Sam Willey
Mass Sighting over Colorado and New Mexico
November 16, 2006 |
15 comments
Image Credit: JS Henrardi, 1990
A very strange event occurred on the night of October 1st 2006 an event that caused nearly one hundred people to report strange events to the National UFO Reporting Centre. In my view this Mass Sighting is a huge event that needs a lot of research and investigation. Unfortunately the attention of the media has not been grabbed instead it has been dismissed as simply a meteor without any scientific analysis or investigation involved. The first report of any unusual activity began at 21:35 in Colorado. The events were spread across mostly New Mexico and Colorado state to begin with I will focus on the Colorado events. Tin Cup Colorado was the location of the first event when a local resident noticed what he explained as “four tightly packed objects glowing green”. As the strange lights passed over at an approx speed of 140MPH the lights spread out slightly and became equal spaced out from one another. The man and his wife were inside at the time and the lights were seen from inside the house for around 10 seconds.
This first report was then quickly followed by another two the first in Cuchara. The resident living in Cuchara reported seeing “six bright objects” he recalled the direction of movement as being west to east he also remembered the objects were travelling horizontally in a completely straight line, the end object seemed to have a trail of some sort.
This was reported by a wave of five other UFO events around the entire state of Colorado these events took place at 23:15 however the witnesses are most probably wrong by maybe a few minutes or even seconds. This is very possible because most of the UFO’s seen the night of October 1st 2006 were reported as going at a speed of 140MPH and even above. One of the most exciting and credible reports of this time frame and also the entire date came from an Aircraft captain who was in flight above Denver, Colorado at the time. The NUFORC reports that this man has a total of 17,000 flying hours over a 40 year period. He is the captain of a major airline and is a retired USAFR Lt. Colonel Fighter
Yet another report then surfaced from Hartsel, Colorado when a witness reported a total of 8 or 10 objects of multiple colour (yellow, red, orange) flying in roughly a straight line and single file formation. He reported the objects moving south to north with a glow affect. He recalled that a few objects diverted away from the group at one stage as the objects went out of view he noticed that the lead object began to flash blue and then white over and over again he explained he was like a small child on the 4th of July waiting in awe for more.
Perhaps one of the most interesting and most credible reports of that night came from a well experienced pilot. He explained what he saw as “Unlike anything I have ever seen” here is his full eyewitness account of events – “While flying westbound at FL380 (38,000') my First Officer and I saw a very bright, white light at our 9 o'clock high position. The object was just east of Denver at what seemed to be 40 to 50 thousand feet and was moving north to northeast. 4 to 5 smaller lights appeared behind the main object at even spacing, and maintained the same altitude and speed as the lead object. I asked Denver Centre (Air Traffic Control) if they had traffic at my 9 o'clock high. They replied negative. I said "maybe it's space junk burning up" but another airliner on frequency said no, it was moving too horizontal and did not have a trail of burning debris. I agreed. The lights went out as they moved off to the north and east. I've seen many meteors while flying and this was not a meteor. It was not a conventional aircraft as it had no position, strobe, or anti-collision lights.”
Amazingly during this time there were other reports of white lights it is more than possible that these white lights were the exact same as those witnessed by the Captain. One of these white light incidents took place extremely close to Denver in Boulder, Colorado were four or five lights (unsure on number) were spotted. The witness stated the following - I was watching TV. The lights were out the window shades were open. I noticed a white movement out the window. I jumped out of bed saying "What it that?" "What isss that?" My husband stirred. It looked like 4-5 very large thin oval shapes, directly in a line, low in the sky heading east, I was looking south. The movement was just slightly south/east. There were long thing clouds in the sky, it was clear. It seemed bright- mostly from the not full moon but also from the light. There was no sound. I said, "look, oh wait you missed it" (the items had just disappeared behind the silhouette of a tree. "Wait, look to the left of the tree you will see it come out"...nothing did. I couldn't believe it. I described this to my husband. The next few days I could not let it go. I went to a UFO sightings website (something I had never done before)and looked for sightings. Several people described seeing something similar at about the same time and day. I did not report my sighting. But then, Saturday, I read the Friday Colorado Daily newspaper, where there was an article about a man who is a meteor hunter. It stated he searched for marble-size rocks in a 50-mile strip of Colorado. There was a picture of him holding a piece of the meteorite that occurred on Oct. 1, 2006. One of the brightest meteors reported in recent years slow-danced across Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado. Apparently landing south of Colorado Springs. And he was holding a piece of it that looked about the size of a coconut.
Before or after this event there was yet another sighting this time in McCoy, Colorado were again four white lights were witnessed flying over a home. The details were quite consistent with those of the witness in Boulder. Here is the eyewitness statement - Four lights came over the horizon. My husband saw them through our window while we were watching TV. He jumped up to look and called for me to look. I saw them as well. We ran outside to see them, but they were gone. They flew faster than a jet but slower than a meteor. There were jet planes in the sky much higher that we could hear, but there was no sound from the four lights which were much lower. They did not move in a straight line, which ruled out meteors in our mind. In 1997 I was outside and witnessed the same thing about the same time of night in this same place but only one light.
At the same time as all these sightings (23:15) a strange incident occurred involving a number of orange lights in the skies above Fairplay, Colorado. The six orange objects were observed by three people and kept a both a constant speed and also altitude. The witness stated the following - B's report At about 11:15 PM on Sunday, October 1st, 2006, my wife saw unusual lights crossing the night sky outside our home. She called me to quickly come out on the deck to see them. I did so. (Our home sits on a hill facing to the southeast, overlooking the South Park region of the central Colorado Rockies.) There were six yellowish orange (light orange) lights visible at roughly equal intervals, positioned fairly closely together in a 'follow-the-leader' fashion, moving from South to North, at an estimated distance of roughly one mile away from our observation point, low in the sky- (likely less than half a mile above the ground) They were moving at a constant speed and altitude, and no sound was able to be heard. The single light on each object appeared to be emitted form the front of each, relative to the direction of their travel; as they passed and were moving away, the lights began to be blocked progressively by the bulk of each object, so that they were obstructed progressively until they were no longer visible when they were past us by 45 to 50 degrees. The lights were visible for less than 30 seconds. The witness also added that the very next day his brother saw the same light formation pass over.
Amazingly only two minutes after this sighting (23:17) a total of eight orange lights were seen over Cascade, Colorado. The objects reportedly flew from North to South the witness said that he saw the lights enter a cloud but saw only two of the eight lights come out the other side they proceeded off to the distance until they were no longer visible.
After the first wave of sightings yet another wave of amazing encounters would spread across Colorado. A total of four UFO’s were reported between 23:20 and 23:25. One incident occurred at Grand Junction, Colorado and involved a total of six lights again these lights were white in colour. The witness reported the following (note - witness submitted report in capitol letters) FRIENDS AND I WERE ON OUR WAY BACK FROM GLENWOOD SPRINGS, CO IN DEBEQUE CANYON ABOUT 2 MILES EAST OF THE HWY 65 EXIT. THE OTHER 2 WITNESSES WERE IN A DIFFERENT CAR ABOUT A MILE BEHIND ME. SUDDENLY UP IN THE SKY IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CANYON 6 LIGHTS APPEARED, THEY WERE AT EVEN INTERVALS LIKE STEPS, AND WENT UP AT A BOUT A 3O DEGREE ANGLE, AND WERE VREY BRIGHT, AND WERE ALMOST DIRECRTLY ABOVE ME, NO MORE THAN 200 FEET ABOVE. AT FIRST I THOUGHT IT WAS JUST SOME SORT OF REFLECTION, BUT NO OTHER CARS WERE COMING TOWARDS ME. I SLOWED DOWN TO WATCH/LOOK AT THE LIGHTS AND THEY JUST CONTINUED ON FOR ABOUT A MINUTE, THEN DISSAPPEARED OVER THE EDGE OF THE CANYON AND WERE NO LONGER VISABLE, I THEN SLOWED DOWN TO ASK THE GIRLS BEHIND ME IF THEY HAD SEEN THE LIGHTS, BEFORE I HAD A CHANCE TO SAY ANYTHING ONE OF THE GIRLS LEANED OUT HER WINDOW AND ASKED IF I HAD SEEN THE UFO. WE PULLED OVER TO TALK AND REALIZED THERE WAS NO WAY IT COULD HAVE BEEN A REFLECTION SINCE WE BOTH SAW THE EXACT SAME THING AND WERE SO FAR APART. THERE ARE NO OTHER ROADS IN THE CANYON, SO IT COULD NOT HAVE BEEN HEADLIGHTS, AND THERE WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN A PLANE THAT LOW OR THAT LARGE IN THE AREA.
Either after or before this event six white lights were also seen over Silverthorne, Colorado the witness recalled the white lights came toward the house in a completely straight line. The witness was with her husband and they both watched the lights float over a mountain range to the east of their home. They both reported that the end lights suddenly turned red and disappeared right before their eyes.
As well as white lights a report came in from Sedalia, Colorado of a group of 5 extremely bright yellow lights. Two people on a walk witnessed this strange event and reported it to the NUFORC as follows - "A friend and I were walking in a mostly southerly direction along a trail which follows Trout Creek, approximately 4 miles South of Deckers, CO. I was looking towards the moon, which was mostly covered by clouds at the time, when I saw a bright yellowish light which disappeared almost immediately upon my sighting it, my first instinct was that it was a meteor or very large "falling star" and remember saying WOW and then when it disappeared (into a cloud probably?), was starting to ask "did you see that?" when it reappeared followed by 4 additional, equally spaced, equally sized lights moving extremely fast from the Northwest towards the Southeast. My friend also saw the lights after they reappeared and we watched until they disappeared over the Rampart Range. We did disagree about 2 things when we compared remembered details. I thought the lights were in a sort of chevron pattern with 4 lights making up one leg and 1 light down from the point making up the other, he thought it was a straight line. I remember joking at the time that maybe "our" geese had headlights cause I didn't know what we really did see. The other detail we differed on was that I thought the lights were yellowish to white and steady, while he thought they were more yellowish red also steady. We commented on the total silence during the entire event, and both noticed there were no other planes visible until approximately 10 minutes after the lights were out of our view. We were in a valley where any type of jet or plane can be heard long before it is visible. We also agreed that there was no visible craft, we merely saw lights, far below the normal jet space and moving far too rapidly to be small planes or helicopters-that we know of. I'm fairly sure it's an unrelated coincidence, but approximately 40 seconds after we lost sight of the lights, we heard 2 rather muffled rumbles, maybe 2 seconds apart. It was probably thunder, but if so it was the only thunder we heard. That, too, is not terribly unusual in that area."
Another different colour sighting occurred in Boulder, Colorado as around the same time, seconds before or possibly seconds after because of how quick the UFO’s are reported as flying it is very hard to put these sightings into chronological order. The event in Boulder involved four lights one of them was green and the others a sort of red or orange colour. The witness stated that the lights were going at a high speed in linear series beginning from near the ground (the mountains) moving almost in a straight upward.
But after all these events more were still to hit the state the first came with the white lights still out in force a total of four white lights were sighted over Monument Colorado. And were explained as being “star like” in appearance. The witness also recalled the lights being at a high altitude and going at a very high rate of speed travelling in a straight line one behind the other. The witness also stated that at first there were only three lights but seconds after the initial sighting the fourth trailed on behind the first three.
This is the last known event to have taken place in the state of Colorado on the night of October 1st 2006 unless another witness comes forward and reports an event. There were many strange events in Colorado maybe one of the most exciting details of all is the fact that there were seven reports of a collection of white lights it is very possible that the collections of white lights were the same on every report. It is interesting to note that as time went on it seems that the number of white lights seen decreased.
Meanwhile the state of New Mexico was also alive with UFO Activity. The events began with a total of two UFO Sightings between 23:00 and 23:15. One of them took place in Glorieta, New Mexico a resident there witnessed one single large “meteor type” white light. The eyewitness said the following - "I saw a round object through my west-facing living room window at approx 11:00 Sunday evening (Oct 1). My immediate, knee-jerk response was that it was a shooting star, but the object was good-sized (round, white though not overly bright, shaped something like a small but distant moon) and didn't disintegrate, but kept moving intact across the window. I was sitting on the sofa with a friend, saw the object at first out of the corner of my eye, and ran immediately to the deck on the west side to try to see more of it. I live in the mountains in the Santa Fe Nat'l Forest and so what I saw on the deck was through several trees. The object was moving north, into the forest, and by the time I reached my deck it was no longer a pale round object but was something bright, elongated (rectangular like a train with segmented/lighted windows), and it seemed quite close. My friend also saw this (though she did not see the round object through the window because she was sitting with her back to it). I want to add that I am one of the most rational people on the planet, have never given much credence to UFO stories or sightings (though I contingently acknowledge that given the size of the universe, there cannot but be intelligent life somewhere other than here--that's if you take the current situation on this planet as created by "intelligent" life--so I tried to explain the light I saw from my deck: a plane (flying that close and headed directly into a forest? not likely)? a helicopter (there was absolutely no sound)? So I was and am left totally mystified by what this was. I was so curious, in fact, that I convinced my friend to come with me and drive out into the forest in the direction it was headed. We drove for probably ten miles or so on the forest road but saw nothing at all. The next morning I saw on the morning news that other people had reported seeing something which the Los Alamos Lab said was probably a meteor, though it had not registered on their radar (the person interviewed! said this at this might be due to the fact that there was not enough light radiating for the radar to pick up the object--this couldn't possibly be the cause since this object was quite large for a meteor). No one reported seeing anything elongated, such as the object I saw from my deck. I've been watching for more reports about this but have seen nothing else. I'm very curious about any other sightings on that night. Just a note, re. the Colorado sightings on Oct 1--I did not see numerous coloured lights."
The second event occurred in Silver City, New Mexico with the sighting of a glowing blue and white craft the witness stated that the craft was definitely not a meteor or aircraft that he had ever seen before. He reported that the craft was at a very low altitude, made no sound and thought he did not see this event he believes that once out of view the object actually landed somewhere nearby. The witness added the following information to his report - “The next morning, KOAT TV reported that there were sightings of lights in Albuquerque and last night, Art Bell said that he was receiving reports of some kind of lights seen in Washington state.” So the events were reported on TV but it seems they did not go very far after that.
After the first two initial reports a total of six reports were triggered between 23:15 and 23:30 the most noted detail of this set of sightings should be the formations of yellow lights that were seen. Both of these reports came from Raton, New Mexico and detail how a large “Golden Star” broke into three and then into seven UFO’s here is the report from a resident in Raton - “I have been a resident of New Mexico for almost 11 years and have seen a few unusual things in our skies, but nothing like what I saw tonight...nothing I've wanted to report. My daughter and I were outside having a smoke break when she said, "Look!" I turned around and noticed a bright light in the west, moving NE. My first thought was "meteor," although I've never seen a meteor that size. As I watched, the light that appeared as a huge, gold star split into 3, then into 7 smaller "stars." They moved quickly and without sound, travelling in a straight line. We watched them until we could no longer see them.”
After this encounter yet another vigilant resident of Raton, New Mexico encountered these yellow lights the witness reported seeing seven yellow lights it is more than likely that these seven yellow lights were the same lights seen by the witness above. The second witness in Raton reported the following to the NUFORC - “At 11:20, I had stepped outside on my deck and caught something out of the corner of my eye. I turned and saw 7 bright lights gliding silently in a northeast direction. There was no blinking lights, no tails like meteors. Just bright yellow lights that were bigger than stars and closer to earth. I watched them for about 30 seconds and they faded away into the clouds. They were travelling in a straight line. I have seen some strange objects over the years, but none as spectular as this. I felt that this was something I should report.”
If you recall earlier on in this article we mentioned that there was also a report of a formation of yellow lights over Colorado. Meanwhile in Cripple Creek, New Mexico a witness sitting out on the decking at the front of his/her house saw a fireball that seemed to drop small pieces - “On the night of 1 Oct. 2006, at approximately 11:20 pm, I was outside on my deck looking in a West/South-westerly direction when I observed a large "fireball" type of object travelling from ( approximately ) west to east. As I live in the mountains, away from city lights, I am able to see meteorites very regularly. This object was considerably larger, and slower, than any meteorite that I have seen. It appeared to be burning, as something would entering the atmosphere, with a whitish, and briefly green "light" as it progressed through its trajectory. Roughly 5 to 10 seconds after it appeared, it seemed to be break up and shed burning pieces of itself,” dropping" them along its flight path. I was able to observe this object's trajectory until it disappeared from view behind the upper story of my house. I ran to the other end of the deck, but it was no longer visible. At no time did I hear any sound. The object seemed to be at a relatively low altitude ( though it is difficult for me to guess it's altitude with any real accuracy, I would guess it was less than 20,000 feet, and perhaps much lower ) had a very flat trajectory, and did not appear to be descending . My object size estimate relative to the moon, given each objects respective distance to me, would be that the object was 1/15th to 1/20th of the moon size.”
Before these amazing encounters a sighting of a white object was reported in Sante Fe, New Mexico at around 23:15 the witness noticed a white object out of the bathroom window the object then suddenly turned blue and moved away from the window.
Reports were flying in from all around New Mexico but that was not the end of the UFO events of October 1st 2006 more was still to come. Two more reports occurred in the state the first concerning a green UFO took place in Farmington, New Mexico the witness recalled seeing one green lights with green trail going at a high rate of speed suddenly there was an explosion and the green object split into separate objects of the same size and same distance away from on another. Then the light continued on and broke into 4 separate objects of the same size and the same distance away from each other. In the report the witness along with one other who was with the witness at the time said they would like a proper explanation for the events.
The final events of the night took place in San Antonio, New Mexico a man and his wife were travelling in their car when the man suddenly noticed a large white object out the drivers side of the car. The light then proceeded to shoot along to the passenger side in the space of only 4 seconds this move dazzled the man and he noticed a “burner effect” like on a fighter yet he quickly woke his wife who also noticed the “burner effect” The man then brought the car to a complete stop and they both witnessed a huge blast of fire come from the object and shoot out 5 individual orbs of white light that he described as “like a string of pears” he recalled that the sky was lit up for around 5 seconds. The man and his wife say it is an encounter they will never forget. sam@alienationsam.com
Source and References - Peter Davenport of the National UFO Reporting Centre
Written and Researched by Sam Willey
Comments (15)
Please Login or Register to post a comment.