THINK ABOUTIT UFO SIGHTINGS REPORT
Date: January 8, 2008
Sighting Time: Evening/Night (The report mentions “nightfall” and “night of Jan. 8”).
Day/Night: Night
Location: Stephenville, Texas
Urban or Rural: Rural (Described as a “farming community”).
Entity Type: None reported.
Entity Description:
Hynek Classification: CE-I (Close Encounter I) Observation of an object in close proximity to the witness (i.e. within 500’)
Duration: Several minutes (Witnesses watched it cross sections of sky and change configurations).
No. of Object(s): 1 main object (often reported with fighter jets in pursuit).
Appearance / Description of the Object(s): Huge, silent craft with bright, changing light configurations; some reported it as a “flat, metallic object”.
Distance to Object(s): metallic object hovering about 300 feet over a pasture
Shape of Object(s): Large, flat, and seamless (described as “without seams, nuts or bolts”).
Size of Object(s): mile long and half a mile wide
Color of Object(s): “Tin barn grey” / Metallic.
Number of Witnesses: Multiple
Special Features/Characteristics: Group Sighting, Witness Photo, Silent, Police, Witness Sketch, Mass Sighting
Source: Associated Press, January 15, 2008
Summary/Description: Several dozen people — including a pilot, county constable and business owners — insist they have seen a large silent object with bright lights flying low and fast. Some reported seeing fighter jets chasing it. Locals swear that it was larger, quieter, faster and lower to the ground than an airplane. They also said the object’s lights changed configuration, unlike those of a plane. People in several towns who reported seeing it over several weeks have offered similar descriptions of the object
Full Report
Dozens Report UFO Over Texas Town
Many, Including Pilot, Constable Describe Similar Huge Craft Flying Low Over Stephenville
By ANGELA K. BROWN, Associated Press Writer
Jan. 15, 2008
(AP) In this farming community where nightfall usually brings clear, starry skies, residents are abuzz over reported sightings of what many believe is a UFO.
Several dozen people – including a pilot, county constable and business owners – insist they have seen a large silent object with bright lights flying low and fast. Some reported seeing fighter jets chasing it.
“People wonder what in the world it is because this is the Bible Belt, and everyone is afraid it’s the end of times,” said Steve Allen, a freight company owner and pilot who said the object he saw last week was a mile long and half a mile wide. “It was positively, absolutely nothing from these parts.”
While federal officials insist there’s a logical explanation, locals swear that it was larger, quieter, faster and lower to the ground than an airplane. They also said the object’s lights changed configuration, unlike those of a plane. People in several towns who reported seeing it over several weeks have offered similar descriptions of the object.
Machinist Ricky Sorrells said friends made fun of him when he told them he saw a flat, metallic object hovering about 300 feet over a pasture behind his Dublin home. But he decided to come forward after reading similar accounts in the Stephenville Empire-Tribune.
“You hear about big bass or big buck in the area, but this is a different deal,” Sorrells said. “It feels good to hear that other people saw something, because that means I’m not crazy.”
Sorrells said he’s seen the object several times. He said he watched it through his rifle’s telescopic lens and described it as very large and without seams, nuts or bolts.
Maj. Karl Lewis, a spokesman for the 301st Fighter Wing at the Joint Reserve Base Naval Air Station in Fort Worth, said no F-16s or other aircraft from his base were in the area the night of Jan. 8, when many sightings were reported.
Lewis said the object may have been an illusion caused by two commercial airplanes. Lights from the aircraft would seem unusually bright and may appear orange due to the setting sun.
“I’m 90 percent sure this was an airliner,” Lewis said. “With the sun’s angle, it can play tricks on you.”
Officials at the region’s two Air Force bases – Dyess in Abilene and Sheppard in Wichita Falls – also said none of their aircraft were in the area last week. The Air Force no longer investigates UFOs.
Erath County Constable Lee Roy Gaitan, who said he isn’t sure about the existence of UFOs, said one night last week he first saw red glowing lights and then white flashing lights moving rapidly across the sky.
“I didn’t see a flying saucer and I don’t know what it was, but it wasn’t an airplane and I’ve never seen anything like it,” Gaitan said. “I think it must be some kind of military craft – at least I hope it was.”
Ricky Sorrells drew for Earthfiles his perspective looking up through the trees on his property at a “tin barn grey” metal emitting “mirage heat waves” and embedded with cone-shaped holes he thought were equally separated by forty feet over the entire surface of the aerial craft above him. Ricky judged that the aerial craft was 300 feet above him and the trees. He also estimated the surface diameter of the cones was about six feet, tapering another six to eight feet down into a cone-shaped hole that ended in a three-foot-diameter circle. Below is a drawing focused on one of the cone-shaped holes. Drawings © 2008 by Ricky Sorrells for Earthfiles.com. (Credit and Copyright: Earthfiles.com and Linda Moulton Howe.)
Associated Press picked up Angelia Joiner’s story from the Stephenville Empire-Tribune on January 15, 2008, featuring a photograph of Ricky Sorrells at his Dublin, Texas, residence. (Credit and Copyright: Earthfiles.com and Linda Moulton Howe.)
Ricky Sorrells saw the sky replaced by a “barn tin grey” and flat metal embedded with cone-shaped holes as far as he could see – “at least three football field lengths (1,000 feet).” Each cone-shaped hole was separated from the others by an estimated 40 feet; each cone-shaped hole was about 6 feet in diameter and 6 to 8 feet deep. Computer illustrationbased on Ricky Sorrells’ sketches © 2008 by Gregory Watters (Credit and copyright: coasttocoastam.com and also earthfiles.com and Linda Moulton Howe)
“It was positively, absolutely nothing from these parts,” Steve Allen, left, says during an interview with Mike Von Fremd of ABC News. Allen described the unidentified object as being an enormous aircraft with flashing strobe lights — and it was totally silent. He said the UFO sped away at more than 3,000 mph, followed by two fighter jets that were hopelessly outmaneuvered. Allen said it took the aircraft just a few seconds to cross a section of sky that it takes him 20 minutes to fly in his Cessna. The veteran pilot said the UFO, an estimated half-mile wide and a mile long, was “bigger than a Wal-Mart.” (Photo: JESSICA HORTON/Stephenville Empire-Tribune via AP)
