NUFORC Sighting 21773

Occurred: 2002-02-11 23:50 Local
Reported: 2002-02-12 02:35 Pacific
Duration: 15 MINUTES
No of observers: 2

Location: Milton, WV, USA

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

Inverted Cylinder flying the night sky near Milton WA

2/11/02 11:50 pm My girlfriend and I seen an object hanging in the sky over Fife or N.E. Puyallup. She called to me because she seen it first. She asked what is that? Upon looking I tried to reason that it might be a balloon or fire works. My brain raced with reasonable answers but none fit the M.O. I quickly ran and grabbed my camera. Four or five shots where taken but I am not sure if they will turn out, the F stop was off and I could not hold the camera still. On the last one I braced myself against a pole to hold steady. Maybe that one will turn out. The sky was black, except for the orange glow of this object bouncing and moving erratically around the sky. It would move slow and stead in one direction, then suddenly move quickly about the night sky. It seemed to have no apparent direction in mind. As it moved south we jumped into the truck to follow and see it. We parked on 10th Ave in Milton and watched it moving to the south and east. It seemed to me to be over the Puyallup area at this time. The orange glow coming from below the object was bright, but would at times glow brighter then fade some. It seemed to get pretty far away from our position, maybe eight to ten miles, then it started moving back toward and to the west of where we were. At or about it's closes point to us at this time the orange glow faltered then grew stronger. As it grew stronger it instantaneously released a shower of sparks, almost resembling a fire work being shot from the sky toward the ground. This happened twice very quickly. Both pulses of fire could be seen hailing down toward the earth at the same time. There also was a slight audible release when these showers erupted from the object. It sounded like a very soft pop, kind of like popping a finger out of the corner of one's mouth very quietly.

We decided to drive toward the Fife Valley for a better look and to be in a position that we could travel in the direction of the object's flight path. We turned the corner and parked when the object started to move about very rapidly. It made a quick move to the west, so fast that it was almost as if you blinked and it had moved a quarter mile already. Then we rushed to get to the valley where we could see the whole sky. It was less then two city blocks to the valley. I told her as she started to drive, "It's gone." She said, "No way." I then told her I had seen it disappear into the southern sky in an instant. We drove down the hill to the valley and seen nothing. We were back at the apartment at 12:11 am. The object looked like an inverted cylinder with an orange glow coming from the bottom of the it. I wonder if anyone else seen this!?!?



NUFORC Note:

Illustration provided by witness. PD


Posted 2002-02-22

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