NUFORC Sighting 69992

Occurred: 2008-06-12 21:30 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2009-05-09 20:59 Pacific
Duration: 10-15 seconds
No of observers: 4

Location: Clayton, GA, USA

Shape: Light
Characteristics: Lights on object

Object traveling at a very high rate of speed, stopped, made right angle turn and continued on in night sky for a duration of 10-15 sec

Being a commercial/instrument rated pilot and having a love of aircraft, I enjoy going outside at night sometimes and looking above at all the aircraft, or at least their lights, transverse the star filled sky.

My wife, two small children, and I live in the north Georgia Mountains in an airpark community that sits approximately 3000 feet in elevation. Being far away from any major city, there are no nearby lights to brighten the sky, so I can usually see numerous aircraft pass above, mainly jets. On this particular night, we had been sitting outside approximately 30 minutes, when we saw a light passing from south to north at a speed that I estimate 20 to 25 times faster than the airliners flying overhead. I said to my wife and children that obviously this was a satellite because there were no jets that I knew of that could fly at this rate of speed. Also, we heard no sound and didn’t see any navigation lights. Anyway, as I was telling my family what I thought this light was, it came to a complete stop right above our heads for a split second, then made a right angle turn to the east at a speed as great or greater than we observed before it stopped. Then we observed the unidentified object disappear into the eastern sky.

The object we saw was a white light, not particularly bright or large. However, the rate of speed this object was traveling is what caught my attention initially.

I was a Georgia state trooper for over twenty years, and my last seven years on the patrol, I flew helicopters and airplanes. I retired because of a physical disability with full benefits. My wife is a mortgage bank officer and my children are 9 and 12 yrs old.

The date I am giving is an approximate date because at the time I had decided not to report this to your agency.

NUFORC Note:

Witness indicates that the date of the sighting is approximate. PD

Posted 2009-05-12