NUFORC Sighting 35758

Occurred: 2003-10-13 17:00 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2004-03-21 22:05 Pacific
Duration: 15 - 20 minutes
No of observers: 0

Location: Kansas ?? (In-flight sighting), KS, USA

Shape: Unknown
Characteristics: Lights on object, Changed Color, Aircraft nearby

Huge Unknown Phenomenon (Distant Stobe Effects) Seen From Airplane Window on Cross-Country Flight

I must admit, I have been curious about UFO phenomenon since a very young age. I am 31 as of this writing. Indeed, I had always wanted to see something, but never had. I figured that I was just one of the "unlucky ones". Perhaps there wasn't anything to see anyway.

I was raised as a Roman Catholic but have never held tightly to those beliefs as I grew older, allthough I do not discount all the ideas embodied therein. I have never had a truly close relationship with my father, however, if there was one thing he has given me, it is a healthy respect, and dare I say, reverence for the truth.

I will also plainly admit that I have engaged on more than one occasion in the use of various mind altering substances. My primary purpose being that of self discovery. Having said that, I was not under the influence of any substance at the time of this sighting. Furthermore, I do not suffer from what might be called "flashbacks". Unfortunetly, I do not have a doctor's not to prove this.

Hopefuly this rambling prologue will make sense as I continue. I feel it will provide necessary insight into my mindset and my validity as a witness. I can only recount my experiences as truthfuly as I can.

And now my testimony: As mentioned above, I've always been fascinated by UFO's. And it were these thoughts that crossed my mind while I was flying back to Washington D.C. from Denver, Colorado. I figured "What better vantage point than above the clouds to see something." It was to my great pleasure that I ended up with a window seat for my return leg.

I was transfixed by the view out the window for almost the entire flight. About half an hour into the flight, I figured I'd try a little experiment. You could call it "sending up a mental flare". If there was really anything out I figure I'd try to communicate, to use the term very loosely, with it. Basically, all this consisted of was me projecting my thoughts into the vast open sky in front of me. "Show me you're out there. Do something!" As I recall we were travelling between 35 and 40 thousand feet (as noted on that tiny tv on the back of the seat in front of me). I seem to remember we were travelling at slightly over 500 mph. Apparently we had a good tail wind.

In retrospect, I should have been more "scientific" in noting the exact altitude, time, and location, but in all actuality, I wasn't expecting to see anything.

It was just starting to get dark, kind of grey-pale blue outside but still plenty of light. My flight left at ~ 3:30 PM Denver time, and the incident occurred about 45 minutes into the flight.

From my view out the window, I could tell we were well above the main cloud deck. Looking straight down, you could not really see the ground except only ocassionaly. We weren't above storm clouds per se, they were the more whispy stratus type. The horizon line, however, was marked by a line of cumulonimbus (?) exteneding from left to right across the horizon with the some large gaps between the tops of them. They got fatter towards their base were they merged with the cloud deck.

I could see some cloud to cloud lightning off to the left of my field of view. You couldn't see the source, you would just see the cloud light up from the inside. This activity wasn't very intense, was rather sporatic, and produced a diffuse lighting effect on the cloud.

It was approximately 10 - 15 minutes after my "message" that I noticed that a very bright red-blue strobe began flashing out on the horizon. It was really at the far edge of my visability. Not that it was hard to see, more that it was the furthest thing I could see. It appeared to be on the horizon.

For a while, I thought it must be the strobe light from another airplane. Its pulsating was more or less regular, but the object remained motionless on the horizon for quite some time. It would flash deep red at first, quickly followed by secondary and tertiary strobes with a more blue or darker colored tint. The secondary flashes occurred (from what I could tell) in the same place as the primary strobe. Its size was approximately 2-3 times Venus (?).

Needless to say, I was quite intrigued by this development. The strobe seemed really bright for being so far away. (orders of magnitiude brighter than the cloud lightning; clear and defined). I finally decided it couldn't be written off as lightning because it was in the open and not behind any cloud, besides the fact that it was more a point of light than anything else.

I watched this remain more or less motionless for some time, maybe 5 to 10 minutes. I can't say it was completely motionless as I would look back inside the cabin ocassionaly to gauge the reaction of the other passangers. No one seemed to notice.

After a while I started to think "Is this it? Is this all I'm gonna get?" So I issued another communication: "Your going to have to do better than that!" I looked inside the cabin, back out, back in, out again. The strobe was still there. I was flabbergasted. Every time I looked, it was still there.

Eventaully, the strobe moved slightly to the right of my field of vision, almost going behind a large cloud. I figured "Ah-ha, it must be another plane." But it never went BEHIND the cloud. Or in front of it for that matter. It never came closer or moved further away. It just kind of stood there on the edge of the cloud, flashing every 10 - 15 seconds.

At this point I had been watching it on and off for what felt like quite a while. Everyone else as far as I could tell was still going on about their business. The young woman next to me was talking about meaningless career climbing nonsense with an older gentleman in the aisle seat. This is when I notice a pronounced change in the object.

The object was still on the edge of this large cloud. However, each initial burst was now followed by much more chaotic secondary and tertiary strobes of light that covered what appeared to be a HUGE area.

The first stobe would flash at the bottom of the object and was followed by a series of strobes that climbed higher and wider up along the edge of the cloud. Plese note that at this point there was still a gap between the object and the cloud.

It continued to flash at more or less regular intervals and seemed to outline a HUGE shape. Almost triangular, like an inverted pyramid. I couldn't tell. It was getting darker at this point, but still not what I would consider night. The space between the strobes was rather dark and I wasn't able to make out any discernable "edge" to the object.

I sat there in awe. The size of this thing seemed immense. I would estimate that it was approximately one-third (1/3) the height of the visable part of the cloud; the part that extended above the main cloud deck.

I watched this go on for 5 - 10 minutes. Red-blue initial flashes at its base followed by a succession of chaotic flashes that seemed to cascade upwards to the "top" of the object.

This large object remained stationary (from my perspective) at the edge of the cloud for some time. The flashes were so intense at this point that you could see it light up the edge of the cloud it was next to. Later, you could actually see the cloud being backlit by these flashes. The object did not initially appear to be behind the cloud, or at least I would say that most of the object was not behind the cloud. Since my plane was moving and hence my sightline was continually changing, my view of the object must have changed, possibly explaing why initialy the large object appeared be in the open. Only toward the end of the sighting did I see the dramatic backlighting effects. The initial effects only lit up the edge of the cloud.

The second larger object never approached us either, nor did it ever seem to move further away. It did not make any real "maneuvers" at all. Throughout the sighting, from the initial single light to the last time I saw it, the object seemed to remain between two large clouds. It did not appear to climb or descend in altitude.

Also, please note, that the times I have given as to the duration of the sighting are approximate. Needless to say, it seemed to go on for a VERY long time. In fact, I watched it for so long that I eventually thought to myself, "Allright, enough alredy. I'm getting tired of this. You've proved your point." I wanted to get a nap in. Unfortunelty, I never really did drift off.

I returned my gaze to the interior of the cabin. The next time I looked out the window the object was gone.

I never mentioned it to the other passengers or crew. As you can see from the above account, this was a very "personal" experience. I felt at the time, perhaps somewhat selfishly, that this was FOR ME. If no one else saw it, that was THEIR fault. I mean, it was pretty hard to miss. There was NOTHING else like it in the sky at the time. In fact, I find it hard to believe that the pilots themselves could have missed it, allthough I assume it might have been somewhat behind their line of sight.

I would also like to note, that shortly before this sighting began, we passed another plane heading west and flying slightly lower than us. I was kind of surprised to see another plan so close to us ... probably less than 1/2 a mile away and probably 1000 - 2000 ft lower in altitude. (I have tried to refrain from using guestimates as to the size and distance of things up to this point because I really have no clue as to the scale of things from that perspective.) For what its worth, I noted the size and brightness of the passing plane's strobes, and the initial single object I saw (as well as the larger object seen later in the sighting) was MUCH brighter and appeared SIGNIFICANTLY larger than this plane's strobe, not to mention it was MUCH further away. Additionaly, the palne's strobes were mostly white, while the object on the horizon was mostly deep reds and blues.

In conclusion, I really don't know WHAT it is I saw. I merely know I saw something.

Perhaps I saw exactly what I wanted to. Maybe I saw exactly what I NEEDED to. Whatever the answer, I'm buying a digital camera and keeping it handy on my next plane trip. ;^) Sorry this is so long.



NUFORC Note:

Date is approximate. PD


Posted 2004-03-23

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