NUFORC Sighting 15779

Occurred: 2001-01-02 17:00 Local
Reported: 2001-01-05 00:00 Pacific
Duration: 1 minute
No of observers: 2

Location: Santa Barbara/ Highway 154, CA, USA

Shape: Chevron
Characteristics: Lights on object, Changed Colo

Huge boomerang-shaped object seen over San Marcos Pass/Highway 154.

I was travelling back from the Santa Barbara area over Highway 154 (Northeast, towards the Santa Ynez Valley) when both my mother (the driver of our vehicle) and myself (seated in the passenger seat) witnessed a very low flying, extremely large, "boomerang" shaped craft fly over the mountain top. We witnessed it approximately 1 mile or 1-1/2 miles ahead and above us. Highway 154 is a curvaceous road that has been cut into the contours of the Los Padres Forest mountains overlooking Santa Barbara, California. At the top of the pass there is a sort of "gouge" or small cleft in the mountain tops, where the pass reaches its summit before descending into the Santa Ynez Valley. It was my mother who first pointed the craft out to me. We had our car windows rolled up. Therefore, we were unable to discern at to whether or not the craft made any noise. It caught my attention for a number or reasons. Some of which I outline below. 1. It was larger than any conventional aircraft that I know of, including the huge military personel and equipment carrier planes that occassionally are seen flying from the vicinity of Vandenberg Airforce Base (Lompoc, California = approximately 35-45 miles from the Los Padres Forest witness site). 2. It was "boomerang" or chevron shaped, much the same as pictures I have seen of stealth bombers. I could roughly make out its shape because of the time of day in which it was seen. The event took place during dusk/sunset. I watched it fly and then bank near the summit of the Santa Barbara side of Hwy. 154. I watched it on this side of the mountain for approximately 30-40 seconds. 3. I have never seen anything, other than a rare helicopter, fly so close to the summit/mountain top. The craft was witnessed by us to be heading over the summit of the 154 pass, towards the Santa Ynez Valley. It was approximately 200-300 feet from the summit/mountain top. This placed it very close to the cleft in the mountain pass when it banked to the right. This banking maneuver struck me as unusual for something so large. I brought this to the attention of my mother. 4. It had 3 white lights at each point of its chevron shape. This also struck me as unusual because I am under the awareness that all conventional aircraft must use red and green lights. As the craft made the banking maneuver it "turned on" some red lights which seemed to "pulse" more than to blink. These were only on a few seconds. My mother witnessed these also. Thereafter, on the Santa Ynez side of the mountains, at a distance of about 3+ miles, I witnessed the object for a short time (approximately 20-30 more seconds) to be flying very close to the ridge tops of some neighboring foothills. I pointed out to my mother that I thought that the object was SO large still, even though it was getting further away from us. Its sheer size is and was a mystery to me. When I viewed it after it had "banked" it no longer had any red lights on (only the aforementioned white). Total sighting time (including Santa Barbara and Santa Ynez sides of the mountains) = 1+ minutes. FYI: I am almost 30 years old, college educated and employed in the medical field.

Posted 2001-11-20