Appearance / Description of Object(s)

The object was approxmiately 15 feet across the "bow" of a cresent-shaped moon, and maybe 7 feet feet long from nose to the two outside tips. The object had no "tail", much like the exposed white of someone's finger nails. I guess it could be described as much like a flying wing, but with curved, rounded edges from the leading edge to the trailing edge. The color of the object could best be described as a dark brown with large black "pot holes" randomly scattered to the underside in various sizes from maybe 3 feet to 1 feet in size across.

Size of Object(s)

The object was an estimated actual size of 15 feet across and 7 feet deep. The relative size, I would estimate to be close enough that I could need to use both hands side by side with the arms stretched out in front of me in order to cover the object from my vision. The height of the object was unknown as we were more or less underneath, but I could not see anything "jutted" above or below the wing area.

Description of Area / Surroundings

The area was suburban college area close to Arizona State University. The exact address was 1111 E. University Drive, Tempe, AZ 85281. At the time, the area the object passed over was an empty dirt lot and there was not even a wall there at the time. Since then there is a large apartment complex. Approximately 1 mile to the north is the flight path for PHX Sky Harbor airport, and that would be "short final" so I find it difficult to believe that someone was flying an aircraft around low at night without lights relatively close to flight path on a perpendicular course. There are also large electric power lines perpendicular to the course of the craft approximately 400 feet from where the craft was seen. There is a power plant about 1/2 mile to the east, and at the time there were two air force bases in the Phoenix area.

Full Description & Details

I don't recall the exact time, but it was approximately 10 pm, and I went to visit a couple of my friends who were hanging out at the condo complex jacuzzi. They had been drinking, while I had not be drinking anything or using any drugs. We were just chilling, facing towards the east looking up high into the night sky watching satellites streaming, and what looked to be a passenger jetliner high above.

Suddenly, as myself and "Stephanie" were looking at the distant plane or satellite (I don't remember which one exactly at that moment), there came a very low flying object from the south which exposed itself from behind a two story condo building, as it flew over what was then a large empty lot. The craft was silent and no lights, flying level, straight and constant speed before it disappeared behind a clubhouse to the north of the pool/jacuzzi area.

When I saw it, I said nothing waiting for someone else to say something first, and Stephanie said, "Do you see that?", and I replied, "Yeah, I saw that." I jumped over the wrought iron pool fence to see the aircraft, and it was gone. Stephanie and I talked about what we saw for that few seconds and we confirmed seeing the same thing. The other person "Ken" did not see anything in large part because he was drunk, not looking in the direction we were looking and did not have his glasses for which he was pretty much blind.

People have often asked me how we could see something in the night sky without lights being on the aircraft, and the best way I can describe is that the ground lights from the condo complex created a silhoutte image, especially at the object was relatively close at approximately 50 feet to where we were located. There was little difficulty in seeing the clear outline of the "cresent" shape and the middle center or body of the aircraft.

It should be noted that the jacuzzi and pool motors were rather noisy, so it is impossible to say that the object had no noise, but we did not hear anything like a plane or jet engine. As far as I was concern, the object was silent. Also because it had no lights on it, if we happened not to be looking upwards at the time of the fly-by, I doubt we would have see the object.

I have never seen anything like that before or since then.

Can sighting be explained as any conventional man-made or natural object?

I discount the object being a bird or planet as it was very close. I have doubts as it being a traditional plane because it was quiet, rather small, not a typical shape, and it had no naviation lighting. Same goes for a helicopted, not to mention the noise. I have doubts about it being a hoax of a balloon or kite as it was steady in flight and there was no one or vehicle underneath which could have towed something, nor was there any visable sign of a rope or tether hanging. The object did not have the "bloated" appearance of a balloon, but a very flat underside and smoothed edges. A kite would have had to bave been huge, and the wind was calm. I have considered a hang glider, but again, I saw no one hanging below the wing, and given it was very close, I figured that I would have seen that, not to mention, who would be hang gliding in a large city at night, and the same goes for a parachute. I have also considered the possibility of a very advanced military drone, but let's remember this was mid-1980s, and this craft would have been advance by even today's standards, and again... the object was silent, and why fly an expensive, classified aircraft very low and into potentially dangerous areas of electric power lines and commerical aircraft flight paths of a residential area in Arizona? I hestitate to call it "alien", but few other explanations make sense.

Witness Background

At the time of incident, I was a college student studying business. Since there I have earned a Masters degree, I have owned a business, worked as an management analyst, and worked around commerical airliners for over a decade.

Views on UFOs, before and after sighting

I usually don't get too excited about some distant object, as it could be anything... light reflections, planets, migrating birds, hoaxes, balloons, etc. I think there are plenty of people who are willing to commit a hoax, and some people just want to believe they saw something. But there are somethings which are more difficult to explain from otherwise reasonable people, although I do wonder if much of the truly high tech stuff is just government test runs.

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