NUFORC Sighting 32339

Occurred: 1974-04-23 20:00 Local
Reported: 2003-10-18 03:36 Pacific
Duration: 90seconds
No of observers: 4

Location: Rosalia, WA, USA

Shape: Chevron
Characteristics: Aura or haze around object, Left a trail

UFO seen near Rosalia, WA in the early 1970s. Shape of UFO disputed. Not disputed are three eerie green chevron shaped bow shockwaves

We were heading home to Moscow, Idaho from Spokane, WA on Highway #195 when I noticed something. I was sitting in the back of our car and looked to the west and saw what I thought was a satellite heading our direction and after a few seconds mentioned it to the rest of the occupants in our car. After about 20 or so seconds I noticed that this object in the sky was creating a triple shook barrier in front of the craft. These shock barriers looked like extended sergeant stripes, but were colored an eerie Halloween green color. These shock waves or whatever they were, did not touch the prow of the object (unlike a boat cutting through the water), but there was a clear gap between the last stripe and the object. The object seemed to me to be flying high and at a good rate of speed. I thought it might be a SR71. There was a orange glow behind it too! The four of us agreed that we saw: 1) The perfect triangular stripes that were ahead of the craft--- they seemed like they were breaking up the atmosphere in front of it and that they extended well beyond the craft itself; 2) There was an orange glow behind the craft. We did disagree on what the craft looked like. My dad said it was low and he could see engines. I say it was high and fast and my brother agreed with me. My mom sided more towards me and my brother's version. My dad pulled the car over, but I could not get around my Grandmother to get out and I did not want to get out on the traffic side because I did not want to get hit by a passing car. So all in all I did not see the craft at its best when it passed in front of our car up in the sky. I still disagree with my dad to this day on about how high up and how fast it was going and what it looked like. However I must give this to my dad and that he is somewhat far-sighted. He saw buzz-bombs and Me 262s flying during WW11. I have talked to several physics professors at both the University of Idaho and Washington State University and none of them could explain the affe! cts of the apparent shockwave. I talked to the then Idaho professor Edson Peck (he wrote the the standardized textbook for electomagnetic waves for college students---no one could write anything better than it for at least 10 years) and he said that the atmosphere is considered a liquid, but any wave effect would not be visible to the naked eye. Later I read a Smithsonian Air and Space magazine and it said the same thing , but they included a photograph of a supersonic jet with similar sockwaves in front of it. The big difference was that the waves were coming directly off the prow of the aircraft and not well before it. Also the article said that only a high speed camera like the one they used could capture the shock-waves that were apparent in the photograph. Also I can remember after we got home to Moscow we read in the next day's paper that many people reported an orange glowing object to the Sheriffs Dept. that services the Rosalia, WA area.

NUFORC Note:

Date is approximate. PD

Posted 2003-10-31