NUFORC Sighting 16857

Occurred: 2001-03-13 23:50 Local
Reported: 2001-03-15 00:00 Pacific
Duration: 10 seconds
No of observers: 0

Location: Seattle, WA, USA

Shape: Cigar
Characteristics: Lights on object, Aircraft nearby

23:50 on 3/13/01, an object with orange lights flew at remarkable speed, silently, from south to north over Puget Sound.

My girlfriend works nights and leaves our West Seattle home at about 11:45 each weeknight. After she leaves, I often go out on the back porch to write in my journal. The porch faces west, overlooking Blake and Vashon Islands and Puget Sound. I had just stepped out on the porch and was admiring the clear night sky when an object traveling very, very fast crossed from the south to the north. It caught my eye because I thought it was a shooting star, but then I realized that it was flying within earth's atmosphere. Moreover, it had least 3 distinguishable bright orange lights in an oblong formation. It was too dark for me to make out the outline of the vessel itself. It flew at about the height on the horizon as a plane would, but was totally silent and at about 10 times faster -- it took about 10 seconds for it to cross the sky. To reconfirm my thought that it could not possibly be a plane that had just passed, moments later one in fact did fly by (presumably coming from SeaTac airport as they often do), and I could make out its shape, hear it clearly, and it was much slower than what I had just seen. I took out my journal and wrote: "3/13/01: It's dark and I can't see to write well. I just saw something cruise through the night sky. It had orange lights and was very, very fast and completely silent. A plane just flew by, too, but slower - much slower - and I could hear it pass. It must have been a satellite but it seemed so close."

NUFORC Note:

We spoke with this witness, and believe the witness is an excellent source of objective information. Very lucid, very eloquent, and a very clear on the object that was observed. It is noteworthy that this report strongly suggests that there were multiple, individual lights on this object. PD

Posted 2001-03-16