NUFORC Sighting 32301

Occurred: 1979-08-15 21:00 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2003-10-17 23:49 Pacific
Duration: 5-10 minutes
No of observers: 3

Location: Iwakuni (Japan), , Japan

Shape: Light

Single strange light travels at great and varying speeds, making sharp turns and disappears into the moon.

Three of us were sitting on the front steps of the barracks at Iwakuni Air Station USMC in Japan, approximately 35 miles south west of Hiroshima. It was early evening about 20:00( 8 pm) when went out to have a smoke and watch the shooting stars over the castle to the north, the annual August meteor shower(I forget the name) It was hazy and they weren't visible so we sat batting the breeze. As I looked up into the southern sky over the inland sea I noticed a singly white light. It appeared to be some good distance away, probably several miles if it were an aircraft. At first it moved like an airplane in the distance horizontally across the sky from west to east. Then suddenly it changed direction from horizontal to a rising 60 degrees back to the west and covered a great distance that was either a rise in altitude or approach to our location. At the distance that it appeared to be a few inches of travel to us was miles of distance. It then changed direction several times moving across the sky at differing speed, sometimes fast and sometimes slow. Somestimes it just stopped entirely. When it made turns they were immediate and sometimes at very sharp angles. After a period of time it returned to the general position where I first observed it to the south west sky, then went at a high velocity horizontal to a distance as we observed 3 - 5 feet to the east then changed direction back to the west and up at about a 30 or 45 degree angle and disappeared into or behind the rising moon.

My father is retired Airforce and I have been around aircraft all my life. I worked with helicopters in North Carolina for the Marine Corps and with Fighter/Attack Jets in Iwakuni. I know what man made air craft are capable of and no aircraft ever desinged and built by humans could travel at the speeds this object did nor make the kinds of turns it made at those speeds. It had to travel at great distances in its location since it was a good ways distant from us and out over the ocean.

It could not have been one of the jets from our air station because they were grounded in the evening because at that time Japan had a no fly rule to keep the noise levels down during the night hours. To this day I have not seen anything that moved like that light nor have I been able to figure out what it was.

NUFORC Note:

Date is approximate. PD

Posted 2003-10-31