NUFORC Sighting 07782

Occurred: 1994-03-18 05:10 Local
Reported: 1999-05-16 00:00 Pacific
Duration: 5 minutes
No of observers: 4

Location: Flint, MI, USA

Shape: Triangle
Characteristics: Lights on object

In the pre-dawn hours of the above date I encountered a large, triangular craft hovering silently about 100 foot above the freeway.

At the time of this encounter I was 42 years-old. I have a Bachelor of Science from the University of Michigan (in psychology) and, prior to this event, I had no particular interest in the subject of UFOs. Like everyone else in the civilized world, I suppose, I'd seen "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" in the 1970's. Beyond that, however, I knew very little about this phenomenon and tended to be skeptical - if not completely dismissive - of the occassional reports that I'd see in papers, on the news, etc. It is noteworthy, though, that on the day before this happened to me almost the entire front page of our local newspaper (The Flint Journal) was devoted to reports of UFOs sighted near Holland, Michigan (the past week) and sightings over crowded, residential areas within the City of Flint the previous evening. The headlines that day were, in fact, in reference to this spate of sightings. At the time I'd picked up a temporary job in a small factory about 50 miles south of Flint and was scheduled to be at work at 6:00 AM. Traveling south on I-75 (and then US-23), as my car crested the Bristol Rd. overpass, I saw two very bright, airborne "headlights" off in the distance; it was clearly an airborne object of some sort though the lights were quite low on the horizon. Since the airport was to my right (at the southwestern intersection of I-75 and Bristol Rd.) I simply assumed a very large plane was landing. For the next few miles my view of these lights was often obscured by buildings and foilage because they were, as I've said, quite low on the horizon. At one point the freeeway curves, and from about three-quarters of a mile away, I could see that whatever the object was it wasn't moving - and it was, indeed, very low to the ground. Approaching the object I had a very ominous feeling. It was sitting just to the right of the freeway and hovering slightly above a grove off full grown trees. The northern-facing "headlights", even from a distance of an eigth-of-a mile, had a brilliant, phosphorus look that was just plain weird. I would estimate that the lights were about forty feet apart. As I got closer to the object, which made no sound whatsoever, the lights seemed to be vibrating or to have some sort of internal motion - it's difficult to describe. Frankly, I was terrified. I slowed a bit as I passed almost directly underneath the object. Bending forward to look up at it I saw that it had a red light that was pulsating on it's bottom. This light illuminated the outline of a large, triangular craft whose underside had striations - or a ribbing of sorts - and which appeared (as much as I could determine) to be made of metal. It was very, very large and yet, as I've said, made no sound at all. I floored the car in terror and, then, about 100 yards down the freeway hit the brakes and looked back. I could see it's outline hanging there above the trees and it was as motionless as a cinder block sitting on an oak table. At work I talked to 3 other people who'd seen it and we were all dumbfounded - and scared to death. The next day, an air traffic controller at Flint's Bishop Airport gave me the number for MUFON (I'd never heard of it) and they came to my home a few days later to take a report. The air traffic controller, by the way, chuckled as he listened to my story but also stated that he'd "seen a lot of things" he couldn't explain either (no one, he said, had seen anything from the tower the previous morning - this is something which I absolutely DO NOT believe). He said, to paraphrase, that since Uncle Sam was signing his paychecks he wasn't going to elaborate on any of his own sightings. The Michigan director of MUFON came to my home, as I've said, a few days later and took a report. She also told me that she'd been contacted by two women who, while carpooling to work at 10 PM the night before my sighting, had seen what I'd described hovering over both lanes of the freeway at precisely the same location. She went on to say that the women had only seen the object after they'd suddenly realized that they were inexplicably traveling north on I-75 (instead of south) and had exited and turned around; they had no explanation, she said, for how they'd left Flint on southbound I-75 and ended up a bit dazed and headed north (having to turn around to head in the direction of work). Now - this all sounded like a lot of malarky to me. Even though I'd seen this thing my initial impression was that the lady from MUFON was some sort of kook. Then, on Tuesday of the next week, a lady with whom I'd become friends approached me at work, looking very upset, and asked me to call her after work. In a nutshell, she had overheard me relating a few details of my conversation with the lady from MUFON with people at the shop. She seemed like a sane, sober individual (strong Baptist, sang in the choir at church, etc.) but, on the phone that evening, told me of flashbacks she was having of a classic UFO abduction. She, too, was carpooling that morning with another young women and didn't see anything. Her van, however, started spinning out of control and she thought she'd hit "black ice", as she put it. The spinning, however, accelerated and she could remember - she said - "going up". These two ladies, also, found themselves driving north on I-75 (and don't really understand how this happened), experienced missing time, etc. The women I spoke to was hysterical, at the time, and - as I've indicated - seemed very normal otherwise. I have no reason to doubt her story (which included seeing her reflection in the large eyes of some big-eyed being). Obviously, the latter part of this is anecdotal but I believe that these two women had experienced what they described - a UFO abudction. I know exactly what I DID NOT see: I didn't see a helicopter, swamp gas, the planet Venus, nor state-of-the-art human technology. I've typed this extremely fast so I hope it makes sense. I hope you continue to get at the truth - someone need to.....

Posted 1999-05-24

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