SIGHTING: TRIPOLI (LIBYA)

Witness Testimony

"Lights in sky (mars brightness) seen several nights in a row by USAF members at Wheelus AFB.After finishing a graveyard shift, a number of other airmen and myself would often hang out at the basketball court at the 6930th RGM at Wheelus AFB in Tripoli, Libya. One such morning I looked to the north and saw a light sweeping across the sky with a very slight undulating path. I pointed it out and we all speculated what it might be. (this was a bunch of pretty smart guys due to our mission) We discounted inversion reflections, F-86D with afterburners (no satellites yet!) meteors. While speculating, here comes another one! Well for three nights in a row, we saw 4 to ten in one night. Although they were comeing from different parts of the norther horizon, they seemed to vanish pretty nearly the same place on the southern. (as determined by a fiducial point, an antenna)The path, when check on a map, was straight across the libyan desert crossing the Tbilsi Mountains.I did talk to an airman at the A C & W squadron (radar) after hearing the F-86D's scramble obviously in response to these odd lights. He said, "Oh, Yeah. We see these all the time" and quoted a speed I can't remember but was very fast.(it was odd to scramble jets at that time of the morning unless it was for an earnest cause- the officers do like their sleep!)"