NUFORC Sighting 71197

Occurred: 2009-07-14 21:20 Local
Reported: 2009-07-20 20:43 Pacific
Duration: 9 seconds
No of observers: 1

Location: Las Cruces, NM, USA

Shape: Unknown
Characteristics: Lights on object

A very large brightly lit object floats over buildings without a sound and disappears.

On 7/14/09 at 9:20 p.m. I was sitting in my easy chair watching tv when something caught my eye from the patio door to my immediate left. The door has a full length glass pane in it with a sheer curtain over it. I could clearly see a brightly lighted object in the sky as it was dark enough outside by then. I could not tell the shape, but it appeared to me to be a straight wing with no fuselage, though it feasibly could have been a frisbee shape on its side with no curve, and about 8 or so bright flashing colored lights straight across it. They were red, blue and I think white and orange and/or green. I thought it was a jet plane about to crash.

I was very startled because I don't live in a flight path so my mind was really befuddled by this time trying to make sense of what I was seeing. The position of the object was very close and low and slowly passing just beyond a 2-story apartment building about 100 yards beyond my building in the same complex of about 10 buildings. I did not see from which direction it came, but it could have possibly passed right over me before I saw it.

I'm not sure of the altitude, maybe that of a roughly 30-story building. To me, it appeared as though it was slowly going into a landing pattern where the wheels come down and touchdown is imminent. If I extended my arm it would be about the length and width of my pinkie finger framed between two buildings.

I jumped up and got on my slides so I could step outside to get a better look. By the time I got out on the patio the object seemed to hesitate for a fraction of a second; I thought it was trying to pull the nose up because at this point my mind still thought it was a plane, however, there was no engine noise and I assumed the engine had been cut off. It then veered slightly to the right and disappeared behind a building.

I waited for an explosion or flames and smoke shooting in the air, but nothing like that happened. In fact, it was just gone and I heard nothing about it on the news afterwards.

Posted 2009-08-05