SIGHTING: ATHOL, IDAHO (UNITED STATES)

Witness Testimony

"I was standing in our front yard, on the north side of the house, enjoying a clear, starlit sky that included the Milky Way slightly to the east and overhead. Facing west, my attention was turned upward to movement in the sky at what would be approximately 260-265 degrees on a compass rose. I looked up to see, at an angle of about 30 degrees, two bright lights (brighter than any of the stars then visible) approaching me at a very high rate of speed, descending in a "swooping" motion much like a military aircraft on a strafing run. It was as if the lights were on the opposite forward wing tips of an aircraft, but there was nothing between them to block out the background sky/stars. I immediately saw that the lights were rotating clockwise (as they appeared to me), as if an airplane were in a roll to its left. There was no sound whatsoever, but it was very clear that whatever they were, they were headed directly at me, on a glide path (if one can call it that) that was rapidly closing, and I experienced the momentary fear that I might be under attack. As I watched its approach, I called to my girlfriend, who was in the hosue, to come out. After about one-and-a-half revolutions of the "object(s)", it/they suddenly stopped moving towards me; the light that was then at the top of the circle they were describing broke off and headed east, still at a high rate of speed (much faster than the satellite we observed a few minutes later), while the second, lower, light "parked" where it was. By now my girlfriend had joined me, and we both watched as the first light streaked across the sky eastward. As it approached the center peaked portion of our roof, we moved several steps to the east to pick it up visually on the other side of the peak; it never reappared. When we looked back to the location where the second light had stopped, it, too, was gone. Neither of us heard any sound or felt any phyhsical sensations at any time during the event, but we were both amazed at what we had seen. I, especailly, was taken by the event, as I had seen much more of it. I am still wondering what I saw, of course; there was and is a mix of feelings, from fear that this might be some sort of an attack to wonder at the incredible precision of the movements and speed at which they took place. I never dreamed that I would personally witness such a thing, but, in retrospect, it was an amazing, enjoyable experience (enjoyable once I realized it was NOT an attack, of course), and I'll never forget it."