NUFORC Sighting 13168

Occurred: 2000-06-20 21:50 Local
Reported: 2000-06-22 00:00 Pacific
Duration: 1 minute
No of observers: 3

Location: Church Hill, TN, USA

Shape: Flash
Characteristics: Aircraft nearby

Explosion in the air.

I was at my neighbors discussing some work I am doing for him. It was dark. Three of us were satnding in a circle when my neighbor shouted, "Look!" He pointed over my shoulder and when I turned I saw two brilliant flashes of light above the clouds in rapid succession. Then some smaller orange lights radiated from the center of the flashes and rapidly faded as if an explosion had occured. About one minute later we heard the explosion very plainly. My told me they saw an object fly to the spot before the explosion but I did not turn around in time to see it, I only witnessed the explosion. I called and reported it to Tri Cities Regional Airport safety line. After the explosion we decided to go see if anything had fallen out of the sky but were sidetracked by small orange/white or gold lights flying slowly. We only saw one at a time but they (it) would disappear and then reappear somewhere else. I am not totally convinced they were not airplane landing lights, but this area just does not have that kind of air traffic volume.

Posted 2000-07-11