NUFORC Sighting 89794

Occurred: 1979-07-15 21:30 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2012-06-21 03:09 Pacific
Duration: 2-3 minutes
No of observers: 1

Location: Rancho Palos Verdes, CA, USA

Shape: Chevron
Characteristics: Lights on object

Late at night in the summer of 1979 a huge chevron shapped UFO flew silently and slowly just above the rooftops of So. California

I don’t remember the exact date, but it was several weeks into the first summer where my family was living (Rancho Palos Verdes, California) at the time I saw the craft, and that’s how I know approximately what month and year it was. I was 11 years old at the time and I just learned to swim a few weeks earlier, and the first thing my dad taught me was to float because if I could float I would never be afraid of the water. Floating in the pool and looking up at the stars at night quickly became one of my favorite things to do on hot summer nights. This particular night very hot, even late into the evening it was still hot so I decided to cool off in the pool. I turned off all the lights in the yard and only had the pool light turned on. It was a perfect night for star gazing because it was a clear night with no clouds. My dad and brothers were in the dessert for a few days to ride motorcycles, and my mom was at a neighbor’s house so I was the only one a! t home. My mom recently showed me how to find Orion’s belt in the sky and I remember those stars were almost directly above me as I floated. After about 10 minutes of gazing at the stars, suddenly the stars in the east part of the sky began to disappear. At first I thought maybe clouds were rolling in, but I had never seen dark clouds before. It seemed odd that any clouds would appear on such a hot night anyways, and I didn’t understand what could be blocking out the starlight? Then I began to see an area that was blocking the stars take shape and I could see the edges of a pointed tip slowly moving directly above me. The pointed tip headed west, and the edges stretched from the tip down each side at an angle like a wide triangle (chevron). Each side stretched out from north to south at an angle for about 150 feet in each direction. Our yard was about 90 feet wide and the total distance reached beyond my yard and into the neighbors yard on both sides (the entire wid! th was about 300 to 350 feet total, the lots are big in that n! eighborh ood). There was no sound at all. It was traveling east to west because I know the sun came up in the direction that it came from, and set in the direction it was heading. Our house was two stories high and the craft was flying no more than 15-20 feet above the rooftop. My best estimate is that it was about 55-60 feet from the ground. It moved very, very slowly. As I watched in sheer wonder, I was amazed that something this large could fly so slowly and so low to the ground and not make any noise at all. I could hardly see the surface because it was almost the same color as the night sky but slightly darker, not quite black, but almost black. If I wasn’t looking up at the stars and watching the stars being slowly blocked out as it passed over, I may not have even noticed it. As the craft passed overhead for about 30 seconds, the point of the front of the craft was already over the roof our house, and it was still blocking my entire view of the sky. I remember being s! truck with awe as faint lights started to show up through the trees that lined the east side of the yard. The lights were different colored (red, orange, yellow, and green) glowing on the bottom of the craft. These were not normal lights that illuminated light outward like a flash light does, but rather these areas of light seemed to be coming from an inner light source that was shining just few inches beyond the exterior of the craft, and had a very soft dim glow. I had never seen anything like this and I starred at the lights to try to see details. When the lights were directly above me I could see that the light was coming out of a round opening. I looked directly up into the opening and I noticed a shimmer effect that warped the dim light source similar to how fish scales shimmer when light hits the scales. Mixed with this shimmer effect was a smoke-like effect that distorted the edges of the round shape of the lights and it appeared to me that the light source wa! s inset deep into the surface of the openings. There were two! rows of these openings, one on the right (north) and another row on the left (south). The distance between the rows was about 18 feet (a little wider than the width of our pool). The lights within each row were spaced about 3 feet apart, and the size of each opening was about 1 foot in diameter. There were approximately 8-10 openings in each row, alternating in colors. It seemed like it took about 90 seconds to completely pass over our rooftop. At this point I hurried to get out of the pool, ran through the house, out the front door, and over to the neighbors house next door calling out to my mom. We lived at the top of a hill, and just before I got to the steps of our neighbors door the craft was moving over the top of the houses on the opposite side of the street. I was knocking on the door, and yelling to hurry up and come to the front yard quick. By the time everyone came outside the craft was beyond the viewable line of sight because it was flying so low. They missed ! it unfortunately, and I tried to describe it to them and convince them to get in the car to go find it so they can see it. They were in no mood to do that, and they assumed I must have seen a blimp because blimps used to fly over our neighborhood. I knew it was not a blimp because I had seen the blimp fly over before during the day and at sometimes at night. The blimp that used to fly over would never fly that low to the roofs of houses. I knew a blimp could never block out the sky as much as the craft I saw. The craft I saw huge, and was not shaped like a blimp, but rather a large wide triangle like shape, more like a chevron shape and not an elongated oval like a blimp shape. Also, blimps make noise even though they are quiet, but the craft I saw didn’t make any noise at all, it was perfectly silent. I will never forget this, and I’m glad I can finally share my experience. I heard about the website on the radio that encouraged to share any sightings no matter how ! long it’s been. I hope the details I’ve given are useful to U! FO resea rch.

NUFORC Note:

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

Posted 2012-07-04