SIGHTING: KECHI, KANSAS (UNITED STATES)

Witness Testimony

"My children, *(Names deleted--CMS/sg) and I **(Wit's name deleted--CMS/sg) were going out to eat, driving in our minivan. As we turned eastward onto Oak Tree Lane I saw an arc of bright, well-defined orange light to the East, in the direction of the town of Benton, Ks. At first I thought it might be a reflection so I pulled forward several yards but its aspect did not change. I said to the kids, "Hey, kids, what's that light." The boys confirmed that they, too saw the light. I pulled up again, just to be sure. Sketching the object afterwards, the width of the bands of light were approximately one twelfth the length. The color was a bright orange. The object was slightly less than the diameter of the full moon. As we sat at the crest of the small hill, we noticed that the light was not moving relative to the ground, but that it seemed to be rotating. There appeared to be three ribbons of orange light. In appearance, it was like someone had put a broad strip of neon lights, each covering about a hundred and twenty degrees of arc, around a disk, leaving uneven gaps of twenty to sixty degrees. The gaps conveyed the sense of rotation as they moved from South to North from our perspective. The rotation rate was very slow, completing one arc-length every ten seconds or so, for a total of perhaps thirty seconds per apparent rotation. The intensity of the light varied only as the edge of one arc disappeared and the next came into view. I looked down at the clock to check the time. The clock read 8:32.The lights completed three apparent rotations, so we saw it for roughly a minute to a minute and a half. After the final rotation the edge just rotated out of sight and was not replaced. We lost sight of the lights.I located the full moon which was behind low-lying clouds. It was significantly South of the object we saw. There is a small airport nearby. We watched a small aircraft approach for a landing for comparison and the difference between it and what we had seen was stark. There is an Air Force Base, McConnell, South of nearby Wichita. I have seen all manner of military aircraft, including F-117's and B-2's. Again, not in the least like this.Given the altitude of the clouds and the elevation off of the horizon of this object (roughly forty degrees), it could not have been very far away, at most perhaps a mile. It was clearly beneath the clouds and lower than the later-approaching small aircraft, as no clouds obscured our view of the object while the aircraft was in and out of the clouds at a simlar point. We were also sufficiently close to see the curvature of the object as the lights rotated around. We could not, however, see any structure.My initial thought was that I was seeing a reflection. When I saw the rotation the experience seemed surreal. Our reaction was, "Are we really seeing this?" We talked about what we were seeing as we watched it. Afterwards I called my wife, who was working, and my best friend who was at home and described the event briefly to each, as did my children."