NUFORC Sighting 34899

Occurred: 2004-02-06 18:36 Local
Reported: 2004-02-06 22:23 Pacific
Duration: 5 minutes
No of observers: 1

Location: Solvang, CA, USA

Shape: Cigar
Characteristics: Lights on object, Changed Colo

Low "hum", white lights change to red and appear to almost merge at one point...cigar-like shape.

As I was leaving work, as I walked the approximately 150 feet to my car, I noticed in the sky several strong, white lights. These "lights" passed almost directly over my head, at an approximate distance of about 500-700 feet. It was the proximity of the "lights" that initially caught my eye, as airplanes do not usually fly so close. -It should also be noted that I work in an area of our small city slightly away from the "main" town, and thusly it is usually relatively dark (except for some scattered facility lighting). Also, it was a very clear night, except for some very distant (high) clouds, the night was clear and crisp. Visability was excellent and without fog, etc. The lights were travelling approx. north-east and, as mentioned, seemed to be brighter white than conventional aircraft---almost on a level par with aircraft landing lights. Particularly strange to me was the fact that: (1) These (2) white lights were travelling one-behind-another (separated by a distance of approx. 4-fingers (held-out at arms-length). -It struck me as too wide of a space for the lights to be on the same craft and yet too tight of a space for their to be two craft following one another. (2) The lights did not blink initially, but were steady and bright white. (3) Although I am not definitive about the exact shape of the craft, as it was a clear night and the craft passed almost overhead, I judged the shape to be a cigar or cylinder (without wings!!) by the black "space" that the craft made as it passed over me (i.e. lack of star light in one area). I definately did not see any wings. (4) The lack of sound was unusual, as the craft passed relatively close overhead. I did hear an almost cyclic "hum" though, but this was very low-pitched. (5) The SPEED of the craft was VERY slow. The object almost seemed to be stationery at one point, although in retrospect I believe that it was travelling so slow away from me that it appeared at a standstill. It was witnessed by myself for at least 5-! minutes, even as I headed home in my car I could see one of the two lights off in the distance. -The "leading" light always appeared to be slightly brighter. (6) As I watched it overhead, it was very disconcerting because it almost felt as if it knew I was there (I know that sounds silly) because at that point the "trailing" light started to come towards the "leading" light as if if they were about to collide or merge. My initial reaction was, "Well, if they are airplanes or helicopters I am going to find out because they will crash!" These two lights came within less than 1-finger apart from one another and then spread out again to their original 4-finger distance. It was at about that time that the "leading" light changed to RED and sometimes would blink...sometimes (not all the time---It was an irregular pattern). The "trailing" light remained white. Notably, we do have Vandenberg AFB approx. 18-miles from this location; however, the lights appeared to travel more towards Santa Maria than Lompoc and, again, moved VERY slowly. I did not see any other aircraft (planes, etc.) in the sky, but did (as I headed home) see in my rear-vision mirror (in the light of the full or almost-full moon)see several white contrail lines. FYI: I am college-educated and in the medical field. I am very curious to see how many people report this sighting, as it lasted so long and seemed so unusual.



NUFORC Note:

This witness is well known to us, and we consider her to be exceptionally reliable. We suspect her sighting occurred precisely as she describes it above. She is a medical professional. PD


Posted 2004-02-12

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