NUFORC Sighting 16872

Occurred: 1996-12-19 16:30 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2001-03-16 00:00 Pacific
Duration: 1 hour
No of observers: 3

Location: Winchester, TN, USA

Shape: Triangle
Characteristics: Lights on object

This was the most usual sight I have ever seen, I swear to God.

It was around Christmas 1996. My sister, myself and my niece were out looking at local christmas decorations. When we had left the house I noticed a Bright star in the sky, it being Christmas I naturally thought it was the north star, yet it seemed extremely bright. I have been a star gazer all my life and the night sky was clear and this star was the brightest object in the sky, I couldn't help but keep watching it. I had pointed it out to my sister and we kept looking for it has we drove around. About 30-45 minutes into our trip the object was still in the sky, like a star, it hadn't appeared to move it was high in the sky like a star and stayed in this one spot the whole time. Then I noticed what appeared to be a plane coming closer to the object, I made a joke that there was a plane checking out this star. There was just a tiny green light in the sky like the green lights on a plane, it appeared to be approaching the star, then there was a red light that appeared below the green light also like a plane, I commented again that there was a second plane checking it out. Then the lights both the green and red light got brighter and then it became apparent that they were a part of this star. They appeared to rotate like the object was turning sideways and we were seeing the bottom of it. The green light the red light and the bright white light together formed a perfect triangle. I was amazed and told my sister and niece to look. It slowly rotated around and then it streaked across the sky, faster than anything I had ever seen. Then to our surprise it suddenly stopped, it was on the horizon just above the tree line. It slowly moved across the night sky, now only the white light was visible. Then it went dark, then dim, the a bright flash and the 3 lights appeared again, we were dumfounded. Like it's going to show us again. We had continued to drive the whole time, this object had never left our sight we decided to roll down the windows to see if we could hear anything, there was no sound! . At the speed this thing had moved we knew there would be a sonic boom, but there was nothing. Then the 3 lights that made the triangle appeared and it streaked off again, this time going out of sight. I couldn't believe what I had just seen. I felt really strange, knowing if I ever told this story I would be looked upon like I was crazy. I have always been a believer in UFO's but to see one was unbelieveable even to myself. If my sister and her daughter had not also seen it no one would have ever believed us. Actually I don't think anyone believes us anyway. I am an avid watcher of UFO television specials, and until last night when I watched "Lights over Illinois" I had never seen anything that compared to what I had seen. The object that they described in that show was so close to what I had seen I think it even convinced my husband that I had actually seen something. The description that they gave sounded like me telling my story to my husband almost 5 years ago. He himself was amazed at how their stories had sounded like mine. This is the first time I have said anything about this other than to my closest friends and family. We too, live near an Air Force Base, I have seen many a plane come and go from there, but this was no plane.

NUFORC Note:

NUFORC has either received, or learned of, reports of dramatic sightings in both the U. S. and Brazil during the months of November and December 1996. PD

Posted 2001-03-16