Our UFO Encounter

Okay. I'm going to start the ball rolling here and relate the only UFO incident I've had (so far).

If I were to compose a document today regarding this event, it would be much clearer than the document I originally wrote almost 30 years ago.

However, I wanted to present the original document in its unedited state, since it was written shortly after the event occurred and has a greater degree of immediacy to it.

Following is a verbatim copy of the original document, written within a few hours of the actual event. The original document disappeared for over twenty-five years and was only recently found when cleaning out a desk drawer in the basement. I have re-typed it here exactly as it was originally written, with any editorial comments placed in parentheses with the "Ed." designation. I have also added footnotes at the end of the document which were not a part of the original and have been included here to help clarify some of the statements which, in the original version, may be somewhat confusing.

Following is the unedited, original document.

Date: Thursday, July 16, 1981
Time: Approximately 12:05 AM
Location: (Address deleted. Ed.), Kansas City, Wyandotte County, Kansas
Observed by: (Names deleted. Ed.)

Note: An intense electrical storm had been taking place for several hours but had subsided at the time of the sighting. The skies remained overcast.

At approximately 12:05 a.m. on the morning of July 16, 1981, my wife (name deleted. Ed.) stepped outside the sliding glass patio door onto the deck at (address deleted. Ed.) in Kansas City, Wyandotte County, Kansas. At that time she observed an aerial object and called to (name deleted) and I to, "Come here. Hurry!"

When I arrived outside, I observed two red lights in a horizontal plane and at right angles to the direction of flight. (This is confusing. The lights were on the aft of the vehicle, similar to those in the graphic above, but there were only two of them. Ed.) I would estimate the distance between the lights to be approximately 100 feet.

I immediately assumed it to be a conventional aircraft, but quickly discarded that idea because there was no sound of motors. (See Footnote 1. Ed.) The lights were at a very low altitude. I would estimate less than 100 feet, and not more than 100 yards distant, and were moving slowly southward. I did not observe an outline of any type, but my wife informed me that it was cigar shaped with the red lights attached to the ends of the vehicle. (See Footnote 2. Ed.)

As it moved southward it did so at 90 degrees to the plane of the lights. In other words, it moved as an airplane with a red light attached to each wing tip, or as a blimp moving at right angles to its length.

It moved southward for maybe a mile or two. Then the lights began to tilt in a clockwise direction to a vertical, rather than horizontal attitude and the object slowly descended. As the lights were going into a vertical attitude the vehicle did not move toward the west, as a conventional aircraft would do when the right wing is dropped. The lights continued their clockwise motion past the 990 degree position and it appeared the vehicle was turning completely over when it descended below the line of treetops and we lost sight of it. (See Footnote 3. Ed.) By now it was 12:15 a.m.

I quickly drove toward the area where we had lost sight of it, which I estimated to be less than 5 miles to the south. (See Footnote 4. Ed.) I searched the skies in this area and five miles or so in each direction, but observed nothing in the air or on the ground.

Logical explanation, which we have discarded as incorrect, include hot air balloons, blimps, gliders, helicopters, and conventional aircraft. The reasons for discarding these possibilities are as follows:

Hot air balloons: The vehicle was too large and there was no sound of a burner being ignited at any time.

Blimps: The object was moving at right angles to its length. Again, there was no sound of motors. The object maintained a vertical attitude for many minutes.

Gliders: The object maintained a relatively stable altitude for many minutes and held a vertical attitude for many minutes.

Helicopters and conventional aircraft: There was no sound of motors. helicopters and conventional aircraft do not assume a vertical attitude in most cases.

That morning I made telephone calls to police stations in Shawnee, Overland Park, Westwood, and Kansas City, Kansas to ascertain whether anyone else had observed the object. According to the information I received during those phone calls, no one else had called in. I also called the Kansas City Times City Desk and described the events with the party who answered. No one else had called at that time. Later in the day I telephoned KMBZ radio station in Westwood. The radio announcer taped my description of the encounter and it was broadcast immediately thereafter. No one else called in to confirm it.

I telephoned Richards Gebaur Air Force Base and spoke with the Security Police. I was told to contact my local police, which I did, in Westwood, Kansas. The party I spoke with took all the information including my name, address, and telephone number, which he said he would call in to a UFO identification center.

We all three know what we observed. It is clear to us that something unlike anything we have seen before was in the air over a highly populated area. The questions remain: What was it? And why were we the only ones who observed it?

END OF ORIGINAL DOCUMENT —

The four footnotes have been added to clarify the original statement.

1. This was perhaps one of the most confusing aspects of the encounter. As the document states, the object was extremely large and at a very low altitude. I was confused by the possibility that such a large object could be moving at such a slow velocity without any sound of propulsion.

2. The original document states that no outline was visible. The skies were very dark and overcast, and the object itself was somewhat darker. Even though no outline was visible, it seem, on remembering the event, that I sensed it was triangular in shape rather than cigar shaped. However, since it was at such a low altitude and in a level attitude, it was difficult to determine the exact shape with any degree of certainty.

3. This portion of the original document is somewhat confusing. The object did not turn completely over, but went from a horizontal attitude to a vertical one. After going into the vertical position (one light at the top, one at the bottom) the object began to slowly descend until it was below the tops of the trees and we could not see it any longer. My wife and I are still in disagreement on this aspect. She recalls it shooting away at a very high rate of speed until it disappeared from view. I remember is slowly descending until we lost sight of it behind the treeline.

4. This is somewhat confusing as well. After the object rotated to a vertical position and descended (per my recollection) I got in the car and drove to the area I estimated it would have landed.


FINAL EDITORIAL COMMENTS —

One aspect that was not emphasized in the original document was the extremely slow speed at which the object was moving. I would estimate the speed to be less than five miles per hour. Summarily, the main impression I got was that the object was huge and of a dark hue such as dark gray or black. It was at an incredibly low altitude, and it seemed almost close enough to touch when first observed, possibly because of it's massive size. It was moving so slowly that it didn't seem to be moving at all when I first observed it, and there was no sound to be heard.

My wife and I have discussed the discrepancy in our memory of the final moments we viewed the object. We have come up with no logical explanation regarding why we saw two different things occur. Our son, who was eight at the time, says his memory of the whole event is very vague. Shortly after the event, my wife and I mentioned it to a few friends, who responded with raised eyebrows and a look of disbelief. After that we quit mentioning it. It remains unexplained.

Now it's your turn. If you've had an encounter, or if you've seen something that's out of the ordinary, please leave your comment below and tell us what happened. Don't be afraid of criticism. I moderate all comments before they're published so any disparaging remarks will not appear.

Graphic above was created by Simon Hart.