NUFORC Sighting 87869

Occurred: 2012-02-04 01:30 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2012-03-19 21:53 Pacific
Duration: 40 minutes
No of observers: 1

Location: Tullahoma, TN, USA

Shape: Sphere

within 40 minutes I saw 3 very slow moving bright white balls of light that traveled the same path and seemingly exploded.

I am not sure of the exact date, but it was around the first week of February 2012. I was out fishing in my boat and it was approximately 1:30 am .The temperature was around 38 degrees with a clear sky. I like going out on cool nights because I have such a great view of the sky and often see quite a few meteors every time I go out.

Fishing, something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. Coming in from the NW part of the sky was a seemingly very unusual meteor traveling in a SE direction. It was seemingly very, very big, was traveling in what i thought was an unusual trajectory and was moving extremely slow for a meteor. If I held my arm out at full length, my thumb would have just covered it up. I didn't at the time, but it seemed as though I could have counted to 5 easily as I watched it and it was coming in at maybe around a 15-20 degree angle. It looked like a perfectly round shaped ball that was a very bright white color, but instead of fading out as the myriad of meteors have that I have ever seen, this seemed to get brighter as it got closer. I would guess now it just seemed brighter because it was getting closer ? I would imagine it was much further off than it seemed, but when it was seemingly over the town of Estill Springs, it looked like it exploded into a thousand bright pieces,! but the pieces did not fade away or dim, they were just there, then they weren't.

I honestly thought I had just watched a nuclear missile coming in on an EMP burst. I waited for all of the lights to go out but nothing happened. I sat there for a good 5 minutes wondering if I had maybe just watched a plane crash etc.

Now looking at the, about 5 minutes after the first one, a 2nd one started coming in on what seemed like the same trajectory and path. Again it moved very slow, was the same size and repeated exactly what the 1st one did - seemingly over the town of Estill Springs exploding.

Okay I thought, the first emp blast failed and this was the 2nd attempt. Again the lights stayed on and i had all kinds of things going on in my head trying to figure out what i was witnessing. It just seemed so strange for a meteor, unlike anything I had ever witnessed.

After about 20 minutes with everything seeming normal, I went back to fishing. About 10 minutes later, keeping an eye on the sky, I saw a third bright round "ball" coming in from the same part of the sky only this one seemed much higher up. Again moving "slowly" like the others, it traveled in a south easterly direction only this one went much further south. If I had not seen the first 2 I probably would not have been able to understand the "explosion" as it was much further away.

I came home the next morning and told everyone I knew that I had seen the strangest "meteors" in the sky.

Maybe a month ago, reading Coast to Coast news, I saw an article about a "flaming fireball" over Georgia on I believe February 14th I believe. Apparently a woman saw something very similar to what I had seen over a small town in Georgia. The scientists said what she had seen was a very unusual meteor that came from the meteor belt and described it as a "rare" event.

It made me wonder if that was what I had seen because the time could have been right and the 3rd "ball of light" seemed to me like it would have been in that general direction.

So it was probably the "flaming meteor", only it was described as rare and I saw 3 of them in about a 40 minute time span, 2 of them seeming to take the exact same path with the 3rd traveling further south east.

I was in the army on tanks and have seen my share of missiles and rockets (peace time warrior, a section sgt in a calvary platoon) and i would have to say whatever it was, it was the coolest thing i have ever seen. Just seemed to travel soooooo slow for a meteor plus if anything, instead of dimming it got brighter as it came in.

NUFORC Note:

Witness indicates that the date of the sighting is approximate. PD

Posted 2012-05-13