NUFORC Sighting 25927

Occurred: 2002-10-05 15:00 Local
Reported: 2002-11-03 12:55 Pacific
Duration: 30 seconds or more
No of observers: 1

Location: Texas (NE), TX, USA

Shape: Cylinder
Characteristics: Aircraft nearby

large red cylinder clearly visible from plane over rural farmland

While aboard an American Eagle flight from Fort Worth TX to Ft Smith AR over NE Texas on the afternoon of 5 Oct 2002 I observed a airborn red cylinder. The view was most sharp and clear, and the cylinder was probably more than 10,000 feet up, and perhaps several thousand feet below our plane (maybe much closer, depending on actual size). The visibility was clear and sunny - I could see the farm squares below. The object was a deep but bright orange-red. It didn't seem to have a real cone of a nose, but more blunted. There were no wings and nothing being exuded out the rear. I pictured something like an old fashioned cylindrical 500 gallon water tank but twice or three times as long and painted red. The paint didn't even give a feeling of sophisticated, just heavily enameled. I thought of a large military missile, but could not conceive of how it would be propelled in the air. Because of the plane motion the object almost appeared to be still, but the ground scenery way below changed at a different rate as the ground relative to our wings. I saw it for perhaps 30 to 45 seconds - when you are observing something that doesn't belong, time can be a difficult thing to judge ... I did not look at my watch, though I specifically examined its relationship with the plane and the ground. I looked back and forth from the ground out from front of plane to back, I looked at the other people in the plane, and noone was paying any attention, then I went back to observing the object. The scenery below was farm rectangles, with rare farmhouses and barns, which were tiny compared to the relatively near cylinder. It struck me as odd that since I was in the air, not my normal world (I am a land lover), then perhaps it was wrong of me to make any assumptions about what was right or wrong about the appearance of this object in the air below the plane. The noise of the turbo prop was so loud that it was impossible to talk to anyone else, and by the time we landed around 4PM in Fort Smith I was totally absorbed w! ith the new terminal which had just opened that week.

Posted 2002-11-04