NUFORC Sighting 04601

Occurred: 1998-10-03 14:30 Local - Approximate
Reported: 1998-10-16 00:00 Pacific
Duration: 20 min
No of observers: 7

Location: Carbondale, IL, USA

Shape: Changing
Characteristics: Aura or haze around object, Aircraft nearby

On the specified date, myself and a few of my friends witnessed this flying object, that was not an airplane, helocopter, or balloon. I am a pilot and I have been around flying craft all my life, I did not recognize this object. It stayed about 1500 feet in the air for about 20 min moving north and south about 10 degrees. We were facing east over the city of Carbondale when we saw it. It then disappered into the blue sky. About an hour later an F-16 fighter flew down from Springfield Il. and buzzed the city of Carbondale 5-7 times. I have been here for 3 years and have never seen a military fighter jet fly over Carbondale.

At approximately 2:30pm CST myself and a friend were sitting on a couch outside of our fraternity house in Carbondale Illinois. I looked at the sky to see some birds flying around and then behind the birds was a black object not moving. It was about 1500-2000 feet in altitude, and about the size of a gumball held at arms length. We both stood up to get a better look and could not figure out what it was. We were faceing east and it was about 3-6 miles away from us. The object began to move from north to south and back, in the sky. The object was also changing shape. When I say changing shape I mean it looked like a large rubber bag full of water suspended in the air and the bag was changing shape. I have been around flying aircraft all my life, I am a pilot, and I have never seen anything like this ever. To prove to my friend and I that we were not crazy, I went inside to get some othrer people to witness this object. I brought out 5 people. They all saw it, some skeptical, but they did admit they saw something not normal. Then another friend of mine drove up, and stated he saw the object from one of the dorms on campus which is about 2.5 miles from where I saw the object. The object then disappered into the blue sky after about 20 min. It was a slow disapperence, it was not a quick bolt out of the atmosphere. After all this took place, about 1-2 hours later an F-16 fighter jet from Springfield Illiionis flew over the city of Carbondale 5-7 times. There were several rumors of why the jet was flying around down here, but nothing official ever came out. The odd part of the jet is that for the 4 years I have been in Carbondale, I have never seen a fighter jet fly around this area. It just so happens that the military jet shows up shortly after this craft was witnessed.

Posted 1998-11-01

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