NUFORC Sighting 58015

Occurred: 1978-07-25 21:00 Local
Reported: 2007-08-06 20:51 Pacific
Duration: 5 minutes
No of observers: 2

Location: Kingsport, TN, USA

Shape: Disk
Characteristics: Lights on object, Electrical or magnetic effects

flashing red light turned out to be a soundless spinning disc shape

Hello. I want to report something that happened to my neighbor and I years ago at our home. This was in 1977 or 1978 in Kingsport, TN. We lived near the area airport and we were used to seeing planes day and night (helicopters were rare, however.) Our houses shared a driveway and we were out at night playing basketball under a street light my parents had put in. Our houses were situated along the Interstate 81, which ran across the street from our homes, and there was a steep hill behind us which had no homes back in there, just woods and fields.

While playing, I noticed a regularly flashing red light was travelling from west to east basically parallel to the Interstate very slowly. I just gave it a casual notice and didn’t even mention it to my neighbor, and went back to playing. The light disappeared behind trees and hills in the east. After a few moments, I noticed it coming back in the opposite direction, and it was travelling a little faster. Again I just took notice, it was a little odd, but nothing to mention. It went out of sight to our left (west) and I kept playing. Well, after a short time (maybe 1 minute) it appeared again, moving faster. This time I showed my neighbor, and we wondered if it might be some kind of helicopter. This time after it disappeared to our right, we waited for it to return. It did so, and was moving rather rapidly. It was still a steadily flashing red light at this point. We were excited, and ran up into our back yard to see better, because it let us get uphill above the level of our houses. As the light travelled from right to left along the Interstate this time, you could tell it was getting closer.

This last time, it came pretty close, and the flashing light started to look like maybe it was more of a spinning thing. There was still no noise from it. It appeared to curve around a large hill at the left edge of our vies, and then it came out from behind that hill. It seemed to have changed direction and was coming right toward us. As it got closer, it was definitely a spinning craft (it was late at night, so the shape of it wasn’t visible) but the lights were either a red-lighted strip with black circles spinning fast, or something round with red-lighted portholes or something similar. It was moving fast, and dipped below the tree line, but still above the hills. It suddenly dipped down right behind our house. No sound at all. The distance it was at would have made noise very noticeable if it were a helicopter, or a plane. It was probably only 5 or 6 houses down from ours and up in the air barely above the trees.

My neighbor and I looked at each other, mouths hanging open. I think we both said “Did you see that?” at the same time. We ran into the house to tell people. The family said the TV had been out, just static (we didn’t have cable), for a minute, but was now back on. They thought I was crazy, of course. I knew when I ran in the door that no one would ever believe me. I had seen another UFO behind that hill before, but that would be another entry, I assume.

Thanks.

Posted 2007-08-07