NUFORC Sighting 12001

Occurred: 2000-02-13 18:55 Local
Reported: 2000-02-14 00:00 Pacific
Duration: 3 hours 10 minutes
No of observers: 1

Location: Yuma (20-25 miles West of) near I-8/Mexican border. Proba, CA, USA

Shape: Unknown
Characteristics: Lights on object, Changed Color, Aircraft nearby

I saw 2 unidentified craft performing up and down and around movements over the course of about 3 hours between Yuma, AZ and El Centro, CA on Sunday night, 02/13/00 (7:00p.m. - 10:p.m.). I was hiking and camping by myself in a generally unhabitated area about 10 miles east of the city of Glamis near the Imperial Sand Dunes/Pichacio State Park (CA). There is no doubt in my mind that these were unconventional aircraft. I am reporting this because there must have been alot of people that saw this for there were many snowbirds and others camping out in the area or riding offroad vehicles at the Sand Dunes.

On Sunday, February 13, 2000 I was camping out alone about 10 miles east of Glamis, CA. There were many people in the area however and somebody else must have seen what I saw. At approximately 6:55 p.m. I observed some kind of craft which at first was simply going in what appeared to be circles. I thought it might be a Border Patrol airplane or helicopter but then it started to go straight up and then straight down, not very quickly, but very noticeably. I couldn't figure out what kind of craft it was because of the up and down and circular manuevers it was making. The exact location of where I saw this craft initially was about 20-25 miles West of Yuma, AZ (or Winterhaven, CA right next to it on the CA side) and appeared to be hovering right over Interstate 8 near the Mexican Border. I was probably about 8 to 10 miles away North of the object (looking directly South). The longitude it was initially hovering at would be 115 degrees and the latitude about 32.75 degrees (Mexican Border). I could not really tell the shape of it even though I had binoculars. It was not very large though. I could clearly see it emitting a steady white and green light and a flashing red light. The colors seemed to be very similar to airplane lights but it definitely was not a plane. It was probably no bigger than a small airplane. Initially it was circling a specific area. After about 5 minutes of watching it it started to go up and then go down, not very quickly, but it was noticable. Sometimes it did seem to accelerate quickly and it was then that knew that this was no Border Patrol or other conventional aircraft. Sometimes it would go up or down diagonally too. It seemed to be intent on hovering over a specific area however which had to be viewable for people driving on Interstate 8. About 25 minutes later, at 7:20 p.m., I saw a second craft about a mile Southwest of the first object. It's light simply seemed to turn on and it became viewable but for only about 10-15 seconds. It started moving towards the first craft. The first craft started to move away from it until the second craft's light faded away. There were airplanes flying in the vicinity while this was happening. Whenever an airplane seemed to get to close to this object the object would move away from the airplane and then eventually would go back to the spot it seemed it wanted to hover over. At one point an airplane seemed to fly right at it at a normal speed. The craft then started to fly right by it at a lower altitude at about the same speed of the airplane. With it's flashing red light it probably looked like another airplane to the airplane, but after the airplane passed it, it doubled back and went back to hovering over the 'spot'. At about 7:45 p.m. the lights from the craft dimmed to about half of it's original brightness. It continued the up and down and around and diagonal movements for about 5 more minutes and then disappeared at approximately 7:55 p.m. I kept looking at the sky waiting to see if one or both of them would return. At about 8:15 I saw one them (they both had the same colors and size) about 5 miles West of the original sighting location. It seemed to be hovering in the same manner as described earlier over a specific 'spot'. I believe that there is a hydroelectric plant over the spot that seemed to be hovering over. It hovered over this spot for about 15 minutes and then disappeared. About 8:45 one of them reappeared again about another 5 miles west of the previous spot (10 miles from the original spot). A couple of minutes later the other one reappeared and I could clearly see both of them continuing their up and down manuevers about a mile or two away from each other. At about 9:00 p.m. one of them slowly disappeared and then about 5 minutes later the other one slowly disappeared. The location of this would be about 5 miles South of Glamis and maybe 10 miles East of Holtville. The people near Glamis must have seen this if they were looking in the sky. There is a train that goes right though Glamis from Brawley to Yuma and the craft may have been noticeable to anyone on the train. At about 9:30 p.m. I saw what looked like one of the craft hovering over the Colorado River about 10 miles North of Yuma. It seemed to be doing the up and down and around and diagonal manuevers over another 'spot' for about 5 minutes and then slowly disappeared at about 9:35 p.m. At about 9:45pm I saw the craft back at the original sighting location but it's light was only about half of it's original amount. It would alternately dim and disappear only to reappear again. It seemed to be doing the same manueavers over the original 'spot'. This stopped altogether at about 10:05pm and I didn't see anything else for the rest of the evening (I went to sleep at about 11:00p.m.). I only other thing I could add would be that at times the flashing red light seemed to change to a flashing white light. This was the only change of colors that I observed. I had the feeling that the objects were trying to make themselves noticeable to any onlookers on the ground but they did not want to be noticed by the people in the airplanes. There is a Marine Air Corps Station in Yuma and there is a large AWACS observing station about 15 miles Northeast of Glamis. This object should have appeared on radar at both locations. I saw no fighters dispatched from Yuma. That's it. Mark Levy P.S. - I am a computer programmer and longtime resident of California. This was my second sighting. I did not report the first sighting I had because I wanted to see if history would repeat itself so I could be absolutely sure about what I saw. Now I am. I could only provide sketchy details of my first sighting at this time but if you want me to describe it please call me or send me an email and I will do my best. ((initials deleted))

Posted 2001-08-05