Mobbme

Story Highlights
Several dozen people in and around Stephenville report UFO sightings

Military spokesman: "I'm 90 percent sure this was an airliner"

Witnesses say object's lights changed configuration, unlike those of a plane

The Air Force no longer investigates UFOs



STEPHENVILLE, Texas (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 -- say 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 say 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, Texas, 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 has 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 January 8, when most people reported the sighting.

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 from 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.

One man has offered a reward for a photograph or videotape of the mysterious object.

About 200 UFO sightings are reported each month, mostly in California, Colorado and Texas, according to the Mutual UFO Network, which plans to go to the 17,000-resident town of Stephenville to investigate.

Fourteen percent of Americans polled last year by The Associated Press and Ipsos say they have seen a UFO.

Erath County Constable Lee Roy Gaitan said he first saw red glowing lights and then white flashing lights moving fast, but that even with binoculars could not see the object to which the lights were attached.

"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."



Texans report seeing UFO - CNN.com

Tom Cruise said "It's egotistic to say that we're the only ones in the universe"

I don't know whats going on, but if they are real why don't they try to communicate with us? And if they already have and the government is hiding it, I think the government is stupid for doing that.

I once heard a conspiracy about the alien that was found back in the days, and how IT gave information leading to technology that was alien to us.

Officer of Engineers

How many ant colonies on our planet have been borned and died without ever seeing a human being?

Ok, we have a people who travelled several 1000 light years and they can't hover over a city?

We're not that good at keeping secrets.

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Chimo

dave lukins

Have you seen the price of fuel in Texas Not suprised they flew off

Demosthenes

ahh good...
whenever there's a so-called UFO sighting in America, it's a prototype warplane 90% of the time. I can't wait to find out what this one is going to be. Maybe it's a new precision attack UAV...who knows?

But definitely not an alien...it might be an illegal "alien" though

bolo121

Hah!
I always knew there was something strange about dubya
no wonder he finds it so difficult to speak to us earthlings

omon

how come i never see a ufo?

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"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!" B. Franklin

glyn

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Semper in excretum. Solum profunda variat.

Feanor

Maybe it was a secret Cuban spy plane.....

Southie

Or maybe it was Tom Cruise flying in his private plane with his scientology "cult" group!

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“When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.” - Jimi Hendrix
Don't Worry, Be Happy - Bobby McFerrin

Ironduke

I've seen pinpoints of light move very erratically across the sky before. A person I know whose judgment I'd never question claims to have seen a craft in the sky, about the size of a coffee plate held in front, with lights along the edges that would disappear and reappear as the craft rotated, back in the 1970s.

Still, until I personally see a craft I can definitely discern to be of extraterrestrial origin, I'm skeptical about claims of us being visited by beings from another planet.

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The Buck Stops Here

zraver

I saw Amber lights appear, disappear and rearrange over Arkansas nuclear one in 2004, the lights were seen again 11/07.

Expat Canuck

I never get to see anything......

I did have a dream once thought that kept me from sleeping for ages and I was a teenager and I never get nightmares.

It was seconds long and the dream was that I woke up in bed and looked off the right bedpost at the foot of my bed and there was an alien there looking at me. He looked like he was old but it mas more a feeling of him being ancient.

He looked at me I looked at him then I woke up in a cold sweat and didn't sleep right for a month.

I was 14 and that was my one and only nightmare I've had ever. Scared the crap out of me but I'm sure it was a dream. I damn well hope so anyway just thinking about it now gives me the creeps.

Mobbme

Talking about dreams, I get these dreams in which there will be 1 spider F'n with me. Sometimes its a big ass spider and sometimes its a small one with long legs. Thats not where the concern is, when I wake up I still see the spider and I walk quickly out of my room and then use the washroom. I come back and turn on my room light and frantically look around to see where the spider is; it takes me about 2 mins to realize it was just a dream and that there was no real spider

My dream's plot is me laying in my bed, and the spider coming down from the ceiling or walking around ontop of my bed. So thats why I guess when I wake up, im in my bed and it seems more realistic.

braindead

I was 10 years old in 1987 when one morning going to school saw a big claw-shaped object slowly moving over sky . Was really dissapointed when I was told it was just some space debris burning up .

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glyn