PILOT WITNESSES STRANGE OBJECTS OVER ALLIANCE OHIO
4-21-13 ALLIANCE OHIO
“I closed the truck door and pivoted to my left (now facing north) to go back in my house, when I noticed on the horizon three objects approximately 30 degrees above the horizon at an altitude of 3500 MSL (2500 AGL in this area),” the witness stated. “The objects were flying in formation with the lead craft in the middle and the other two craft approximately 1 nautical mile back and 1 nautical mile to either side of the lead craft.” The witness became startled at what he was seeing. “I am a retired pilot and the reason I was startled is that I initially stared at the lead object only due to the fact that it resembled an aircraft, especially a turbo-prop, with an engine fire. My eyes were obviously drawn to the other two craft as well and I did not know what to make of what I was seeing. The craft were heading due west (270 degrees) making no sound.” The witness described the objects.
“They resembled an orange-yellow fireball with no discernible sharp edges. The fiery glowing light they emitted was no aircraft lighting as this light came from the entire craft. It was not light being projected onto say the fuselage or vertical stabilizer as pilots turn on below 10,000 feet when landing to light the logo or name on an airplane. These were independent craft and not one solid object as I noticed stars and upper level cirrus clouds that were covering approximately 15 percent of the sky at the time of the sighting between the objects.” The witness went inside briefly to retrieve a pair of binoculars for a better look at the objects. “I do need to add that these objects were very contrasted against the night sky. There was no missing these things in the sky. I got my binoculars and when I got back outside, there was a fourth object trailing the three, completing a tetrahedron formation as the fourth craft was trailing the lead craft by approximately 5 nautical miles.” The witness then attempted to determine the speed of the objects.
“The craft were traveling at a speed I calculated based on their distance away, which being 30 degrees on the horizon at 3,500 altitude, to be roughly 125 KTS. I must also state that these craft seemingly just appeared, as I had been facing east when going out to my truck.”
The witness is a longtime sky watcher and has never seen anything like this before. “We have telescopes and are satellite and ISS followers, so I am always staring up at the sky, especially at night. The moon this evening is at three-quarter and is 75 degrees on the horizon to the south-southeast. The objects made no deviations in course/heading or altitude changes. There were no changes in speed. As I stated, I was so alarmed by thinking that this was an aircraft with an engine fire, but I had to take into account that there were three more of these things. They were traveling too fast to be lighter-than-air category man made craft. They emitted the yellow-orange light verses projecting light in a beam from say a landing light or courtesy lights.”
The witness explained his background. “I am 50 years old. I grew up flying with my father and then at the age of 17 obtained my ratings and went on to have a career in aviation with tens of thousands of hours of flight time and this is the first time in my life that I have ever looked upward and have seen something I cannot explain. I have seen every type of aircraft fly, both military and civilian, so I had to write.” The witness says he was shook up by the incident. “I’m really kind of shook up by this. I just was asked by someone the other day if I had ever seen anything whenever I was flying, you know, UFOs they asked. Honestly and emphatically, no. I’ve answered anyone that has ever asked me that question and I have been asked a lot. I can no longer answer no.” NOTE: The above image is a rendering.
