JANUARY 5, 2000
UFO SIGHTING, as reported by the National UFO Reporting Center
At 0316 and 0351 hrs. (Pacific Standard Time) on January 5, the National UFO Reporting Center received two telephone messages from a police officer, employed by the Lebanon, IL, Police Department, apprising our Center that a UFO sighting had occurred in St. Clair County, Illinois, at approximately 0410 hrs. (Central) earlier that morning. National UFO Reporting Center
Later the same morning, we were able to talk to the Officer, who reported to us the following:
At approximately 0410 hrs. (Central), the officer overheard an announcement by the St. Clair (IL) Emergency Dispatch operator that a citizen had entered the Highland, IL, police station, and requested that an officer go outside and view a very peculiar object in the sky, that the citizen had witnessed while on his way to work. The citizen apparently refused to leave the station until a police officer had viewed the object with him.
Having heard the announcement about the incident, the Lebanon police officer looked to the southeast from his location in Lebanon, and noticed an object suspended in the sky, which was extremely bright, and which looked like two very bright lights located quite close to one another. The two lights were radiating so much light that the spectacle looked like the Japanese "Rising Sun" symbol on the horizon.
The officer began driving south and east in attempt to approach the object. He turned his overhead flashers on, and at times was driving at high speed toward the object, which was still generally to the southeast of his position. After a short period of time, the two lights appeared to merge into one light, and the officer realized that the object appeared to be traveling toward him. He stopped his vehicle, extinguished his overhead flashers, and rolled down the window on the passenger side of his vehicle.
The object was approaching his position, and passed, at an estimated altitude of 1,000 to 1,500 feet, within an estimated 100 feet of the officer's location, headed generally to the west, or northwest. The object was distinctly triangular in shape, when viewed from below.
At this point, the object suddenly accelerated quite dramatically, and seemed to "streak" to the west, covering several miles, the officer estimated, in just a few seconds. The officer had been in touch with St. Clair County Emergency Dispatch, apprising them that he had the object in sight, and advising them as to the direction it was moving. He recommended that they contact units to the west of his position, e.g. Millstadt and Dupo, to have the officers there attempt to spot the object.
An officer from the Millstadt Police Department, with whom we also spoke, overheard the broadcast, and moved his cruiser to a dark part of that town to see if he could spot the object in the night sky. He quickly spotted the object to the west, at approximately 45 degrees above the horizontal plane, and gauged its size as "huge." He estimated that it was "one or two stories" tall, and perhaps "three stories long." It had several very bright lights on it.
St. Clair Dispatch requested that the officer attempt to get a photograph of the object, which he was able to do with the polaroid-type camera stored in the trunk of his cruiser. Because the outside temperature was low, approximately 18-20 degrees (F), neither the camera, nor the film functioned well, so the resolution of the photograph is not good.
After the Millstadt officer had taken the photograph, the object appeared to move further to the west, moving toward Dupo, IL, and St. Louis, MO. A Dupo police officer may have witnessed the object, as well, and officers from Shiloh, IL, may have seen the object, too.
At one point during the sighting, we estimate, the object was within 2-3 statute miles of Scott Air Force Base. That base apparently has announced that their tower was closed at the time of the sighting, and that none of their personnel was aware of the sighting, and none had seen the object.
We have an unconfirmed report that jet fighters from a nearby Air National Guard unit may have been "scrambled" to take a look at the object. The nearest ANG unit we are aware of is the Missouri Air National Guard, which flies F-15's out of Lambert Field/St. Louis Airport. We have a second hand report that personnel at the airport witnessed a take-off of F-15's at approximately 0420 hrs. that morning.
Also, we have received a report from a woman who was driving to work that morning and witnessed the object. We are awaiting her written report.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper published an article about the incident, and several St. Louis television news programs covered the incident, as well, including interviews with at least one of the police officers who had witnessed the object.
If anyone was witness to the object described above, we would be grateful if they would submit a brief written report, preferably using the Online Report Form.
This report prepared by: Peter B. Davenport, Director, on Monday, January 10, 2000, at 2300 hrs. (Pacific). Comments may be directed to him at director@ufocenter.com.
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