THINK ABOUTIT UFO SIGHTINGS REPORT

2017: The Santa Rosa Rectangular Craft

Driving home around 6:45 p.m. on January 28, 2017, a woman in Santa Rosa, California noticed a bright light in the sky she first took for a planet. Her boyfriend disagreed as it kept getting closer, and within moments a massive, wingless, rectangular object was passing directly over their car, close enough that they could make out red and green blinking lights along its underside. Shaken, they drove the mile home still trying to process what they’d seen, arriving to find police cars heading toward the direction the object had come from. From their house, they watched it climb, hover in place for about ten minutes, and slowly recede until it vanished, followed shortly after by the loud, fast passage of what they took to be a pursuing aircraft.

Date: January 28, 2017

Sighting Time: 6:45 p.m.

Day/Night: Night

Location: Santa Rosa, California, near the Charles M. Schulz–Sonoma County Airport (STS), a regional airport with regular commercial, corporate, and general aviation traffic located northwest of the city

Urban or Rural: Urban residential

No. of Entity(s): Not Applicable

Entity Type: Not Applicable

Entity Description: Not Applicable

Hynek Classification: NL — Nocturnal Light. A point or extended luminous source observed at night, though the reported proximity (directly over the witnesses’ vehicle) would arguably support CE-I consideration as well.

Duration: Approximately 10 minutes of hovering, following the initial low-altitude pass

No. of Object(s): 1, followed later by a separate aircraft the witnesses interpreted as a pursuer

Description of the Object(s): A massive, wingless, rectangular and elongated craft with red and green blinking lights visible along its underside; red and green paired lighting is the standard, universally required color convention for aircraft navigation lights (red on the left/port side, green on the right/starboard side), a detail not addressed in the original report (see Researcher’s Notes)

Shape of Object(s): Rectangular, long, wingless

Size of Object(s): Described as massive, long enough to cover a significant portion of the sky

Color of Object(s): Red and green blinking lights on the underside

Distance to Object(s): Passed directly over the witnesses’ car at low altitude

Height & Speed: Described as slowly climbing higher before disappearing; the separate pursuing aircraft was described as moving at “tremendous” speed with a loud engine sound

Number of Witnesses: 2 (an anonymous woman and her boyfriend); this site’s legacy field data listed “Multiple,” which is not supported by the account itself, describing only the couple in the car

Special Features/Characteristics: Witnesses saw police vehicles heading toward the direction of the sighting as they arrived home, though no confirmed connection between that police activity and the sighting itself is established in the source material; witnesses captured video of the object while it hovered; a separate aircraft, heard at high speed and volume, passed shortly after the object’s disappearance and was interpreted by the witnesses as following it; case was submitted to and reportedly investigated by MUFON

Case Status: Insufficient Data — a single-couple sighting with no independent corroboration, and a lighting description (paired red and green lights) that matches standard, universally mandated aircraft navigation lighting, a conventional explanation not addressed in the original account

Source: MUFON

Summary/Description: A couple driving home in Santa Rosa, California around 6:45 p.m. on January 28, 2017 watched a bright light they initially took for a planet approach and resolve into a massive, wingless, rectangular object passing directly over their car, showing red and green blinking lights on its underside. Arriving home about a mile later, they saw police cars heading toward the sighting’s direction and continued watching the object hover for roughly ten minutes before it climbed and receded from view. Shortly afterward, they heard and saw a separate, fast-moving aircraft they took to be in pursuit. The case was submitted to MUFON.

Related Cases: None documented

Full Report

A couple has claimed that they saw police cars racing to the area of the UFO sighting. The woman reported to the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) that they could not understand what took place as they drove home. The anonymous reporting witness said that she was with her boyfriend in the car when she noticed a bright light in the sky. She thought it was a planet, but her boyfriend did not believe so, as the object started getting closer and closer.

Before they knew it, the mysterious aerial object was flying directly over their car. It came so close to them that they could see details underneath the craft. They saw red and green blinking lights in the belly of the wingless, rectangular, and long craft.

The couple could not comprehend what they witnessed while driving about a mile to their home. When they arrived home, they saw police cars heading toward the direction of the suspected sighting. They could still see the object from their house. They noticed it went back higher in the sky, hovered in the same spot for around ten minutes, and then went back in the direction it first appeared.

The couple captured video of the object while it hovered high up in the sky. It reportedly got higher in the sky slowly and further away until it disappeared from their sight. Soon after its disappearance, the couple saw a plane at tremendous speed that appeared to follow the object. They heard a loud sound from the aircraft, as if it were going incredibly fast.

The incident reportedly took place in Santa Rosa, California at 6:45 p.m. on January 28, 2017. MUFON investigated the case.

RESEARCHER’S NOTES

Santa Rosa, 2017 — A Lighting Description That Matches Standard Aviation Convention

• Red and green paired lighting is the universal aircraft navigation standard, not an unusual feature. Under FAA and international aviation regulations, all powered aircraft are required to display a red light on the left (port) wingtip and a green light on the right (starboard) wingtip, specifically so observers can judge an aircraft’s orientation and direction of travel at night. A witness seeing paired red and green lights on the underside or “belly” of a passing object at low altitude is describing exactly the lighting pattern a conventional aircraft, seen from below and behind at an unfamiliar angle, would produce. This is a specific, checkable detail that argues for a mundane explanation rather than against one, and it does not appear to have been considered in the original account or MUFON write-up.
• Santa Rosa has a real, active regional airport nearby with regular mixed traffic. The Charles M. Schulz–Sonoma County Airport, located northwest of the city, serves commercial, corporate, and general aviation aircraft, including a documented history of intense firefighting-aircraft activity during wildfire season. A witness unfamiliar with the appearance of an aircraft on approach or departure at close range and low altitude at night, especially without a reference object for scale or distance, is a well-documented source of “massive,” oddly-shaped UFO descriptions.
• Witness count corrected. This site’s legacy field data listed “Multiple” witnesses; the account describes only the anonymous reporting woman and her boyfriend, both in the same vehicle.
• The “pursuing aircraft” and the police cars are both plausibly unrelated to the object itself. A second, unrelated aircraft passing loudly overhead shortly after the first sighting, and police vehicles observed heading in a general direction, are both common enough occurrences that neither should be assumed connected to the reported object without independent confirmation, which is not present in the source material.
• The video, if it exists as described, has not been independently analyzed. No frame analysis, distance calculation, or comparison against known flight paths or radar data for that evening has been documented for this entry.

A couple watched something large, rectangular, and lit in red and green pass low over their car near a working regional airport, and understandably found the experience frightening and strange. The specific lighting they describe, however, is the exact pattern every aircraft in the sky is required by law to display. Absent an independent check against that night’s actual air traffic, this remains an open case built on a description that fits a conventional explanation about as well as it fits anything else.

“They saw red and green blinking lights in the belly of the wingless, rectangular and long craft.” — witness account, Santa Rosa, California, January 28, 2017