NUFORC Sighting 31439

Occurred: 2003-09-10 22:00 Local
Reported: 2003-09-13 06:53 Pacific
Duration: 10 minutes
No of observers: 1

Location: Stanley, VA, USA

Shape: Unknown
Characteristics: Lights on object

Series of rectangular burnt orange lights observed at approx 10 PM over Elkton, Va. and were observable from at least 40 miles away.

I was returning home from my son's cub scout meeting in Reston, Virginia. I departed the meeting at 8 PM and arrived in the Luray/Stanley area around 09:50 PM. There was a full moon that might and it was cloudy. I live in Stanley, Va and have to drive through Luray on Route 340 to get to my residence. After I passed through Luray, I then have about 9 miles to drive to my home which equates to around ten minutes. When I passed through Luray, the speed limit is posted to increase to 55 miles per hour. I first noticed the strange lights as I was accelerating, and I thought to myself, "that is strange, it must be a new residence on top one of the moutains in the area because I never noticed it before." So I drove on and I intermittently kept glancing at these lights as they were very bright and large to be a residence. These light kept getting my attention as I was nearing my home. I have to turn left at the Hawksbill restaurant on Route 340 in order to get to my home. When I got to within 1.5 miles of my home, I suddenly realized that these lights were too high in the sky to be a residence on a mountaintop. I slowed my car down to get a real good look at it. My occupation requires me to pay attention to minute detail so my following decription of this object will be very accurate. This object was in the sky at a height of about 4,500 to 7,000 feet. (this is much higher than the surrounding mountains) The appearance was rather strange in that I could not visually detect any outline. (no top, sides or bottom) What I did see was a series of rectangular shaped lights, emanating a burnt orange color. The lights were not moving or spinning, just completely stationary. The arrangement of these lights is what gave the indication of some type of craft. The rectaglular shapes were of a very crisp appearance, in other words, the corners were very sharp. Taking into consideration of their estimated altitude and how big they were, equates to this object being very large. I am estimati! ng that the opject had to be at least two to three football fields in size. (600 to 900 yards) The rectangular lights were all uniform in that the top was wider than the bottom, and the sides were the longest length. This gave the appearance that the lights were either tapering at angle on the craft or thery were flat and were actually trapezoidal. There were about 7 or 9 lights and the ones in the middle were much larger that the ones on each end. This then equates to the lights giving the appearamce of being on the surface of craft and due to the sequential difference in the size of lights in the middle to the lights on each end, the craft then had the appearance of being triangular. When I realized that I was now a witness to something highly unusual I raced home to get my camcorder, but when I came back out to take some video it was gone. I have since did some backgound investigation on my own. I checked the locals around the area and a few people did say that there was someting seen that night and it was directly over Elkton, Virginia. Elkton is about 30 miles from Stanley and the direction of object I observed in relation to where Elkton is, matches up. I then checked three local newspapers both in reading and phone calls and there was nothing reported. I called the Elkton local police and the Elkton Sheriffs office and nothing was reported. I wish to get anyone else whom was a witness to this event on the 10th of Sep at 10 PM over Elkton, Va that could be seen from a circular observable area estimated to have an approximate diameter of 50 miles. (This estimation of the viewing area results from my initial sighting occurring just south of Luray, Virginia.)

Posted 2003-09-17

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