300 Witnesses Stunned
Defense officials are investigating after hundreds of eyewitnesses saw fighter jets chasing 10 to 12 fluorescent orbs at high speed.In 2008, up to 300 people witnessed the 2 F-16 jets chasing up to 12 of the unidentified objects.
The implausible claim became plausible to those who saw it when the U.S. Air Force denied it had jets in the air, only to later concede its aircraft was in the sky.
Despite what they called an internal communications error, military chiefs refused to acknowledge the mile wide line of purported UFOs near the remote town of Stephenville.
Now, 15 years later, footage from the incident is being probed by the All Domain Anomaly Resolution Office on behalf of the the U.S. Defense Department.
National Geographic's new series UFOs:
Investigating The Unknown confirmed the existence of the radar footage and also had an eyewitness describe the close encounter.
Lee Roy Gaten, a police officer, said he looked out of his car and saw 10 to 12 fluorescent orbs.
He said:
They were moving really quickly and then they stopped and then they shot off.
Private airline pilot Steve Allen, who was camping out with pals nearby, also told the series he noticed some lights coming at us at a very high rate of speed.
He added:
We saw craft coming from the East going West.
They had extremely large lights like a magnesium flare.
It almost burnt your eyes to look at it.
It was moving extremely fast, faster than any normal aircraft.
As we watched it we saw there were 2 F-16 jets in hot pursuit after it, chasing it.
It was unbelievable.
It left us all in shock.
It was out of this world.
Speaking to NPR at the time, Claudette Odom said she, her husband and 2 friends were clearing brush near her home in Stephenville at around 6:00 p.m.
While standing on top of a hill with good visibility, Claudette said she saw an object approach out of the West.
I've never seen anything that fast.
Maybe a rocket or a missile or something, she told the broadcaster.
She then claimed the group watched the aircraft approach Stephenville and then silently hover outside the outskirts of town.
Claudette added lights on the aircraft flickered then went solid, shaping into a massive arch, before forming a single bright vertical line that split into 2 lines.
She added that they were extremely, extremely bright, like an arc on a welder, they were that sharp.
After the military's denial and subsequent concession about the fighter jets, Claudette said I don't know what they're trying to cover up.