NUFORC Sighting 135295

Occurred: 1974-10-01 22:00 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2017-07-22 17:58 Pacific
Duration: 5 minutes
No of observers: 1

Location: Fresno, CA, USA

Shape: Cigar
Characteristics: Lights on object

A short accounting of this even written for a memoirs class.

UFO Sightings The sky was black—one of those moonless nights with crisp air and unending visibility. If memory serves me it was early in the winter of 1974. I had just concluded a late-evening insurance appointment on Grantland Avenue west of highway 99 in Fresno, CA.

Between 9:30 and 10:00 o’clock, I headed for my home in Rolling Hills on the Madera County side of the San Joaquin River. The most direct route from Grantland Avenue was to take Herndon Avenue east to Blackstone and then north on Highway 41 to Avenue 10.

A mile or so west of the Sierra Sky Park I noticed what looked like an airplane, roughly 500 feet above the ground preparing to land at the tiny airstrip. Small planes landing here were not uncommon so I paid little attention to it. But I did notice that its rate of descent was considerably slower than an airplane. Maybe it’s traveling toward me, I reasoned. The closer I got to the airport the more attention I paid to the object’s flight pattern.

After seeing how slowly it was moving I ruled out the possibility of it being an airplane, and thought it was a glider. The only other logical possibilities were a hot-air balloon or a helicopter.

When I clearly saw its oblong shape I ruled out these possibilities too.

Curious, I pulled off the road onto the soft shoulder, came to a stop, and turned my engine off. I got out of the car and listened carefully for any audible sound. Nothing. Not a whir, not a click, not a sound! The windowless gray object wasn’t hovering. Instead it slowly drifted in a northwesterly direction across Herndon Avenue toward the airstrip about a hundred feet above my head, still continuing its descent. I felt sure it would land but instead it drifted west and began following Herndon Avenue back toward highway 99.

I got back in my car, turned around, and followed its white light. As I picked up speed it picked up speed. The faster I accelerated the faster it went. Then in the blink of an eye it pulled away from me, its intense white taillight receding into the black starry night.

What was that? I thought.

The traffic on Herndon that night was non-existent. In 1974, Herndon Avenue was little more than a two-lane country road. I’m calling the airport when I get home. Maybe they’ll have some information.

Someone surely saw that.

Once home I called the Fresno Air Terminal control tower directly, which you could do in the early 70s.

“Has anything odd shown up on your radar screen the past thirty minutes?” I asked.

“No sir,” the air traffic controller answered. “Why, what’s up?” “How could you have missed it?” “Missed what?” After explaining my encounter he said, “Well, for one thing it would depend on its altitude and location relative to our radar equipment,” and then continued with some additional mumbo-jumbo about how radar works.

As I slowly calmed down from my excitement I explained to him in detail what I had seen.

“You know, that’s really odd. Someone else called me from near the Sanger River bottom earlier tonight relating almost exactly what you’ve described.” And the following week I was northbound on highway 41 south of the San Joaquin River Bridge, when I noticed a bright-white light in the sky similar to the one I’d seen earlier. I felt sure it was an airplane and continued observing it as I crossed the bridge. As soon as the object reached Avenue 10 it took a laser-like ninety-degree turn to the left and accelerated out of sight at an unbelievable speed.

Many people have experienced sightings of UFOs. Many scientists and the military downplay their existence because nine out of ten sightings can be explained by other phenomena. Some people claim they were abducted, with a small percentage of these asserting that medical experiments and who knows what else were performed on them.

Since that time I have listened to stories and accounts of UFOs with interest on one hand, and with reservation on the other. Most of these sightings involve objects shaped like discs or triangularpatterned groups of objects. Nearly all first-hand accounts have not described what I saw—an oblong-shaped craft.

With the advent of the Internet I have revisited the subject hoping to find photos or stories that more closely mirrored my experiences. My search uncovered only one sighting that described something similar to what I saw.

This incident happened near Mansfield, Ohio, on October 18, 1973, and was widely recognized as one of the most notable UFO sightings that year. I was amazed to find how many similarities my encounters shared with this documented UFO sighting. Here are a few samples: “Cigar-shaped metallic object with dome, body lights, light beam, apparent lifting force…” “hovering relationship” “The object appeared solid…red light at the nose, a white light at the tail…” “No turbulence was felt and…heard no sound…” “…the object accelerated and moved off to the west, showing only the white “tail” light as it receded, and made a distinct 45 degree course change to the right, heading toward Lake Erie.” “On the ground, the driver and passengers of a car saw two lights, one red and one green… At first they thought it was a small plane flying low…heard no sound…its unusual qualities caused the driver to pull over and stop.” There is no doubt that what I saw was real. It was just out of my realm of understanding. I haven’t witnessed another sighting since, but will continue to search the skies for unusual events

NUFORC Note:

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

Posted 2017-07-23