NUFORC Sighting 05753

Occurred: 1999-02-02 17:20 Local - Approximate
Reported: 1999-03-01 00:00 Pacific
Duration: 7-10 minutes
No of observers: 0

Location: Sierra Vista, AZ, USA

Shape: Unknown
Characteristics: Lights on object, Aircraft nearby

Saw what I thought were 2 military planes flying in formation--both had anber/yellow light. Ones light was solid and others was flashing.

I was driving around the parking lot of The community college here when I saw 2 lights in the distance to the NW. Being in close proximity to a military installation (Ft.Huachuca) that seems to be constantly practicing night aerial maneuvers, I thought this was merely two planes or helicopters flying in formation, one a little bit in front of the other. However, as I continued to watch, the craft in the rear seemed to be getting closer to the lead craft (the one whose light wasn't flashing). At this point I parked my car and watched because I had never seen maneuvers like this before. It was as if one was chasing the other. The flashing (not really flashing like a strobe but rather like turning a very bright light off and on slowly and seeing the bulb fade as it cools)craft continued to get closer to the other one until the lights almost seemed as one. Then the flashing light was gone and only the constantly lit craft could be seen. While this was happening the 2 lights were traveling in a counter-clockwise direction from northwest to west and ended up directly over the Fort here. I still thought at this time that I was looking at 2 planes or helicopters and one just blacked out all its lights--they seem to do that a lot around here. When the light that was still visible got directly over the fort it ended its circular direction of travel and headed due-east torwards where I was parked. It was not traveling very fast and I could still only see the one solid light. As it got closer I again saw the flashing/pulsing light along with several more. I was amazed at the absence of sound as it approached. From the silence and the odd light clusters I could now see I thought perhaps this was one of the unmanned aerial vehicles they test here or maybe a balloon/blimp of some sort. It wasn't. It was not flying very high and (luckily) passed directly over me and the entire campus here(there were several people in the parking lot and milling around the campus but I don't know if anyone else was paying attention). As it passed I was amazed at its size and the silence (a faint rumbling/humming almost like a jet very very far away could be heard). I could not make out a shape because it was dark but, I could clearly see an unusually high amount of lights on its underbelly. Their were several small almost incandescent-like amberish lights clustered about what I'll call the nose section. The mid section only had a few lights grouped in pairs of two close to the nose, and then the rest of the mid- section was dark and very long. Towards the back, or tail-end, was the flashing light I saw earlier with a few other non-flashing lights. Looking at the arrangement of all these lights reminded me of a stingray-like fish with a large head/body, and a long skinny tail with a point but I can't really say what shape it was only what the light configuration reminded me of. What I originally thought was one plane chasing or just gaining on the other was really the lights on the front of this thing and the flashing light on its tail. As it turned it created the illusion of one going faster and closing the gap on the other. After seeing this I still wasn't sure that it just wasn't a military excursion umtil about 5 minutes after it passed over me. It was at this time that I saw several small planes and/or helicopters flying at very low altitudes over the Fort. They seemed to be spaced out pretty far and just circling small areas as if they were looking for something or waiting for something. One large commercial-like jet could also be seen but it wasn't circling, it and two helicopters headed in the same direction as the craft did and all three passed directly over me as well as if they were following but not necessarily chasing whatever I had originally seen. These planes and helicopters around and directly over the Fort for at least an hour.

Posted 1999-04-02