Dozens Claim They Spotted UFO in Texas
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Day to Day, January 16, 2008 · Faster than a speeding bullet — and bigger than a Wal-Mart.
That’s how residents near the west Texas town of Stephenville described an object they spotted in the sky one night last week.
Dozens
of the town’s residents — including a pilot and a police officer — said
a UFO hovered over the farming community for about five minutes last
Tuesday before streaking away into the night sky.
Pilot
Steve Allen saw the object when he was out clearing brush off a hilltop
near the town of Silden. Allen described the unidentified object as
being an enormous aircraft with flashing strobe lights — and it was
totally silent.
He said the UFO sped
away at more than 3,000 mph, followed by two fighter jets that were
hopelessly outmaneuvered. Allen said it took the aircraft just a few
seconds to cross a section of sky that it takes him 20 minutes to fly
in his Cessna.
The veteran pilot said the UFO, an estimated half-mile wide and a mile long, was "bigger than a Wal-Mart."
Military Dismisses Sighting
The Stephenville Empire-Tribune,
which has written about the mysterious object, said about 40 people saw
the thing — though some were too sheepish to admit the sighting until
others came forward.
Police officer
Leroy Gatin said he was walking to his car when he saw a red glow that
reminded him of pictures he’d seen of an erupting volcano.
He
said the object was suspended 3,000 feet in the air. Gatin said he was
so awestruck that he called his son to come and see — but he didn’t
talk much about it until he saw a story about a UFO in the local paper.
Military
officials, however, were skeptical. They said the residents are letting
their imaginations run wild and passed it off as an optical illusion.
They said it was likely nothing more than a reflection of sunlight on
two airliners.
Officials at a nearby air force base also said their fighter pilots didn’t chase down anything that night.
The incident was eerily similar to a UFO sighting a little more than a year ago at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.
As many as 12 United Airlines employees spotted the object and filed reports with United.
Reported by Wade Goodwyn; written and edited by Deborah Tedford
