NUFORC Sighting 14086

Occurred: 2000-09-06 02:40 Local
Reported: 2000-09-11 00:00 Pacific
Duration: 18 minutes
No of observers: 1

Location: West Leipsic, OH, USA

Shape: Light
Characteristics: Aircraft nearby

Observed two bright lights from vehicle and chased them until they went out of sight in different directions.

I was visiting a friend in Ohio. I left his house at about 2:40AM. When I pulled onto the street I observed two bright lights low in the northwest sky outside of town, one above the other. At first I thought they were aircraft with their landing lights on flying toward me but they did not change position. I stopped at a curve in the street and watched them for several minutes. I saw no strobe lights or wingtip lights and heard no engines or rotors. I drove out of town to the west to try and get a closer look at them. Both objects moved to the west as I approached. I tried to catch up with them for about 8 miles then one of them headed northwest toward Defiance, steadily speeded up and vanished from sight. The other object was now directly north of me and moving towards the north. I turned onto highway 108 and pegged the 85 MPH speedometer in my vehicle trying to catch up with it. The object continued to move away to the north. I had to slow down to go through the town of Holgate and lost sight of it. I looked at the clock, it was 2:58 AM. I drove east of town on highway 18, stopped about a mile out of town and got out of my vehicle to search the sky but the object was nowhere in sight. I then observed a small plane flying from west to east directly over head, I clearly saw the wingtip lights and belly strobe and heard the engine. I returned to Leipsic at about 3:30AM. When I stepped out of my vehicle I heard rotor blades to the north and watched a jet copter fly from north to south. I am a 41 year old male. I have done some flying and amateur astronomy. I live 5 miles from an air force base and have seen lots of different types of aircraft in flight both day and night including the B2, F117 and SR71. The objects that I saw were brighter than anything in the sky and the brightness did not change when they moved away from me. At no time did I see any kind of structure, just steady bright white lights. They were not planets since they were too far north to be near the ecliptic and they changed position in the sky.

Posted 2000-09-17