NUFORC Sighting 01901

Occurred: 1979-08-15 22:10 Local
Reported: 1996-12-17 00:00 Pacific
Duration: 4-5 seconds
No of observers: 5

Location: Beach Haven Terrace (Long Beach Island), NJ, USA

Shape: Fireball


SUMMARY: Fireball flying parellel with the horizen,then exacuting a 90 deg. turn over the horizen.

The setting; approx. 10:10pm on Long Beach Isl.New Jersey. The weather was clear and the windwas minimal. This Isl. is about 90 miles so.of N.Y. City, there at least two military basesrelatively close by. There was 5 0r 6 of us sittingclose to the waterline at Beach Haven Terrace beach. As this is a summer recreation areaand I was 19 years old at the time we were partying at the time of the sighting. At thetime of the viewing I was not out of control perhaps slightly high but nowhere near to the point of halucinating (sorry about the spelling).

I was facing the Ocean and I was just taking in the veiw, for example I noticed some boats and ships out for an evening cruise and that the Moon illuminated the sky enoughto see the eastern horizen very clearly. At thispoint out of my left eye I saw a very bright light parallel with the horizen, using my thumb at arms length I would estimate it at 1 or 2 degrees above the clearly seen horizen. Afterabout a second or two I shouted out to the othersto look over there. All but one of us saw it(the guy with his back to the sea was'nt quickenough). by the time everyone looked it startedto do a 90 degree turn over the horizen and it did not appear to slow down, the fireball'slight faded over the horizen within a secondor two. And thinking back on the moment (later on that night whenI was tring to get to sleep) I believe I saw the siloutte of a cigar shape craft in frontos the fireball. This I can not be absolutly sure since my eyes did not have enough time to focus in on any details of what ever it was.I am also aware of the fact that it seemed to be reacting to my excitementfor the 90 deg. turn accured directly striaghtout from our position, a coincidence maybe, butI wonder. I hope you can coralate this report with someoneelse who witnessed this event,I sure some of thefolkes on board some of those ships got an evenbetter look at it since they were much closer.I'm just guessing but I believe it traveled atleast 2 or so in the time it was flying strightThe fireball did not get much bigger whenit was straight out from our position on the beachwhich is as close to sea level as one can get.With the help of a math oriented person you could get a rough ideaof how far it traveled and approx. speed.By the way I realize that CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OFTHE THIRD KIND had just come out in 77 and I really did want to see a UFO but at that timein my life I just had a passing interest inthe subject. Hope this report helps.David Mitchell

Posted 1998-03-07

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