NUFORC Sighting 12396

Occurred: 2000-03-19 23:35 Local
Reported: 2000-03-20 00:00 Pacific
Duration: 2 to 3 mins
No of observers: 1

Location: Pasadena (I-5, desert, north of; south of Gorman), CA, USA

Shape: Triangle
Characteristics: Lights on object

On a clear night, while driving north on Interstate 5 north of Pasadena, south of Gorman, and west of the Angeles National forest, I saw a triangle-shaped craft about the size of a Boeing 737 with brilliant white lights outlining its spear-shaped hull and a single blinking red light below the center. The craft was flying low in front of me, only a couple of hundred feet up, and passed out of sight behind some low hills to the west. Its flight path was a straight line with no sudden accelerations. There were two oddities: it was going very slowly for such a narrow, wingless hull, and it wobbled quite noticeably.

Traveling north on I-5 on clear, moonless night, with desert mountains on the right, low hills on left, and no trees anywhere, my attention was drawn to my right, where, over the crest of the mountains, I saw what appeared to be a plane with multiple white lights, such as are turned on when a large plane is about to land. The lights were numerous and extremely bright and the object was flying low over the mountain on a bearing from northeast to southwest, a diagonal to the oncoming north-south traffic. I looked at it for awhile, remarking to myself how bright it was ("never seen that many lights on a plane before," I thought), then I looked back to the road to keep my eye on oncoming traffic. The object crossed the road and I realized it was traveling quite slowly, about on a par with the automobiles (45 to 65 mph). As it passed from the right side of the road to the left at a distance of at most a half a mile, I could see that it was illuminated from stem to stern by brilliant white lights of varied shape. The lights were confined to the perimeter of the craft, which became apparent because the "plane" (I was still under the impression that it was an ordinary jetliner about to land at an unknown airfield over the hills to my left), was wobbling about its central axis. As it wobbled I could see that the lights clearly outlined an elongated triangle. The triangle was shaped like a spearhead, much longer on its sides than its base was wide, with quite a sharp point. There were no wings, and no stabilizer that I could make out, except perhaps a low fin-like ridge (also triangle shaped) toward the rear, but I wouldn't swear to it). It occurred to me at this point that I might be seeing one of the famous flying triangles from the Netherlands flap, or such as had been reported in Lancester (which it so happens was east of my location, though I did not know it at the time), or in upstate New York. I was incredulous at the triangular shape of the craft, so I did my best to confirm it by focusing my a! ttention between the lights on the shadowy contours. I recall remarking to myself several times that, yes, it WAS a triangle, because the ENTIRE perimeter of bright white lights was filled in by the dark shadow of the hull, occluding stars or terrain that passed behind the craft. More about the lights: All were bright white, similar to the new halogen lamps on automobile headlights. However, they were not of uniform shape. Some were roundish, others were blobby, or egg shaped. It was an impressive array in sheer number and in variety, but all were confined to the edges of the craft, except ONE. On the underbelly of the craft, about where you would find the center of gravity, there was a slowly blinking RED light. It was this red light that made me think it was definitely a terrestrial or military craft. As the craft neared the hills to my left, now at about an 8 o'clock position, taking I-5 North as my 12 o'clock pointer, I saw the tail section of the craft outlined. It was diamond-shaped, similar to the tail section of, for want of a better comparison, the Imperial Star Destroyer in the STAR WARS movies. In other words, it was like two long isosceles triangles joined at the base. The craft passed out of sight over the low hills to the left, much lower now than the mountains to the right where it had first appeared. As I drove up I-5 about a mile farther, I looked to the left to see the "airfield." Instead I saw that there were city lights there in the distance, though I'm not sure which city it was or how far away (see the map I will send in the mail for my best guess). As the craft passed out of sight I was struck by how much the craft wobbled, but I remarked to myself, "Well, that's what you'd expect from a plane with a wing-shape like that." But I was tired: it occurred to me later that this craft didn't have enough wing surface to keep it up AT ALL when flying at that slow speed, unless my sense of distance and time was badly off. I would expect that only a supersonic jet flying at several hundred miles per hour would be able to stay aloft with a wing pattern such as I saw. My final verdict is "undecided, need more information." Whatever I saw, it was quite unusual, and it kept me thinking for the rest of the night.

Posted 2000-04-01

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