1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,000 Hello there, how are you? 2 00:00:03,000 --> 00:00:04,000 Just fine, thank you. 3 00:00:04,000 --> 00:00:05,000 I am an Air Force pilot. 4 00:00:05,000 --> 00:00:06,000 Yes sir. 5 00:00:06,000 --> 00:00:09,000 I saw something last night that I cannot explain. 6 00:00:09,000 --> 00:00:12,000 I was talking to Oakland Center and they gave me your number. 7 00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:13,000 So here I am talking to you. 8 00:00:13,000 --> 00:00:15,000 Oh, okay, would like to hear about it. 9 00:00:15,000 --> 00:00:16,000 Okay, what do you need to know? 10 00:00:16,000 --> 00:00:18,000 Well description of what you saw. 11 00:00:18,000 --> 00:00:20,000 Okay, I was in a C141. 12 00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:21,000 Huh? 13 00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:27,000 At 37,000 feet we were coming from Travis Air Force Base down to Norton. 14 00:00:27,000 --> 00:00:36,000 And we were going to Linden, let's see, it was between the Linden VR and the Fresno VR. 15 00:00:36,000 --> 00:00:37,000 Okay. 16 00:00:37,000 --> 00:00:42,000 And at first it appeared as traffic to my 9 o'clock. 17 00:00:42,000 --> 00:00:50,000 It looked like, it didn't look like standard position lights for an aircraft. 18 00:00:50,000 --> 00:00:53,000 It looked like two yellow lights of some kind. 19 00:00:53,000 --> 00:00:57,000 So I called up center and they looked close. 20 00:00:57,000 --> 00:01:00,000 So I called them up and asked them if I had traffic out there. 21 00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:08,000 They said I had a PSA jet going south and a Navy A4 going east. 22 00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:15,000 Well, PSA usually goes faster than us and we weren't losing any ground to it. 23 00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:21,000 And the A4 would have been going away from us and it would have gotten smaller or dim or whatever. 24 00:01:21,000 --> 00:01:22,000 Yes. 25 00:01:22,000 --> 00:01:27,000 The intensity didn't change and the objects seemed to remain stationary to our position. 26 00:01:27,000 --> 00:01:33,000 Sometimes it looked like two yellow lights and then sometimes it kind of came together as warmth. 27 00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:38,000 And the intensity changed but not with regularity. 28 00:01:38,000 --> 00:01:42,000 Sometimes it would be dimmer than others, sometimes, you know, bright. 29 00:01:42,000 --> 00:01:43,000 Right. 30 00:01:43,000 --> 00:01:50,000 We hit Fresno and then made a right turn coming down towards Bakersfield. 31 00:01:50,000 --> 00:01:54,000 And as soon as we made that turn, it disappeared. 32 00:01:54,000 --> 00:02:01,000 Now, it seemed to me once that it came straight up further into the sky and then back down. 33 00:02:01,000 --> 00:02:03,000 Now, I was the only one that saw that. 34 00:02:03,000 --> 00:02:16,000 The rest of the crew saw the lights and opinion was divided between whether or not it was something on the ground or something low to the horizon. 35 00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:25,000 Now, the way I feel about it, it was to be that close to the horizon, you would have had to be far in the distance on the ground. 36 00:02:25,000 --> 00:02:29,000 And then I can't see how it would have been that bright. 37 00:02:29,000 --> 00:02:33,000 I asked the center if there were any kind of fires out there or something like that. 38 00:02:33,000 --> 00:02:35,000 He said not to his knowledge. 39 00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:36,000 Okay. 40 00:02:36,000 --> 00:02:38,000 Without, what time did you spot that? 41 00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:41,000 It was between 7.15 and 7.30 Pacific time last night. 42 00:02:41,000 --> 00:02:42,000 Okay. 43 00:02:43,000 --> 00:02:45,000 Any estimate of distance from you? 44 00:02:45,000 --> 00:02:49,000 Boy, you know, that's, my first estimate was say 20 miles. 45 00:02:49,000 --> 00:02:59,000 But not knowing, you know, that was just going on in intensity with what I know that I'm, you know, judging with position lights and things like that. 46 00:02:59,000 --> 00:03:06,000 But, you know, if it was really bright then it could have been gotten us off our way. 47 00:03:06,000 --> 00:03:09,000 And I'm allowed to judge a distance anyway. 48 00:03:09,000 --> 00:03:16,000 But, you know, not knowing size or, you know, how bright this thing was close up, it's hard for me to say. 49 00:03:16,000 --> 00:03:24,000 But it didn't seem like it could be anything on the ground because, you know, I don't know what line of sight is from 37,000. 50 00:03:24,000 --> 00:03:30,000 But it was, it looked way too bright to be that far out and on the ground. 51 00:03:30,000 --> 00:03:38,000 It looked like something that was, you know, close to the horizon from our perspective but not exactly on the ground. 52 00:03:38,000 --> 00:03:43,000 Now as we approached Fresno it very slowly started to fall behind us. 53 00:03:43,000 --> 00:03:47,000 But then as soon as we made that turn it was gone altogether. 54 00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:50,000 Did you actually see it disappear or did you just lose sight of it? 55 00:03:50,000 --> 00:03:53,000 Well, I, you know, I was flying the airplane. 56 00:03:53,000 --> 00:03:55,000 I made, I was watching it. 57 00:03:55,000 --> 00:03:56,000 We made the turn. 58 00:03:56,000 --> 00:03:57,000 I looked back and it was gone. 59 00:03:57,000 --> 00:03:58,000 Gone, okay. 60 00:03:58,000 --> 00:04:03,000 And that was a space just a several, you know, several seconds. 61 00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:06,000 Okay, any problems with radio communication? 62 00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:07,000 No. 63 00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:08,000 Instrumentation? 64 00:04:08,000 --> 00:04:13,000 Not caused by that because we've had problems. 65 00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:16,000 We've had problems all the way back so nothing related to that. 66 00:04:16,000 --> 00:04:18,000 Okay. 67 00:04:18,000 --> 00:04:20,000 But how long do you feel you watched it? 68 00:04:20,000 --> 00:04:23,000 About, uh, 69 00:04:23,000 --> 00:04:25,000 hmm, 70 00:04:25,000 --> 00:04:27,000 between 20 and 25 minutes. 71 00:04:27,000 --> 00:04:32,000 Have you received any other thing like this from last night? 72 00:04:32,000 --> 00:04:39,000 No, the only thing we got out of California last night was a object seen on the ground in the neighborhood of Walnut Creek, 73 00:04:39,000 --> 00:04:44,000 which would be just a little east northeast of the San Francisco Bay area. 74 00:04:44,000 --> 00:04:46,000 What was that described as? 75 00:04:46,000 --> 00:04:49,000 A disc about 50 feet in diameter. 76 00:04:49,000 --> 00:04:53,000 Well, we're not, you know, Walnut Creek is right around where Travis is. 77 00:04:53,000 --> 00:04:54,000 Right. 78 00:04:54,000 --> 00:04:57,000 And, uh, so, geez, I don't know. 79 00:04:57,000 --> 00:04:59,000 Did they talk about any kind of lights on it or anything? 80 00:04:59,000 --> 00:05:00,000 No, they didn't. 81 00:05:00,000 --> 00:05:02,000 They didn't spend too much time in the area. 82 00:05:02,000 --> 00:05:04,000 They kind of scared him and they took off. 83 00:05:04,000 --> 00:05:05,000 I don't believe it. 84 00:05:05,000 --> 00:05:09,000 I'll tell you, if you're sitting there and having center, tell you there's no traffic out there, 85 00:05:09,000 --> 00:05:12,000 there's something that makes you want to go home and talk to your mother. 86 00:05:12,000 --> 00:05:20,000 But, uh, like I said, it was sometimes it looked like two lights or two objects and then they would burn. 87 00:05:20,000 --> 00:05:28,000 And, uh, they remained stationary and then at the end very gradually it appeared as though it had fallen behind us a bit. 88 00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:38,000 Now, when that appeared to merge, did the objects move together or did the light just expand and then come together? 89 00:05:38,000 --> 00:05:39,000 Oh boy. 90 00:05:39,000 --> 00:05:40,000 Let's see. 91 00:05:40,000 --> 00:05:48,000 Well, the lights, see, that's all about the only objects that I saw were the lights. 92 00:05:48,000 --> 00:05:49,000 Right. 93 00:05:49,000 --> 00:06:01,000 The lights came together, but when they came together, the intensity or the sizes of those objects became larger. 94 00:06:01,000 --> 00:06:05,000 So it was like, you know what I mean? 95 00:06:05,000 --> 00:06:06,000 Right. 96 00:06:06,000 --> 00:06:07,000 Okay. 97 00:06:07,000 --> 00:06:09,000 I think that's the best way I can describe it without confusing. 98 00:06:09,000 --> 00:06:10,000 Okay. 99 00:06:10,000 --> 00:06:11,000 Very good. 100 00:06:11,000 --> 00:06:12,000 Could we get your name, sir? 101 00:06:12,000 --> 00:06:13,000 Sure. 102 00:06:13,000 --> 00:06:18,000 How many were aboard or how many saw that? 103 00:06:18,000 --> 00:06:19,000 Let's see. 104 00:06:19,000 --> 00:06:26,000 There was me, my co-pilot, both my engineers, my nav, my load. 105 00:06:26,000 --> 00:06:28,000 There was an ACM, so what are we talking? 106 00:06:28,000 --> 00:06:29,000 Seven people. 107 00:06:29,000 --> 00:06:30,000 Seven people. 108 00:06:30,000 --> 00:06:31,000 Maybe eight, there's, no, no. 109 00:06:31,000 --> 00:06:32,000 He had got four of us before. 110 00:06:32,000 --> 00:06:33,000 Seven people. 111 00:06:33,000 --> 00:06:34,000 Okay. 112 00:06:34,000 --> 00:06:35,000 Did you all agree what you saw? 113 00:06:35,000 --> 00:06:36,000 No. 114 00:06:36,000 --> 00:06:37,000 Oh, okay. 115 00:06:37,000 --> 00:06:43,000 The first thought was maybe that it was a star coming up, but it didn't rise. 116 00:06:43,000 --> 00:06:47,000 And, uh, my nav said that it was not a star. 117 00:06:47,000 --> 00:06:51,000 The guy that was just hitching a ride with us down here said that it looked like something 118 00:06:51,000 --> 00:06:52,000 on the ground. 119 00:06:52,000 --> 00:06:53,000 Uh-huh. 120 00:06:53,000 --> 00:06:55,000 At a great distance away. 121 00:06:55,000 --> 00:06:59,000 Well, that I couldn't buy because of the intensity of the light. 122 00:06:59,000 --> 00:07:03,000 If it was that far away and it was that bright to me, good Lord, if it was close, it would 123 00:07:03,000 --> 00:07:05,000 have lit up the whole sky. 124 00:07:05,000 --> 00:07:11,000 So, uh, unless there were some, may have a forest fire out there or something, something. 125 00:07:11,000 --> 00:07:16,000 But like I said, I talked to Senator and he had no knowledge of anything like that out 126 00:07:16,000 --> 00:07:17,000 there. 127 00:07:17,000 --> 00:07:20,000 So, uh, did you ever fly into South when you first spotted that? 128 00:07:20,000 --> 00:07:24,000 Uh, just a minute. 129 00:07:24,000 --> 00:07:33,000 We came out of Travis and we headed down to, uh, Lyndon, which is, uh, Southeast. 130 00:07:33,000 --> 00:07:34,000 Yeah, okay. 131 00:07:34,000 --> 00:07:36,000 Okay, that's when we first spotted. 132 00:07:36,000 --> 00:07:39,000 Now, did you spot that dead ahead or to your left? 133 00:07:39,000 --> 00:07:42,000 Uh, it was to our left. 134 00:07:42,000 --> 00:07:43,000 Okay. 135 00:07:43,000 --> 00:07:51,000 Then as we, uh, wait a minute, no, I may, I may be leading you straight because I didn't 136 00:07:51,000 --> 00:07:55,000 question it until we were heading Lyndon south to Fresno. 137 00:07:55,000 --> 00:08:00,000 Let me look up a map here and maybe, um, get my memory. 138 00:08:00,000 --> 00:08:03,000 If I could find out where I was at. 139 00:08:03,000 --> 00:08:05,000 Okay, there's Fresno. 140 00:08:05,000 --> 00:08:07,000 Is Lyndon a town up there? 141 00:08:07,000 --> 00:08:09,000 Do you know? 142 00:08:09,000 --> 00:08:10,000 Yes. 143 00:08:10,000 --> 00:08:13,000 Okay, well I find Fresno. 144 00:08:13,000 --> 00:08:16,000 There's Stockton. 145 00:08:16,000 --> 00:08:22,000 Okay, uh, I think that, well the first time that I questioned the controller about it, 146 00:08:22,000 --> 00:08:24,000 we had just turned south. 147 00:08:24,000 --> 00:08:25,000 Lyndon going to Fresno. 148 00:08:25,000 --> 00:08:26,000 Okay. 149 00:08:26,000 --> 00:08:27,000 Okay. 150 00:08:27,000 --> 00:08:32,000 And so I'd say that it was, uh, that's the first time that I noticed it. 151 00:08:32,000 --> 00:08:37,000 And if that's in fact the case then it was at my nine o'clock, nine to ten o'clock. 152 00:08:37,000 --> 00:08:38,000 Okay. 153 00:08:38,000 --> 00:08:43,000 And he mentioned the Navy and the PSA jets and, uh, as I watched he was one of those 154 00:08:43,000 --> 00:08:44,000 major. 155 00:08:44,000 --> 00:08:45,000 Okay. 156 00:08:45,000 --> 00:08:49,000 And he pulled up all other traffic and all other sectors out there and didn't have a 157 00:08:49,000 --> 00:08:50,000 thing. 158 00:08:50,000 --> 00:08:52,000 How's your visibility range? 159 00:08:52,000 --> 00:08:54,000 I was clearing a major. 160 00:08:54,000 --> 00:08:55,000 Clear, okay. 161 00:08:55,000 --> 00:08:59,000 All right sir, what was your rank? 162 00:08:59,000 --> 00:09:01,000 Right now I'm a lieutenant for five more days. 163 00:09:01,000 --> 00:09:04,000 So I guess how I'll give you that one. 164 00:09:04,000 --> 00:09:09,000 Okay, well we sure appreciate your making this report and if we come up with any more information 165 00:09:09,000 --> 00:09:12,000 of activity in that area we'll get back to you and let you know. 166 00:09:12,000 --> 00:09:14,000 Okay, I appreciate that. 167 00:09:14,000 --> 00:09:18,000 Well, I'll hang on to your number because of course I've only been flying for seven years 168 00:09:18,000 --> 00:09:20,000 and this is the first one I've seen. 169 00:09:20,000 --> 00:09:21,000 God only knows. 170 00:09:21,000 --> 00:09:27,000 But yeah, if you do, uh, you know, come up with some, you know, idea on, you know, verified 171 00:09:27,000 --> 00:09:30,000 other sightings or something like that I'd really be interested. 172 00:09:30,000 --> 00:09:31,000 Okay. 173 00:09:31,000 --> 00:09:33,000 Well if you could drop me a line or whatever I'd appreciate it. 174 00:09:33,000 --> 00:09:34,000 Okay, so we'll be back in a minute. 175 00:09:34,000 --> 00:09:35,000 We'll be back in a minute. 176 00:09:35,000 --> 00:09:36,000 Okay, so we'll be back in a minute. 177 00:09:36,000 --> 00:09:37,000 We'll be back in a minute. 178 00:09:37,000 --> 00:09:38,000 We'll be back in a minute. 179 00:09:38,000 --> 00:09:39,000 We'll be back in a minute. 180 00:09:39,000 --> 00:09:40,000 We'll be back in a minute. 181 00:09:40,000 --> 00:09:41,000 We'll be back in a minute. 182 00:09:41,000 --> 00:09:42,000 We'll be back in a minute. 183 00:09:42,000 --> 00:09:43,000 We'll be back in a minute. 184 00:09:43,000 --> 00:09:44,000 We'll be back in a minute. 185 00:09:44,000 --> 00:09:45,000 We'll be back in a minute. 186 00:09:45,000 --> 00:09:46,000 We'll be back in a minute. 187 00:09:46,000 --> 00:09:47,000 We'll be back in a minute. 188 00:09:47,000 --> 00:09:48,000 We'll be back in a minute. 189 00:09:48,000 --> 00:09:49,000 We'll be back in a minute. 190 00:09:49,000 --> 00:09:50,000 We'll be back in a minute. 191 00:09:50,000 --> 00:09:51,000 We'll be back in a minute. 192 00:09:51,000 --> 00:09:52,000 We'll be back in a minute. 193 00:09:52,000 --> 00:09:53,000 We'll be back in a minute. 194 00:09:53,000 --> 00:09:54,000 We'll be back in a minute.