NUFORC Sighting 53758

Occurred: 1974-01-30 23:00 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2006-12-02 06:33 Pacific
Duration: 10 seconds
No of observers: 2

Location: San Diego, CA, USA

Shape: Unknown

Something very large and silent passed overhead - heard but not seen.

January or February 1974. I did not see a craft, but certainly heard something.

I was attending school at the Naval Training Center (NTC) in San Diego. I had seen a movie (The Neptune Factor) and was walking back to the barracks.

Passing through a parking lot, I heard a tremendous sound - imagine something the size of a 747 passing 100 feet overhead with its engines shut down. It was not the wind...

I have spent quite a bit of time outdoors and know it was not something like that. Being a glider pilot, I know the sound that aircraft make when they fly without power - and it was almost like that, but 100x louder than any sailplane.

When this happened, I stopped and looked up. Unfortunately, there were bright lights in the parking lot and I could not see if the stars were obscured.

NTC is directly in the flight path of Lindberg Field. But if this was an airliner gliding to a landing at the airport, it never would've made it.

I thought perhaps I was hearing things, until I looked across the parking lot and saw another sailor, standing still and looking straight up. I walked over to him, and he asked me, "What the hell was THAT?" I asked him what happened, and he described back to me exactly what I experienced.

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NUFORC Note:

We are grateful to the source of this report for his having submitted such a excellent rendition of what he experienced aurally.

We wonder whether he might have been aural witness to the vortices, which are generated in the atmosphere at the wing tips of aircraft. They descend to the surface, seconds or minutes after an airliner has passed, and they are very audible, as they twist at high speed. Given that the witness was close to Lindberg Field makesus wonder about this this possibility. The phenomenon is very common, close to airports where heavy aircraft are landing.

Posted 2006-12-07