Sighting Reports > Ohio
Selected Sighting Reports from the NIDS Database: Ohio
STATE/COUNTRY: OH LOCATION: Dayton (Third and Main Streets) DATE: 09/12/01 TIME: 19:05 DISTANCE: Overhead, just below clouds ALTITUDE: Just below clouds # OF UFO's: 7-8 SHAPE: 1 crescent, others lights, spherical COLOR: 1 dull black; others luminous white light SIZE: SOUND: None LIGHTS: Intensely self-luminous (light not from point sources) OTHER: 1 luminous object had a rectangular black spot ADDL WITN: 1+ COMMENTS: From the witness's e-mail report:
"The UFOs were directly overhead when I first spotted them. All the objects, but one, were very luminous. I was, later, able to confirm that this was emitted light instead of reflected sunlight (there was bright sunlight despite the clouds above the UFOs). The other one was a dull black color. One looked rather like a large (enormous) crescent roll, complete with lumps! They were very high up, nearly to the thin gray clouds. They reversed their course and came back to a good observing position, leaving little doubt that they were something other than balloons. Still later they executed large independent maneuvers that removed all doubt. For instance one moved from the west side of another one to east side of the same one, moving in a large arc and taking only a few seconds to do it. It moved a large distance considering it's altitude. While it did this, the one it moved around remained stationary. It appeared that they were illuminating the clouds to a large radius. The luminosity of one of the objects momentarily ceased for a split second (I suspect it was always the same one, when this happened. It happened 5 or 6 times and it happened when the object appeared to be stationary). WHIO may have gotten footage (talked to them later that night, also Dayton PD). One thing is certain, they weren't showing on WPAFB's radar. They would have gotten their CAP (combat air patrol) planes into position in a matter of seconds. When I called Wright Pat later that night, they apparently hadn't heard a thing. I guess whoever was flying those 7 or 8 unusual aircraft weren't subject to the FAA's regulation!! The sky was supposed to be locked!"
This witness later provided a more detailed description of these objects:
“The object that was totally black was shaped somewhat like a segment of an orange (we may as well have some fruit with our bread!!). The “lumps” or segments (wish I’d thought of that word before ;o) of the crescent shaped object seemed fairly spherical. The segments toward both ends were progressively smaller and the entire object was arched giving it a crescent look. The segments reminded me of balloons tethered together like pearls on a string but these segments appeared to have a fixed relationship to each other (no flexing of a hypothetical tether was apparent).
The black and white one was about 5/6 self-luminous and 1/6 extremely black. It maneuvered constantly facing the black section in various directions as it did so. This one was larger than the others with the exception of the crescent shaped one. It had large, essentially flat, surfaces but no sharp angles. The panels were joined with smooth bevels. This was the one that reminded me of a minivan (the black rectangle would have been the radiator of the minivan :o) Concerning this object; I think it was the 8th object. I have been hesitant to state it as such but if it wasn’t a new object, separate from the seven I had already observed, it would have had to change size and shape and add the black section in order to appear different from the others. Considering the rate of deceleration that I observed, I think it simply came burning in from the West at very high speed. I didn’t hear any sonic boom.
A. General appearance: Their surfaces were uniformly illuminated like the surfaces of fluorescent light bulbs. Their illumination did not come from point sources such as incandescent light bulbs. While balloons possessing special reflectance and translucency, might or might not present a similar appearance when illuminated by bright sunlight, these were not balloons, hence this consideration does not apply. If they were military surveillance craft, perhaps based on a ducted fan, or any other conventional aircraft, it is extremely unlikely that they would possess the requisite reflection plus translucency. Any ducted fans should have been visible.
B. The light coming from these objects did not seem yellow enough to be reflected sunlight (assuming a reflecting surface that was predominately colorless or white).
C. These objects did not have a shaded side as ordinary aircraft have when illuminated from one side. Take for example, the segmented object. Adjacent sides of separate segments were illuminated equally, even when one of these sides was facing toward the sun and the other was facing away from the sun. Remember that the clouds above these objects were not illuminated by the sun, being in the shadow of clouds further West, and could not have been reflecting substantial sunlight onto the objects below.
D. Indeed, at times, the objects themselves were casting substantial light onto the dark gray clouds above them. When I noticed this I was reluctant to accept it and tried to come up with alternate explanations such as refraction due to some form of energy field but I think Occam’s Razor wins out in this case. The area of cloud being illuminated was rather awe inspiring.
E. I observed no substantial variation in the intensity of the illumination of these objects. Unexpectedly absent was any significant flashing of reflected sunlight from the surfaces of these objects, even from the large, relatively flat panels of the black and white one. When conventional aircraft are oriented with the sun, appropriately, very noticeable (brilliant) flashes of reflected sunlight are visible to observers on the ground. Once the aircraft is no longer appropriately oriented, it may be very difficult for the observer to see it but all of the objects in question, with the exception of the black one (and the exception noted in F, below), were always very bright and visible. Perhaps such reflection was occurring(hard to conceive of this not being the case) but perhaps the flashing effect was “dampened”, in a subjective sense, by the intense light being emitted from the objects themselves.
F. The clincher: The luminosity of one of the objects momentarily ceased for a split second. I suspect it was always the same object, when this happened. It happened 5 or 6 times that I saw, and it happened when the object appeared to be stationary, eliminating the possibility that the object was flying behind something that momentarily occulted it’s light. This diminution of it’s light was verified by the apparent mother of 2 small boys who were there. The effect was as if someone had toggled a light switch rapidly. Except for a few fractions of a second the entire visible surface of this object was very luminous for the duration of the sighting, as were all of the surfaces of the other objects with the exception of the one black object and the black portion of the black and white object.
OTHER: This witness is retired military medical corpsman.
Sighting Reports > Ohio