NUFORC Sighting 58370

Occurred: 2007-07-28 02:30 Local
Reported: 2007-08-25 00:44 Pacific
Duration: 30 seconds
No of observers: 1

Location: Sacramento (180 mi. S of; on Interstate 5), CA, USA

Shape: Unknown

A silent anomalous array of 3 white lights some 15-20 feet across flew south along US 5 at no more than 50 feet elevation

The second sighting was full of apparent ambiguity. An hour after the first sighting I was on Highway 5 driving north at 70 miles per hour through the San Joaquin Valley. This enormous expanse of agribusiness territory has few settlements along the freeway. It is a desolate area with dry unpopulated low lying hills la short distance to the west To the east as far as the eye can see stretches desert transformed by irrigation into large industrialized farms.

Moving perpendicular to the highway I saw a faint red light crossing from right to left over the Interstate. It was perhaps half a mile away and from its speed and elevation, about fifty feet above the road, I immediately assumed that the red light was the tail light of a car on a freeway overpass. This impression was reinforced when after crossing the freeway the red light became a faint white one, as if I were now viewing a vehicle that had turned left from the overpass and was heading down towards me on an onramp in order to merge with the southbound traffic.

I immediately noticed that there was something wrong with this "car." Instead of the usual headlight configuration of two, there were three discrete white lights. They initially appeared quite faint in the distance. They were moving down towards me on what I assumed was an onramp. Traveling at about 100 feet per second I was rapidly closing with the lights that were arrayed equidistant from one another in a straight line parallel to the ground. The distance between them was fixed. I quickly realized that they were attached to something much larger than an ordinary car or truck. The light array covered a distance of at least 15 to 20 feet. My mind raced for possible explanations. Perhaps the three white lights were attached to some kind of large construction or agricultural vehicle that was lumbering down the onramp to get on the freeway. Or maybe it was on a side road adjacent to the Interstate. Why such an oversized vehicle would be cruising about at nearly 3 AM when driver fatigue and poor visibility would make such driving particularly dangerous was beyond me.

As I moved steadily closer, the light array suddenly became much brighter. They did not look like headlights at all, but rather like landing lights of a small plane. As if to confirm this notion, the three lights titled sideways, lifted off the road and then headed up into the sky at a sharp angle. This was crazy! What would a small aircraft be doing flying so close to the ground along a busy Interstate in the middle of the night? It didn’t make any sense at all.

As the object that I assumed was attached to the array headed into the sky, I suddenly could no longer see the three white lights. Instead where they had been last seen was now just a solitary motionless red light. It seemed to be hovering some 50 feet off the ground and was just sort of stuck there in the sky a few dozen yards to the west of the highway. I was able to see this strange unblinking red light for only a few seconds as I speed by headed north.

The thought occurred to me that perhaps I had just seen a crop duster. On rare occasion during the day crop dusters can be seen flying along US 5. They are quite noisy and I believe they move a speed of no less than 80 miles per hour. The object that I had just seen was totally silent. In addition I estimate its speed to have been no more than 30 miles per hour. Its slow approach was one of the reasons why I had assumed it was on some kind of highway onramp. The unknown objects sharp upward turn with its nose pointing practically straight up is not consistent with the flight characteristics of a small plane.

The entire sighting lasted no more twenty or thirty seconds. As I drove off I carefully noted that there was no overpass above the highway. There was no ramp on which the triad of lights might have possibly descended. Whatever I had seen crossing over the freeway at the beginning of the sighting must have been airborne.

Posted 2007-10-08