MILITARY JETS CHASE BLUE LIGHTS IN THE WASHINGTON D.C. AREA
JULY 26, 2002 …………… ANDREWS AIRFORCE BASE AREA
Witness: Renny Rogers, Waldorf MD. Renny is a Government employee and lives with his wife and 2 collies in a townhouse development in Waldorf. He has always lived near Andrews AFB and is very familiar with aircraft that fly in and out. His current townhouse is under a flight path for Andrews, and he states that he has never seen the kind of activity before in his life that occurred in the early morning of July 26. His time and spatial estimates are unusually accurate. He has a good eye for spotting aircraft. Although he has a strong interest in the UFO field, this is his first sighting. After the sighting was over, he reported it to WTOP radio, in Washington, D.C., and the the FUND. He has extremely strong feelings about pursuing to a final answer the riddle of what he saw and what the military know about it.
1. Aircraft take off from Andrews AFB–Rogers heard planes take off from Andrews (estimates the time as 1:30-2 am but he is not sure of this), and he estimates that in 5-7-10 minutes* they were in his immediate area. After take off, there may have been a very short period with no aircraft noise, but aircraft sounds got louder and louder and sounded as though the jets were circling in his area and not leaving. The noise made him think there were multiple jets in the area. He felt there were more than 2.
2. The aircraft noise level brings Rogers outdoors–The noise was rattling the house and was so great that Rogers went outdoors, turning to his right and walking a few steps so he could get away from trees and see the sky. He saw a military fighter flying directly away from him going SSE about 35-45 degrees above the horizon. He was looking directly at the tail end of the aircraft, and its afterburner (orange-white plume of fire) was on and remained on for 2-3 seconds before reducing to a residual short plume for the remainder of the viewing time. No sonic boom was heard. The fighter was in level flight at an estimated altitude of 3000′ (broken clouds at 3500′ from weather report) and was in view for about 11 seconds. Rogers goes back indoors.
3. Sighting–For approximately 3-5 minutes it was quiet with no jet noise or distant jet noise. Then the noise level increased again to near the previous levels. Rogers goes back outside to see what was happening. He goes out the door to the right(south), and sees nothing this time, though he hears loud jet noise. The he goes to the left of his front door(north). At this point he sees a pale bluish light moving at a phenomenal rate of speed. His sense is that the light is moving in an effortless almost floating manner but at high speed, but not at meteoric speed. When first seen, the light was estimated to be 35 degrees above the horizon in the NE sky above the treeline. When first seen, its path dipped and came back up like a small dip in a roller coaster and it flew straight line to about 85 degrees from the horizon in the ESE sky, where it was obscured by a mature deciduous treeline about 30′ from Rogers. The estimated time from first sight to treeline interference was 3-4 seconds. Speed was constant, straightline, and there was no sound associated with the light. At this point, no aircraft was in view, and although jet noise could be heard, it was not in the immediate vicinity. Rogers ran to the south and picked up the light again at about 45 degrees from the horizon in the southwest sky and moving away from him. About 3 seconds after finding the light again, a military aircraft flew over his house, which was behind Rogers, coming from the north and straight-lining after the blue light. Light and aircraft are now on the same path going southwest. Rogers was moving out into the street to keep them in view as long as possible. The aircraft was in sight about 22 seconds before it could no longer be seen. The blue light was in sight for about 5-6 seconds before it could no longer be seen (the aircraft could be seen much longer because it was so much bigger than the light). Rogers did not know when the aircraft began its pursuit of the light, but when it appeared over his house, he is sure it was then in pursuit of the light but that it had no chance of catching it as the blue light was much faster than the pursuing jet. The aircraft used no afterburner and followed the blue light’s path until they both disappeared in the SW sky. Rogers estimates they were between 1000-2000′ apart . {This may be the most iffy estimate because of viewing angles-JW} As the aircraft pursued the light in level straightline flight, it was tipping its wings from side-to-side constantly, at least 4 times to each side. In the partly cloudy sky, the blue light was sometimes briefly obscured or partly obscured by clouds. Because the fighter was so much larger than the light, visual was not lost when broken clouds were between it and the witness.
Description of the light: A constant pale blue in color and starlike, about 2 or 3 times the size of the red wing tip lights of the jet pursuing it. He could see no hard edge to where the light, any more than a hard edge could be seen on a airliner beacon light or radio tower light. The entire light flickered from: light-to-faded-to-light on a cycle of about 1.5 seconds throughout the time it was visible. NOTE: The above image is a rendering.
