NUFORC Sighting 03289

Occurred: 1990-12-16 02:15 Local
Reported: 1998-03-08 00:00 Pacific
Duration: 10 minutes
No of observers: 6

Location: Blocker, OK, USA

Shape: Cigar
Characteristics: Left a trail, Emitted other objects

6 Deputys at roadblock see object in level flight with large exhaust trail,explosion near nose of craft sends multiple smaller objects streaking to ground.

On the above date and time, myself and 5 other deputys were working a drivers' license check at the main intersection of a small rural community in our county.I had just released a motorist to go on his way when I heard one of the deputys exclaim,"What the hell is that!" I turned to face him and looked in the direction he was looking, which was to our northwest. It was not hard to see what he was looking at. I observed an object whose shape was hard to determine at first, as it appeared to be coming almost straight at us. I did easily notice the long trail of exhaust and flame that trailed the object. The object progressed rather slowly, about normal aircraft speed, from our northwest(right), to eventuaslly end up to our southeast(left). As the objectbecame closer and crossed our field of vision, a shape could be better made out. At first, a couple of us thought it might be an airliner that was on fire, but we could not make out any wings or tail structure. The glow from the trail of fire was illuminating the rear of the object somewhat. It should be noted that this sighting occured on a cloudless night with a 3/4 moon in the western sky, many stars visible, and a very clear view as we were far away from any city lights. When the object crossed between our position and the moon in the west, we could discern a cigar-like shape, reminiscent to me of a large missile(icbm type). The others present were in agreement as to the shape of the craft. At a point where the object was moving away to the southeast, but still mostly in front of us, we observed a very bright and instantaneous explosion near the "nose" of the object, immediately followed by approx. ten small objects which streaked toward the ground in a fan pattern, disapperaing in the proverbial"twinkling of an eye". In fact, if we had blinked, I'm sure we would have missed them, they moved so fast. At that point, a couple of us were saying our prayers and waiting for the blinding flash and mushroom cloud. The closest thing I could think of to describe what I was seeing was an icbm that had just MIRV'ed. There was fortunately no explosion, much to our surprise and relief. We continued to watch the main object progress in controlled flight, to the southeast fo our position, until it finally became nothing but an orange circle of light, as if we were now looking straight at the rear end of the thing. We continued to watch the object until we could no longer see any sign of it. It flew out of our sight. It did not explode, blink out, disappear, or streak off at an unbelievable rate of speed. Once we rgained our composure, I radioed the sheriffs' office and asked the dispatcher to call the FAA Flight Control Center in McAlester. He asked me what was going on because he was already getting calls from citizens around the county who had also seen the object. He called the FAA and they had no report of any scheduled aircraft or any aircraft at all for our area. Within a few minutes, the dispatcher advised me he had received a teletype over the state law enforcement net of the report of an object that landed in a farmers field near Anadarko,Ok.(approx. 130 miles west of McAlester.), and that personnel from Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City were enroute to see what it was. That was the last we heard about this until the next day. I channel surfed the news all day long, checking for any mention of this incident, to no avail. Of the seven separate news stations we had available, not one mentioned anything until 1730 that evening when KOCO channel 5 in OKC made a statement that if you saw a bright light in the sky the night before and wondered what it was, you were not alone. They claimed officials at Tinker had no idea what it was either. At a second newscast on this same channel 30 minutes later, in fact, during the weather portion of the broadcast, the weatherman stated that officials at Tinker had determined that what we saw was a Russian "booster rocket" re-entering the earthe's atmosphere and burning up due to friction. Well, I'm no "rocket scientist"(pun intended), but what I saw was on a perfectly level trajectory(horizontal) with no angle. There was definitely a large streak of flame behind the object, but it was emanating from the rear of the craft, not the nose as you would expect if the flame was caused by friction. The craft was not on fire, it was under propulsion. No other mention of this incident was ever heard by me. Those of us who saw it don't talk about it anymore. I still have video of the few seconds KOCO devoted to it though.

Posted 1999-01-28