SIGHTING: TONOPAH, NEVADA (UNITED STATES)

Witness Testimony

"Civil Air Patrol field trip from Carson City High School. Southbound on US 95. Object sighted when we got to about N 38.04917 W 117.89841 on US 95. About 12 or so students, parents and teacher. All of us were in a school bus.Object first sighted on the western horizon and moved eastward across the sky and then out of sight behind hills. The object was brilliant and illuminated everything within the visible horizon. Object reached a peak angle of about 45 degrees above the horizon. Colors of vegetation and soil in the distance was easily discernible. Reading of magazine/newsprint inside the bus was possible from reflected light.No sound was noted. No tail as in a meteor/bolide. No smoke. No flashing lights. No object attached to the light that we could discern.Total time object visible was probably two minutes plus or minus.We had no notions of what the object was other than a bright, round light.After the object moved behind the hills to the east it got dark instantly. After another minute or so we noted a bright flash over the horizon. Our immediate concern was that the object may have started a wildland fire.After arriving in Tonopah the teacher/driver called authoritys to report the incident. Again our major concern was wildfire not so much what the object may have been.We spent the next three days hiking in the Tempiute/Mt Irish area with no further incidents. To this day, none of us has ever been interviewed about the event to my knowledge.We had a camera but were not able to retrieve it in time."