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Craig R Lang Certified Hypnotherapist
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Unexplained Phenomena and Extraordinary Experiences
Type
of Report: Close Encounter of the First
kind – Nocturnal Lights at
Date
of Report: November, 2002
Investigator: Craig R. Lang MS, CHt – MN MUFON
Date/Time
of Sighting: 11 October, 2001 8:45 PM CST
for approximately 5 minutes.
Place
of Sighting: Lake Elmo MN - 10th Street,
between Hwy 19 and
Local
Evaluation: Unexplained
Witness
Description
The
witness is a 51 year old (at the time of the sighting) female. She is employed as medical technical worker
(details withheld for anonymity). She
holds a college degree and additional professional training. She indicates that her vision is correctable
to 20/20 with glasses, which she was wearing at the time of the sighting. She indicates that her health and hearing are
good. She has had on other major
sightings or anomalous experiences.
Additional
Note: Her mother also had a sighting two
days earlier, which we are investigating.
This will be described is a subsequent report.
Sighting
Background
The
witness contacted me by telephone, and subsequently attended the November, 2002
Minnesota MUFON meeting. I subsequently
interviewed her, and investigated possible prosaic explanations. At this point, I have not found any consistent
non-anomalous explanations for this sighting.
Investigation,
Activity Log and Interviews:
The
witness initially called me in November 2002, and attended the Nov 9, 2002
MUFON meeting, where she described her sighting.
I
interviewed her on 12 Nov 2002
I
interviewed her mother on a separate but related sighting on 14 Nov, 2002
Subsequent
calls with primary witness in November, December, of 2002 and January 2003 to
determine possible investigation paths.
2
January, 2003 call to Junior High School
12
January, call to police/fire/sheriff offices
2
Feb, 2003 contacted nearby residences.
29
March, 2003 Draft report.
Sighting
Account
The
witness was driving east on 10th street, which passes along the
south boundary of Lake Elmo park reserve.
While on 10th St., just after having turned onto it from Hwy
19, well prior to reaching the intersection with Lake Elmo Ave N., she noticed
a bright light directly ahead in the distance (low the eastern sky).
Figure 1: Map of
sighting location
She
often sees aircraft in this direction and initially felt that the light might
have been an approaching airplane. As
she watched, she noted that the light was getting brighter, and at this point
she felt that it no longer resembled an aircraft.
At
a point about ½ of the way between Hwy 19 and Lake Elmo Ave N. she noted that
the light was accompanied by a second light.
She theorized that this might be a helicopter. She rolled down the driver’s side window to
listen for any sound, but did not hear anything unusual.
She
came to a stop at the stop sign at the intersection of 10th St. and
Lake Elmo Ave N. At this point, she
noticed that the light had brightened still further, and now appeared to be
more of a chevron shape. She felt at
this point, that the object was considerably larger than an aircraft. She also noted that it appeared to be
descending, and moving to the right.
As
she accelerated east from the stop sign at the intersection with Lake Elmo Ave
N. her view of the object was briefly obscured by some trees. A moment later, when she had moved past the
trees, she observed a large chevron shaped row of lights (see object
description, below) at the tree line, to the right of the road. The object appeared to be atop, or behind,
the hill to the south of the road, and seemed to be hovering at treetop level.
She
slowed the car to a speed less than 20 MPH (typical speeds on this stretch of
road are about 60MPH), and rolled down the right window. She observed that the object lit up the tree
tops, and appeared to have a length of about “six tree-widths”. She describes feeling a sense that this was
“not normal”, and seemed menacing.
She
arrived at the stop sign at the corner of 10th St. and Manning Ave. and
turned left onto Manning Ave. She
observed in her rear view mirror, that the trees were lit up, apparently from
the object, but was unable to see the object at that point.
She
noted that there were several Qwest (Telephone Company) workers at the intersection,
apparently working on a telephone utility box at the corner. She observed that they did not seem to notice
the nearby lights.
Object
Description
The
following drawing is a witness sketch of the object as she observed it just
over the tree line. She describes the
length of the light formation as being equivalent to approximately four to six
tree-widths.
Figure 2: witness sketch of lights/object above tree line
Note:
Although a structure associated with the lights is suggested by the drawing,
she indicates that she was not able to discern any platform or structure, and
that the lights were as bright as those of an athletic field. She describes the lights as being extremely
bright, lighting up the tree tops. They
were white, and did not vary in position, form or intensity. They appeared to be circular in shape,
although the brightness made it difficult to discern actual shape.
Additional
Witnesses:
None
are known. At least one nearby residence
had a clear view of the object’s apparent location behind the junior high
school. A check with nearby residents
indicated that they had not seen anything unusual at the time of the sighting.
A
check with the principal of the junior high school indicated that no unusual
activity had been reported there, and that no activities were underway that
night, such as sports events, etc. (see phenomena check, below for more on this
possibility).
In
addition, there were several other potential witnesses which have not yet been
located or contacted:
The
primary witness indicated that there was a telephone company repair truck on
the south-eastern corner of the Manning Ave. – 10th St.
intersection. Workers were outside of
the truck and may have noticed the lights, although there was no indication of
this.
The
primary witness also indicated that there was other traffic on the road. Thus, other drivers may have noticed
something unusual.
A
check with the sheriff’s department indicated no other police calls regarding
UFO sightings, but there was one noise complaint regarding a recreational
all-terrain vehicle on a trail behind the trailer park. It is possible that someone associated with
this might have observed the event.
Weather
Conditions:
The
witness describes the weather conditions as clear and calm.
The
weather conditions (obtained from the Weather Underground website
(www.wunderground.com) for the night of October 11, 2001 were as follows:
Few (if any) clouds at 6500 feet
Wind: calm
Temperature:
48 deg F. Dew Pt: 40 deg F.
Humidity: 85%
Visibility: 10+ miles (unlimited)
This
corresponds closely with the witness’ description.
Natural
and Artificial Phenomena Check:
The
following are possible null hypotheses for this sighting:
Initial sighting of light in the eastern sky: Possible aircraft on approach.
This possibility can not be eliminated based
upon the witness’ description of the light as she first saw it. The description of the subsequent “chevron”
shape, and her impression of the size of the object once it had brightened,
argues against (but does not conclusively refute) this explanation.
In addition, both the witness and her husband
are knowledgeable regarding aircraft.
She indicates that she often sees aircraft on approach to MSP airport
from the location of the sighting. Thus
the probability is somewhat reduced that she would have misidentified an
aircraft on approach.
The close-up sighting of the lights at the tree line:
Explanations considered were sports or emergency
lighting. A check with the school
indicated that there were no outdoor sporting events that evening. Furthermore, the school principal indicated
that night sports activities were played at the Sr. High School, rather than at
this location.
A check with the sheriff’s office and the Lake
Elmo fire department indicated that there were no reports of unusual activity,
and no emergency exercises. There were
no events which would have employed a large battery of lights.
Other
Possibilities:
The
“non-null” hypothesis would be that the object was an anomalous craft, which
had descended from the eastern sky, and had landed in the field behind the
junior high school.
Sighting
Evaluation:
Close
up sighting: Unexplained.
Initial
lights in eastern sky: If we assume that
the approaching-aircraft explanation does not apply then this can be classed as
a probable unexplained.
