Who knows?


Message posted by Rocketfox on April 05, 2003 at 8:39:39 PST:

Cross-posted from somwhere's else... Enjoy..

R*


Strange Sightings Within The Washington, D.C. Beltway, March 8, 2003

I would have reported this earlier, but when, on the night of
the observations reported below, I phoned Don Berliner of the
Fund For UFO Research, he told me that I should not report it on
UFO UpDates, when I mentioned the possibility. I didn't ask Don
why he said that, but since it has been so long and I've seen no
reports of this, I can't imagine how this late-reporting could
create a serious 'reporting noise' problem (if that's what Don
was concerned about), so here goes. My apology for reporting
late.....

At 8:15 (20:15 hours) on Saturday evening, March 8, my wife and
I were preparing to leave our home near Greenbelt, Maryland,
when a strange wing-like (No aircraft body visible and we had
ground light off overcast clouds that should have clearly
revealed any body.) Thing - herein-after 'AAO', meaning
anomalous aerial object - was seen to emerge into view
travelling on a twenty-degrees-east of a true north course
passing almost overhead, from having been eclipsed by our front
porch roof. The 'Wing' spanned a _full_ two degrees (120 ARC
minutes) as contrasted with the half-degree (about 30 arc
minute) crescent moon, off to my left during the observation for
immediate and good comparison of angular size.

The 'AAO' was perceived by binocular disparity (visual parallax
due to eye separation) as being 600 to a maximum of 1,200 feet
overhead, and at the time its actual maximum possible distance
was constrained by a thin layer of clouds overhead. Officially,
that cloud layer had been broken at 24,000 feet at 19:51, was
OVERCAST at 23,000 feet at 20:51, scattered by 21:51 same
altitude, and clear by 22:51. (Thanks to Joan Woodward of FUFOR
for the cloud data.)

Most disturbing was the _total_ silence of the nearby object.

A bright, continuously white 'sphere'-looking thing was visible
on the tip of each 'wing' (Color illustration available to
anyone who requests it.). Each white 'sphere' had a very sharp
edge quite different from the lights on ordinary aircraft, and
of a much purer white color. A much smaller (than the white
'spheres') pure red light looked possibly more 'point-source'
and was located in the 'middle' (vertex of the 'wing'). It was
brightening and dimming, but at times it seemed more of a
flicker, and at other times more of a pulse, if memory serves
me.

The 'wing', per se, was quite strange. Although it was visible
by the cloud back-lighting, it was rather vague because subtle
light around it seemed to vibrate or flicker at maybe ten hertz!
- all along and across the 'wing'.

There was _no_ sign of any aircraft type body! Since the sight
was quite 'spooky', maybe one could call them 'disembodied
wings'. :)

We live a few blocks north of the little College Park Airport
which is presently closed down to non-government air traffic due
to security concerns, but this 'AAO' seemed so very low that my
'gut' reaction was that it had taken off from there, despite the
fact that the thing seemed to be on a very flat course (neither
climbing nor descending). Subsequent inquiry to the airport
revealed that there had been no take-off around the 20:15 time
of the first observation, and the airport had closed at 22:30,
fifteen minutes before the second identical observation to be
described below.

Roughly fifty (50) minutes after the first observation, an
airliner type aircraft came over, possibly having taken off from
Andrews AFB just east of D.C. It was on a slightly more westward
bearing and considerably higher up. We could see the aircraft's
body, wings, and tail structure very clearly and hear it very
distinctly. By contrast, the 'AAO' had NO BODY VISIBLE, but only
that weird wing-like structure that remained vague, SEEMING TO
SHIMMER or something - It's really hard to describe. That's why
I have illustrated it in the way that I did in the image anyone
may ask me to send.

Yet, the most striking thing of all was the absolute silence!
There was a bizarre silence, 'stillness',and 'smoothness' that
is hard to explain or even put into adequately descriptive
words.

After the object had disappeared beyond our north-northeastern
horizon (taking roughly 30 seconds time to go from near zenith
across the northern horizon), I ran up to the third floor where
my Extreme Low-Frequency (ELF) magnetometer is located and noted
a low-level, continuous magnetic pulse in roughly the 2-hertz
range, accompanied by a few very strong 'spike' type pulses, one
of which may have 'pegged' the needle. These were not normal
background magnetics.

Coming upon 22:45 hours (10:46 PM), I was again upstairs with
the magnetometer checking for any anomalous activity, when
similar magnetic phenomena began to again be seen by the action
of the needle display and heard on the analog, frequency
modulated audio output (just as before). Watching and listening
to that, I SUDDENLY heard a roar (seemingly directly overhead)
that vaguely resembled a loud jet but was distinctly different,
somehow. Then after a maybe 4 to 5 second duration, that roar
SUDDENLY subsided - taking about 0.5 second to go from loud to
nothing.

Because of the odd magnetic activity and the surprising sound,
at cessation of the sound I rushed downstairs and onto the front
porch, from which I was surprised to see an exactly identical
'AAO' (as compared to the 20:15 observation) on _exactly_ the
_same_ course!

As with the earlier 'AAO', I watched the object from almost
directly overhead as it moved in spookily total silence to
across the exact spot on the north-northeastern horizon into
which the first object had headed and disappeared.

During the first observation, the sky above the thing was
overcast, but in the second sighting it was totally clear, with
all stars and planets visible. Still, I could see no 'body' on
the object, but only the 'wing'. This time, too, the 'wing'
seemed to shimmer in a light-distorting way that made it much
less clear than had the very clear wings, body, and tail section
of the jet aircraft when it was watched at about 22:05 for
comparison to the 20:15 'AAO'.

In both observations of the identical 'AAO', when overhead the
angular distance from white globe of light to white globe of
light ('wingtip'-to-'wingtip') was about 120 minutes or arc (2
degrees), and I had a ready comparison because the crescent moon
(about 28 to 30 arc minutes) was still in the north-west
(although nearer its horizon) during that second and identical
observation.

As most of you probably know from experience, clouds above an
aircraft seem to amplify aircraft sounds to a ground observer,
but although it was overcast during the 20:15 observation, even
then not a sound of any kind could be heard! I found that really
a bit spooky because both things (or two events with the same
single thing) were clearly under power, moving steadily and
unwaveringly along precisely the same course in both
observations. It was as if both had traveled upon the very same
invisible track in the sky!

Let me be clear in saying that I suspect this twice-seen object
of being some type of stealthy black-project aircraft (manned or
unmanned) that is somehow propelled silently, but wonder at the
wisdom of operating such a vehicle over this highly populated
area within the Washington, D.C. Beltway. Oddly, _everything_
seemed so still and quiet during the two passages of the
object(s) that I am reminded of reports of a similar phenomenon
("the OZ factor") reported by certain observers of 'UFOs' at
close range, but would be cautious in saying it was the
UFO-related "OZ" phenomenon because I must consider the
possibility that I had 'perceptually isolated' myself in
listening for a non-existent sound from each 'AAO' to the
exclusion of not noticing other ambient sounds.

Angular velocity of both 'AAO?'s is roughly averaged at three
degrees per second, if the observation time in each case was 30
seconds. If 45 seconds, then it might have been two degrees per
second.



In Reply to: Well, if not, then what? posted by Chris McDowell on April 05, 2003 at 1:04:09 PST:

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