NUFORC Sighting 20754

Occurred: 2001-12-01 21:45 Local
Reported: 2001-12-09 22:44 Pacific
Duration: 1 1/2 - 2 minutes


Location: Goodland (@10 miles east of), KS, USA

Shape: Unknown
Characteristics: Lights on object

Lights over I-70 in Western Kansas

While driving east on I-70, just east of Goodland, Kansas, Dec. 1st around 9:45 pm, I suddenly noticed a large long light in the sky. It was south of the freeway, about 30 degrees above the horizon, and about 30 degrees to my right ( 0 degrees being directly ahead of me). I'd noticed it out of my upper right peripheral vision. At first, I thought it might be a long strip of moonlight shining from behind clouds. But as I looked, I could see a line of separate white lights (more distinct towards the front). Underneath it, towards the front, and perfectly parralel to it, was another line of lights about 1/3 the length of the top line. And this is what first jarred me out of the thought that it might have been moonlight : these lines of lights were ruler-straight. Although I could hardly process it, I realized I was looking at some kind of HUGE mechanical object. It appeared to be VERY long and rather flattish. I say this because the sky seemed darker above and below the lines of lights (i.e. it appeared a lot longer than it was high). I cannot tell you how far away or how high it was, since I do not possess this skill. However, it was obviously at plane-flying height, so to speak, and not way out 'in the atmosphere'. At any rate, as I watched it, I realized it was moving, apparently north and perpendicular to the the freeway. It traveled very slowly, parralel to the horizon, and straight across the sky. As I watched, it came into view directly in front of me, above the freeway. This thing was truely huge. I could barely process what I was seeing, and I can only tell you that this thing looked like some kind of giant moving complex. Although I still hesitate to utter it, the words 'space station' did come to mind. It continued to move north. At about 30 degrees to my left, north of the freeway, I noticed it was angling downward. At this point, I strained to keep it in view. It appeared to me that the lights went out, from the back to the front, until all I could see was one peachy-pink colored light, which then dissappeared at about 15 degrees above the horizon. I called 911 and got a Goodland operator. I told her what I had seen and from where. She related that 4 other calls had come in. The next day, I described the event to a couple of people in Kansas City who each told me they'd seen a report on CNN. One person told me it was being explained as a Russian 'spacestation' which had re-entered the atmosphere, broken apart, nothing to worry about, folks. I myself watched the local Kansas City news at 10 pm that night and heard it explained as a Russian 'rocket' re-entering earth's atmosphere, complete with an image of what appeared to me to be a couple of meteors - 'shooting stars'. This image was NOTHING like what I witnessed. As I had told the 911 operator when she'd asked me if perhaps what I'd seen might have been a comet or 'space junk', I'd replied, 'definately NOT' - not unless objects falling to earth are suddenly defying the laws of gravity, and traveling in slow horizontal trajectories across the sky. Additionally, since when does a Russian anything fall to earth without further comment or inquiry? I will add that on my return trip to Colorado through Kansas 4 days later, I called the 911 operator back, as I'd said I would. She told me that a total of 7 calls had come in to her; one from a sheriff, 2 from deputies, 3 from local rural citizens, and mine. I also stopped in Goodland to see if any locals were talking about it. At a convenience store, I asked the cashier (40-ish) if he'd heard anyone talking about the 'lights' in the sky the previous Saturday night. Apparently that night, a man had rushed into his store, sworn he was neither drunk nor taking drugs, and had told the cashier that as he'd been driving to Colorado, west on I-70, he and another driver had both stopped their cars on the freeway owing to what they were seeing in the sky. The only description this casheir relayed to me was that the man had said there was a large light underneath this thing. When the cashier had suggested that maybe it could have been a blimp, the man had said 'no way', as this thing was much bigger than that. Then I told him what I saw. During my conversation with him, I turned to another man standing behind me in the store who'd been listening in. Judging from the somewhat frozen look on his face (40's, clean cut, athletic looking), I ventured to ask him if he'd seen 'it'. He nodded wordlessly, 'yes'. I asked him if he thought it was a meteor or some 'space junk', and he said, absolutely not. He had been in Goodland at the time and I asked him to describe what he saw. He said, 'It was just like you said. It was big, moving slowly and horizontally across the sky'. He left shortly after. I have subsequently spoken at some length to the sheriff mentioned by the 911 operator. He had seen 'it' from 20 or so miles south of where I had been at around the same time. He described seeing brightly colored lights traveling parralel to the horizon across the sky, adding it was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. He tried to take a poloroid, but only nearby lights on the ground were visible in the picture. I asked him if he thought it was a meteor or 'space junk', and he'd said no, citing the same reason - its slow, horizontal movementl. He asked me, 'how big do you think it was? A mile long.....?' I told him I am unable to judge, but that like him, what I had seen was very large. He said 'it' had been moving from north to south. We discussed this discrepancy in our 'sitings', yet agreed it was unlikely that these were 2 entirely unrelated events, since we'd both seen it around the same time. Anyway, that's my story. I am a professional woman in my mid 40's with no interest in UFO's. Until now, anyway..…



NUFORC Note:

Please see other reports for 01DE01. Our suspicion is that the event was, in fact, a re-entry event. PD


Posted 2002-01-11

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