NUFORC Sighting 144940

Occurred: 2019-02-08 17:04 Local
Reported: 2019-02-19 12:27 Pacific
Duration: 13 minutes
No of observers: 10

Location: Sabattus, ME, USA

Shape: Oval
Characteristics: Left a trail

Fireball extinguishes itself, metallic craft emerges from the smoke, levels itself and takes off!!!

Dear Peter,

Let me start by saying that I am a Coast-2-Coast Insider and value the work you do immensely. Thank you for all of your hard work and dedication.

I have had two UFO sightings in my lifetime. Being a former Law Enforcement Intelligence Analyst, I can appreciate you wanting the facts as clear and concise as possible. The latest incident just recently took place, so I will give this information first. The second sighting took place in the 90’s within a quarter of a mile from this latest one. I will send that information separately…

February 8, 2019: While traveling northeast on Route 126 (Sabattus Street) headed home from picking up take-out, I noticed a large gray/black stream of what appeared to be smoke in the sky from a distance. (Maybe ¾ of a mile away.) As I crested Steven’s Hill, I could clearly see that the smoke trail included a huge, orange fireball passing over Sabattus Mountain off to my left, which I couldn’t see from the bottom of the hill. My first thought was that an airplane was engulfed in flames, but the orange ball was not dropping in the sky as would be expected. My second thought was a meteor of some type, as it streaked across the sky, but in a much, much slower motion. The object was heading south-east only slightly dropping in altitude.

The evening was clear with blue sky and the sun setting behind me as I drove toward the object. Several vehicles before me could (obviously) see the same object that I was seeing, as some pulled over and/or slowed down. I quickly passed these vehicles to see if I could get a better view of the object. My house is not far from the location that it was heading towards. (Within a mile.) As I passed the lake, I tried to get my (cell phone) video activated, but I could not keep an eye on the object and record while driving at the same time. I immediately called my sister (who lives next door to me) to look outside, but she did not answer her phone.

Once I passed by Sabattus Lake (on my left), I could clearly see the object in front of me, starting to move towards my right. The area is rural and while Route 126 is a main road, traffic only travels at 45-50 mph within that stretch. When I approached my road on the right, I could see the orange ball burn out as the object started slowing down, almost as if it came to a stop and leveled out. It hovered in place for the better part of 30-45 seconds and no longer had a trail of smoke behind it. I immediately pulled over and threw my car in park! The object was a gray elongated, oval shaped craft of some sort. No wings, like an airplane. Way too long to be a helicopter and I saw no propellers or movement of any sort. On estimate I would say possibly the size of a football field and shiny metallic. It was still too high to see any clear small characteristics such as windows and/or doors. All I could see was a huge metallic form hovering above the field. There were no lights visible.

I will say that I drive with my eyeglasses on, so I was looking at the object/craft with 20/20 vision. When I had pulled over, several other vehicles were doing the same (on both sides of the road). I once again grabbed my phone to take a video, but I didn’t want to look away for fear that I would miss something! A car that pulled in behind me had a man jumping out of the driver’s seat, yelling at a female in the passenger seat to get her phone and take a video. I was trying to do the same, but I couldn’t open my camera fast enough.

With my window unrolled, I can only estimate that it hovered about the level that our Life Flight helicopter flies by at. (Slightly above tree-top level.) It was less than ¼ of a mile away from me, hovering what seemed like forever until it tipped upward slightly on the right and took off diagonally. It went fast to the right, stopped and then straight up and disappeared from sight.

I was in awe! When I looked around at the other vehicles across the road from me, people were still looking and searching the sky. I drove off leaving roughly 6-10 other vehicles still on the side of the road.

With all that said, I will say that the past two weeks have been very eventful in the skies around here. We have a hot tub and go out nightly, under the stars. We have had more helicopters and low-flying planes in this area (nightly) than EVER in the past 45 years that I’ve lived here. There was a report on the evening news saying that all the helicopters/aircraft were here for a “training mission”, but I don’t buy it! There were too many people that saw the craft that I saw. It’s too coincidental to now have them conduct a “mid-winter training” in our rural area after such an event. Something is out there and it was clearly in trouble, but somehow it corrected itself, extinguished itself, even, and took off again. I can’t explain it, but I do know that there have been several sightings around Sabattus Mountain over the years. I will try to find some of the newspaper articles and send them your way! If I could be of any further help, please don’t hesitate to contact me!

Posted 2019-02-22

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