Huey, plugged it into the side of the white hox, then he would look down at the ground, then look back into the Huey, while talking. The Huey slightly moved around a few times, then the airman got back in the Huey, the door closed, the Huey rose to about 60 feet, & went back to Fairchild.

Posted 2017-03-10

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