NUFORC Sighting 11786

Occurred: 1999-09-30 22:30 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2000-01-24 00:00 Pacific
Duration: 45 minutes
No of observers: 0

Location: San Rafael/ Vallejo/ Fairfield, CA, USA

Shape: Triangle
Characteristics: Lights on object



BEGIN ADDENDUM:

Date revision requested: Hard evidence of actual date of event received by me from my Bank. I requested copy of a check that I had written to the supermarket minutes after the sighting and right before they closed at 23:00. Check confirmed: 9/30/99 22:58:54 - what makes this unusual are several issues. (read on.....)

I am adding this addendum to my original report to amend the sighting date by 24 hours (from 10/01/99 to 9/30/99). The supporting evidence was photocopied to me by my Bank at my request, and features the critical "time/date stamped" verification on my personal check which I wrote at the grocery market immediately following this sighting event. Of additional importance: it is extremely rare that I ever shop for anything on a week night. Days at work during ongoing projects are commonly 15 hour work days; weeknight shopping is usually out of the question! Otherwise, I have already submitted my original report along with drawings and maps.

END ADDENDUM


Original observation of bright lights of craft 20-25 miles away; lost sight of craft for awhile as I meandered through hills on way home; sighted craft again as I descended into Fairfield; huge (!) craft hovered motionless 800 to 1000 feet above major highway as if WANTING to be seen. I stopped at side of highway to observe and although hundreds of other cars passed by this thing also, I seemed to have been the only one willing to stop.Odd! Fascinating! Scarey! Astounded to hear on Art Bell program of 1/21/00 that some police had seen similar object. This thing is huge...several football fields in size.

On or about October 1, 1999 I was just finishing up at a job site in San Rafael, California. At approximately 10:00 pm I was heading home to Fairfield which is about a 45 minute drive eastbound across Highway 37 through Vallejo and then northbound on Highway 80. Travis Air Force Base is about 5 miles east of Fairfield. The whole trip is about 30 miles. I am a professional Account Manager/ Project Manager with a bachelors degree in Design; I have also spent about 10 years as a flight attendant. I know what various aircraft look like and what the typical lights on aircraft look like even from a distance. My vision is extremely good and I am a well balanced individual. Still, the events I am about to share always puts one on the defensive...trying to put all this into some perspective is difficult because I have no point of perspective from which to start!! I originally observed what I thought was a "single" very bright light far off in the distance at a position of about 10:00 o'clock and 30 degrees above the horizon (at 22:00 hours)during my drive home from an ongoing project. I had made this same trip at night multiple times before during the previous week and had never seen such a thing in the sky. The weather was clear as a bell with no clouds at all. The brightness of the light and the seeming motionlessness of it really caught my eye. It definitely registered as "odd" to me. The area where I was driving (east on Hwy 37)is not lit. It is a long, flat stretch of highway single lane which crosses a marsh land. There were not many cars on this particular part of my drive. I had nothing better to do than watch this thing and the road. I began to wonder: #1 about how far away this thing was and #2 why I could percieve no movement. I speculated that it must be moving directly toward me OR hovering in one place. I deduced, however, that it probably was not a helicopter because it sitting was TOO still in the sky. As I drove on, I was still many miles from home. The single bright light slowly shifted on its axis toward me and became two bright lights. Combined, these lights were definitely a "show stopper"! The brightness, the distance and the motionless of this held my curiosity. Suddenly, as soon as this "thing" had rotated towards my position so that I could see its two lights, it also started a "strobing" effect with one of it two lights (the right one). I then knew that this was something I had never seen before and that it was definitely not a usual thing. Traffic and terrain took my attention away from this object at this time. There were some small hills to pay attention to and quickly I lost track of this object. I had actually forgotten about it as I traveled through Vallejo and up into the hills onto Highway 80 east. There are some massive foothills I travel through at this juntion of highways 37 and 80. Dropping down into the Fairfield area is quite a site once you punch through the blackness of these hills. As I came into site of Fairfield, I could not believe my eyes. Furthermore, if I had not seen this thing from such a distance away, I am not certain that my eye could have picked it out from all the other city lights and recognized it for where it was and that it was what I had seen before. I have been a resident of Fairfield for 20 years; I know the developed and undeveloped areas; I have driven this stretch of highway thousands of times and this was definitely out of the norm. At this point in time because of the elevation of the hill I was now driving down, I was higher up (!) than this craft which hovered motionless down in the valley. I was looking down on it (spellbound) and approaching it fast. As this craft sat motionless over a vast dark barren area just to the side of the highway, there was no mistaking it's presence. It was RIGHT BESIDE the highway as if it were taking a scenic tour and WANTING to be seen. Furthermore, it was so low that as I passed it, I layed my head on my steering wheel to get a look at the underside. I have no brains for math, but I am certain that one could compute the actual feet above the ground with some simple geometric calcs. As I came down the hill, a CHP (California Highway Patrol) car came by me at a high rate of speed. I thought at that time that at least HE had also seen this thing and was also going to be a witness. I do not, however, know where he went. I leveled out onto the flat part of the road, I kept trying to maintain my speed, watch the craft, wonder if anyone else was seeing this event, and find a spot to pull off on the shoulder to get a better look. As I passed under and beside this craft, this is what I saw: a craft the size of at least three football fields long, triangular shaped with lights all around, two bright lights in front, and shapes underneath (2 circles and 2 straight lines beside each other)the craft which were backlit with light seemingly "seeping" from inside the craft. As I struggled to comprehend what I was seeing and trying to find a safe place to get over and stop, I still couldn't fathom why, with all the cars around me, there weren't 30 accidents or 30 people pulling over to get a better look. Either they didn't realize what was just above their heads because of other lights and traffic around them OR they were as terrified as I was. But I stopped. I pulled over off Highway 80 right beside the Inn America motel. As I got out of my car and stood in front of it, the craft had already started to move slowly across the highway towards my location and headed in the direction of Travis AFB. I called Travis AFB about a week later to ask if they had had any reports of any strange events. They said they were unaware of any of these events. Additionally, I did call the local newspaper and they had no reports of anything. Last but not least, I was driving home a different route (Hwy 680 west which also hooks into 80 north) and I noticed some very bright lights up in the hills to my left on two successive nights soon after this major sighting (dates unknown). I did not put these events together at the time, but I do remember thinking "gosh what in the heck was built up in those hills so quickly. That's alot of light for the middle of nowhere". I have never seen those lights again. I do alot of driving late at night along both these routes commuting from San Francisco to Fairfield and this was one STRANGE but exciting event!! Thanks for having a site where one can report such things.

NUFORC Note:

Subsequent to submittal of original report, witness "reconstructed" the correct date of 30SE99 by using her cancelled and time-stamped personal check. We correct the date here, and include her addendum.


Posted 2000-02-16

© 2023 National UFO Reporting Center. All rights reserved. Use or reproduction within any application without written consent is prohibited.