NUFORC Sighting 61754

Occurred: 2008-02-19 17:15 Local
Reported: 2008-02-21 09:28 Pacific
Duration: 20 minutes
No of observers: 3

Location: Sioux Falls, SD, USA

Shape: Oval
Characteristics: Aircraft nearby

Two oval objects appeared in the sky right where unmarked planes made an X con-trail!!

At 5pm I got a phone call from a friend in the country that saw 5-6 white unmarked airplanes in the sky leaving curiously large con-trails. The sky was perfectly clear and there weren’t any clouds in sight. The con-trails were different in size and makeup. The large ones were not dissipating into the air and were left in a grid pattern from north to south and east to west. I could tell the difference because the usual con-trails were smaller in size and dissipating into the air almost immediately after they were exhausted from the engines. Then there was a distinct X that was made by these planes. Suddenly out of no where there were these two oval shaped objects that were floating across the sky where the X was, not leaning behind and con-trails. They were spaced apart and traveling east on the same trajectory. I couldn’t see any wings and I thought it was just that they were too far away to tell but then a third plane came up behind them. This plane had the con-trails and I could distinctly see the wings. It was traveling in the same line behind the objects.

I called the FAA and demanded answers to what was in our airspace and the operations manager put me on hold for about 20 minutes and then reported to me that the planes were an Air force training operation out of Reese AFB in Lubbock TX. They were T-38 training planes. Well, my father is an x-fighter pilot and retired commercial pilot and I know what T-38’s look like and it wasn’t them. So I researched Reese AFB and it has been shut down since 1997.

NUFORC Note:

Contrails?? PD

Posted 2008-03-04