NUFORC Sighting 36265

Occurred: 1996-09-13 20:30 Local
Reported: 2004-04-12 01:54 Pacific
Duration: 3-4 minutes
No of observers: 1

Location: Austin, TX, USA

Shape: Triangle
Characteristics: Lights on object

Triangle shaped, low-flying, slow, silent Stealth fighter sized object with a red, revolving light on bottom.

I am a high school graduate(1976) and one of my favorite classes in high school was Astro-science. My high school had a planetarium built into it and it was always an interesting experience to look forward to everyday. I had an interest in space and always watched televised NASA events. In december of 1995, I finally broke down and bought a 4.5 reflector telescope from a department store. I suddenly became an avid sky-watcher. I bought software to show me where the planets were and started a sketckbook to draw the planets as I was seeing them through my telescope at certain times. I would write the times and dates below the sketches. I was lucky enough to see comets Hyakutake and Hale-Bopp and a couple of lunar eclipses which I added to my sketchbook. I could point out Jupiter and Saturn and sometimes Mars with my naked eye as well as star clusters such as the Pleiades and nebulas like the one in Orion to friends and co-workers.

As I became more aware of just how immense our universe is, my interest in U.F.O.s came to the forefront. I read many books of sightings and have amassed a library of video tapes and books on the phenomena. I was wishing to see one for myself. On Sept.13,1996 I got my chance.

At that time in my life, I was delivering pizza for a living and my sighting happened while on a run. I added it to my sketchbook 2 days after I saw it. It is from these notes and my recollection that I now relay the information to you.

It happened in the southern-most part of Austin near the intersection of Slaughter and Manchaca. I was driving east on Slaughter lane and crossed Manchaca road and made a right turn onto Bilbrook. Now facing south, I looked in the sky for Jupiter, but the sky just was not quite dark enough to see it yet. I made another quick right turn onto Slaughter Creek drive, a long dead-end road which is where the delivery was going to. Now I was facing west and I saw a bright headlight up in the air and not all that high. I assumed it was a Cessna airplane which I had seen flying in the area before as there is a farmer on Slaughter lane that has his own dirt airstrip and I had seen him flying many times. The light was coming toward me, flying east as I was headed west. As the space between us narrowed, I became aware that it was not the Cessna that I thought it was and I could not identify what kind of plane it was. It was then that I saw that it was a triangle. Curious, I pulled to the side of the road and looked up through my windshield at the thing. "What is that?" I said out loud. It was flying slowly and low. I could not take my eyes off it. "How can that be flying?" I said outloud again. With my car still running, I stepped out of my car and just watched this thing glide overhead. It was after sunset but the sky was not quite dark yet. I became aware that this was my U.F.O. I did not know what it was, how it could be flying,it was to me an unidentified flying object.

It was a dark (possibly black) triangle, the trailing edge being a little shorter than the other two with the bright headlight being at the front point. There was a revolving red light on the bottom encased in a glass dome and I remember thinking of a fire engine light. There were two or three other smaller white lights on the bottom shining straight down but they were not that bright. It was heading to the east,parallel with Slaughter Ln. at about 45-50 m.p.h.and there was no noise coming from it that I could hear. It was approximatly 100 yds. to my south and approximatly 300 yds. up. As it flew past, and as I was now looking at the rear of it, I could see a pair of small stabilizer wings on the top of the rear section just like a F-117 Stealth Fighter has. I looked at my watch, and even though I did not make a note of the exact time, I now know it was very near 8:30 p.m. I stood there and watched it slowly glide away over the nearby roofs of a neighborhood until I could no longer see it. I got back in my car and made the delivery and contemplated what I had seen. I was familiar with most planes but I never heard of one that flied so slowly without sound. I thought it might be a Stealth Fighter because it was about the same size, but the shape was not right. An F-117 is triangular, but not a triangle. From my vantage point, it appeared to be a flat triangle gliding through the air. There were no navigation lights (red on the left, green on the right) although, I could not see the entire right side. I wanted to tell my friends when I got back to the store but I did not. I always thought if I ever saw a flying saucer, I would tell everyone that they are real. Now I understood why people hesitate or just keep it to themselves.

I hope I have given you enough information to help out in some way. I never reported it and was kind of scared to tell anyone for a while. When I finally showed my sketch of the object and the notes I wrote to one of my friends, he kind of looked at me strange. I know he did not think I was lying, and it seems to me that he thinks I was mistaken about what I saw. But it was completly unknown to me.

The only reason that I do not think it was "alien" , is because of the revolving red light on the bottom and the stabilizer wings on the rear. But still, I was pretty exited and I am glad that now I can tell you about it. Thank you.

Posted 2004-04-27