SUBJECT: ARIZONA SIGHTING FILE: UFO3086
PART 1
Sent: 01 Dec 92 12:32:00
From: Steve Gresser
Topic: Arizona Sighting
Well, last night it happened - I _FINALLY_ saw something. It is strange
mostly because there have been, apparantly, some sightings in the area.
Beyond that, I would have an extremely difficult time accepting a prosaic
explanation without a recreation of the event. It is, of course, possible.
Background: I am in Scottsdale, Arizona, which borders (mostly) Phoenix's
eastern side. I live in the northeastern end of Scottsdale. To the north
are mountains, and there are houses obscuring portions of the horizon on all
sides but the west. Several miles west of me is a hospital that has a
helipad, so I regularly see helicopters. I am grateful that my walls are
thick because I am nearly directly on the approach path to Phoenix Sky Harbor
International Airport, and a great number of the aircraft going towards
Scottsdale Municipal Airpark also fly over my house, or nearly so. Until
construction begins on the other two houses, I also have a mostly
unobstructed view to the south, where I can see aircraft coming in for quite
a long time before they turn to Phoenix. Also, I am a pilot. Suffice to
say, my wife and I are familiar with aircraft lights, helicopter lights,
military aircraft lighting on a general scale, stars, meteors (the sky is
beautiful at night because we are slightly elevated above the smog), and a
variety of other natural phenomenon that are highly visible over the Phoenix
valley area.
Report (well, it's about time!): Last night, at about 10:17pm MST, I was in
the street in front of my house (E/W double cul-de-sac) w/no cross streets).
I was going to tell my sister-in-law something in her van, so I walked E
towards it, turned towards her (N) and spotted something out of the corner of
my eye (W). I turned west and said, "What's that?", thinking that it was
another aircraft coming in low with its lights towards me, a common sight but
still pretty spectacular. She replied, "It's an airplane," which I beleived
at first, but I still wanted to watch it. Then I realized that the object
was not lighted like any aircraft I have ever seen, and the lights were
flashing without a sequence that I could register (rotating beacons, position
lights, etc. have a pattern to them - usually "flash, flash, flash" or
"flash-flash, flash-flash, flash-flash" - but this had neither) and the
lights were brighter than even the closest aircraft that I had seen - but
VERY sharp. My wife was coming out of the house, and I was moving across the
street to keep the object in view as it moved northward, closer than the
hospital. I kept calling her over to see it but she was in the wrong
position and nearly fell as I moved W down the street to keep in in view. I
kept thinking, "This has got to be an aircraft!" But it never resolved
itself into something my mind could recognize. It was pointed maybe thirty
degrees down in the direction of movement, and it moved more quickly than a
helicopter, and VERY smooth movement, but not as fast as, say, a low-flying
jet.
When my wife finally got it in to view, she said something that I had seen
but not noticed - "That son-of-a-***** is ROTATING! What is that, Steve?" A
series of colorful expletives followed. As my wife looked at it, it began to
turn northeastwards, as if to go behind the mountains, and she decided to
dash down to the van my sister-in-law was in and chase it. I was about to
lose sight of it, so I ran down too (by this time I was at the intersection
of my street), but we never got sight of it again.
On first sight, it appeared to be an overly-lighted aircraft, kind of long,
with many lights on it. But the lights looked more light arcing electricity
than lights, and were exceptionally sharp and bright. This looked nothing
like a helicopter with a search light, nor like any other lights I've seen on
an aircraft. My wife and I were both wearing our glasses, and her sister
does not wear glasses. The incident frightened her enough that she was
scared to go home down Pima Road (the major N/S access road near the
hospital). The incident was over by 10:19pm MST. The object appeard almost
to be in three sections because of the lighting and was slowly rotating (if
looking from above the object) in a counter-clockwise motion. I estimated
its altitude to be between 1200 and 1500 feet, but my wife says it was below
1000 feet. The object itself was not clearly visible to me at all.
So now I join the ranks of all the kooks and looneys who have seen these
things before. All I can say is, all the years of dreaming and imagining
what it would be like do not prepare you for the sense of the object being
out of place that you get when you actually see one. It just looks ...
strange.
I welcome questions regarding this sighting and would appreciate no
accusations of substance abuse or fabrication. I have had many oportunities
to fabricate UFO stories before, but as someone who is sincerely interested
in the phenomenon, I feel that particular action is equatable to rape. I no
longer smoke, I almost never drink, I do not take drugs (but I inhale
regularly <G>), and my prescription on my glasses is "plano" for a mild
astigmatism (I'm not sure what "plano" is, but I bet SOMEONE knows).
I thank you greatly for your time reading this. I know it is a long story.
Thank you again,
Steve
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