UFO Sighting Report

 

                              UFO Sighting Report

                             

Oak Harbor, Washington

                                January 28, 1988

                     

Principal Witness:  Jerry Lang, age 45

           MUFON Field Investigator:  

Don Olson, Bothell, Washington

      

      Narrative:

      

           I ma

rked the date down on the calendar.  On midnight of the 

      27th (or Thurs

day morning, January 28th) I was heading home down 

      my driveway when I saw these 4 lights off to the right of Ika 

      Island.  There was 3 oran

ge lights and a red light.  I saw the 

      lights to the right of the islan

d, over the mouth of the [North 

      Fork of the] Skagit River [near the to

wn of La Conner, 

      Washington].  I thought, well, the Indians fish in th

e river for 

      Steelhead--gillnetting--and I thought, it must be somebody 

was 

      missing and the Navy was out looking for them in a helicopter.  

      So I hopped out of the car 

and ran in the house and grabbed my 

      binoculars.

      

           I co

uld see it was no helicopter and I could have heard it 

      if it was becau

se the next night one came by, and I could hear 

      it from here to there.  

So then I put the spotting scope [45x] 

      on it and I couldn't see very g

ood with it because it was very 

      fuzzy.  I should have probably turned it down [it was set on the 

      highest power], but I didn't think a

bout it, you know.  So I 

      just grabbed my binoculars and started lookin

g and I thought, 

      well, maybe there are some houses there I don't know 

about, but 

      I knew there were no houses in that direction.

      

           

I watched for 10-15 minutes.  The orange lights got 

      brighter and dimme

r while the red light stayed pretty much the 

      same.  I thought, "well, that sure is odd", and I kept 

trying to 

      figure it out.  I could also see a little bit of white light 

out 

      of the bottom of it, like it was shining [a beam of light] 

      

down.  I sat here watching the lights and it never did move [the 

      witne

ss had the impression that all of the lights were part of 

      the same obj

ect].

      

           All of a sudden a "strobe light" flashed on top of the 

      thing.  Five to ten seconds later a single light appeared to the 

      

left.  Off to the left, where the little hill is in there, up 

      about ha

lf as high as Ika Island.  The light "just appeared".  I 

      didn't see it 

go over there, it just appeared there.

      

           It started getting b

righter and dimmer; it got real bright 

      and turned perfectly round, jus

t like a fish egg or a balloon, 

      and had a glow, a little halo all the way around it.  Then t

he 

      light got dimmer and started toward the ground and became more 

      

disk shaped as it went down [note:  the object could have 

      changed its 

orientation to the witness to "edge on" or the 

      change in shape could h

ave been the result of atmospheric 

      conditions].

      

      Page Two

      Oak Harbor, Washington

      UFO Report, January 28, 1988

      

      

           It went down to the ground.  I watched for another 5-10 

      

minutes, when two lights appeared, over the land, at about the 

      same he

ight in the sky, three-quarters the height of Ika 

      Island.  Both lights 

turned perfectly round like an orange ball, 

      with halos, then they star

ted down to the ground becoming disk 

      shaped about half way down to the 

ground.  One went clear to the 

      ground, the other I could see the light of in the treetops of a 

      bushy area.

      

           So they both disappeared from view.  Mea

nwhile that big 

      thing always stayed there on the right with the three 

orange 

      lights and one red light on it.  Another ten minutes or so went 

      by, while these lights on the one remaining object continued 

      ge

tting brighter and dimmer.  A strobe light flashed again, and 

      within 2

0-30 seconds started getting very bright--like the sun.  

      I could see th

e right end of the object illuminated by the 

      light, and it looked just 

like that [sketch, which shows half of 

      a small oval on top of half of 

a larger oval].  The light glowed 

      for maybe 30-40 seconds, and went ou

t.  As the light got dimmer, 

      there was a dull after-glow in the area, 

like the after-glow you 

      get from a TV screen after you turn off the set.

      

           I sat f

or another half hour watching it.  By this time it 

      was getting to be a

bout 1:50 a.m. and the dull-glowing light was 

      still there but it wasn'

t doing anything so I decided to go to 

      bed.  I set the alarm to go off 

at 3:00 a.m. to check on it.  I 

      woke up at 2:45 a.m. before the alarm 

went off and looked, and 

      it was gone.

      

           I had the feeling that when the strobe light went off and 

      five seconds later whe

n the other two lights appeared that 

      something came out of that big th

ing and went over there.  Maybe 

      when the strobe light flashed one more 

time they came off the 

      ground and went back in it or something.  I saw 

3 objects total, 

      and the one on the right was much bigger than the two 

on the 

      left.  They appeared to be round balls as big as hot-air 

      balloons, looking through t

he binoculars.  The distance across 

      [from Whidbey Island] to there is 

one and a half to two miles to 

      that flat area over the river there.  I 

knew there shouldn't be 

      any houses there.

      

           The next t

hing I thought was that maybe there was a fire up 

      on the foothills.  W

hen I got up the next morning the first 

      thing I did was use the spotting scope to look all over that 

      hillside and there hadn't been anythi

ng burning over there.

      

           So I called MacIndoe because I'd rea

d the newspaper article 

      about his sighting and that's what he said he 

saw--a round 

      orange ball, so what I saw must have been the same deal.

      

      Page Three

      Oak Harbor, Washington

      UFO Report, January 28, 

1988

      

      

           I've got an airplane up in Anacortes.  I'm a private 

      p

ilot.  Three to four days later I flew my plane from Anacortes 

      on a be

aring from my home right over the spot.  There are a few 

      little cabins 

there by the river and a couple of farms back in 

      there behind La Conne

r.  Other than that there is nothing in 

      there.

      

      

      Pre

liminary rating:

      

           Speiser Classification S4/P3

           Be

rliner Coefficient 2 (night object) x 1 (single witness)

                = 2.0

      

      Prepared by Don Olson & Donald A. Johnson

File: OAKHARBR.UFO  

6912-T

      03-APR-88

 Dir: 12  Sec: 1 - UFOlogy

From: Donald Johnson

 Acc: 

7

Whidbey Island UFO #2 1/28/88

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