SIGHTING: WINTHROP, WA

Witness Testimony

"Between 2:25 p.m. and 2:35 p.m. on August 1st, 2008, I witnessed what I believe was an F14 jet pursue a circular/oval shaped wingless object. I was on the lawn of a mountain resort in north central Washington state, having a telephone conversation with my brother. The area was being prepared for a corporate dinner by the hotel staff. The jet passed 1000-2000 feet over the hotel at high speed in a northerly direction and began a near vertical climb. The jet had vapor trails off its wing-tips and behind it. Just as it began its climb I saw a circular/oval shaped object above the jet at about a 75°. At first I thought the oval object was just slightly larger than the jet but then realized at the speed it was going I couldn’t tell how far in front of the jet it was. It was climbing much faster than the jet and seemed to accelerate at an impossible rate until it disappeared in the blue sky. Both the jet and the object seemed to be the same light color in the bright sunlight. I did not see any markings on the Jet or the oval object. The jet climbed to 20,000 to 25,000 feet before leveling off in a westerly direction. I only heard the sound of one jet, I could not discern any noise whatsoever from the oval object.As soon as I saw the oval object I yelled at my wife who was close by in the swimming pool area. Her view was blocked by trees and she could not see the jet or the other object. There were three women close to me who had the same view as I did. I asked one of the women if she saw it too and she said she saw it but she did not know what she saw. I asked her if she saw any wings on the object and she said she did not. A waiter appeared and I described what I had seen to him. He said that he had seen things like that before in this location and had assumed the jets were practicing with some kind of remote controlled aircraft. I told him that the object had no wings and travelled at an impossible speed for any known aircraft. He seemed nonplussed.The entire time this took place I was in cell phone contact with my brother so he heard the events unfold as they happened. This is a photo of my location when I heard the jet approaching. these pictures were taken shortly after the event.You can see the weather conditions were mostly sunny at the time. The temperature was in the low 80’s.I have a lot of experience around military aircraft at air shows around the country, I am very familiar with military aircraft sounds and maneuvers, I am used to working very close to operational military aircraft of all size and description. I spoke with a friend of mine who was a fighter pilot and described my experience. He said that if the military was training in that area it would be a restricted air space which he doubted it was. I checked online and saw that it was listed as MOA (Military Operations Area) temporarily through August 4.I believe this is the type of aircraft I saw and about the same color. This photo has been flipped horizontally and rotated to a vertical aspect. My view was somewhat similar to this.((NUFORC Note: Witness sends illustration of F-14 jet, which he indicates was most like the jet he says he witnessed. We have encouraged the witness to have hotel employees submit reports, as well. PD))"