SIGHTING: TUNICA RESORTS, MISSISSIPPI (UNITED STATES)

Witness Testimony

"At roughly 00:12 on August 15th 2003 I was driving west down Counce Rd. toward Mississippi Hwy. 3 when I slowed down to see if I could pinpoint an odd sound coming from my truck. I rolled the window down to listen for the sound then sped up to see if acceleration had any effect on the noise. About thirty to forty-five seconds of driving at about 20mph a coyote ran out in front of the truck crossing Counce Rd. headed north causing me to stop. I watched the coyote run down the embankment and into a field. He stopped directly next to a telephone pole. As I was still stopped looking at the coyote I noticed a light that at first I believed was connected to the pole. About 35 to 40 degrees above the horizon I saw three bright semi-pulsating lights in a triangular formation. My first thought was they were helicopters in a tight formation. Then I considered airplanes taking off from the Memphis airport. I've lived in Memphis most of my life and am very familiar with the take off/landing patterns of planes as FedEx has their main hub there. This time of night was about right for the first inbound flights of the night. I leaned over to the passenger side window and looked back east and could see planes lined up for landing in the distance...their front main white and red blinking tail and wing lights small but clearly visible. I looked back to the lights still hoovering in the same position and considered that perhaps it was a cellphone tower that was not too far away. I looked east again and spotted the tower blinking red.At this point I started driving again 20-30mph only taking my eyes off the lights for a few seconds to keep the truck on the road. This is the Delta, and farms are everywhere. There were no obstruction to my visibility and the lights were situated perfectly above one of the fields. I was trying to figure out the distance when what I think was a helicopter passed between the two lower light in a downward angled path, that's when I realized they were either huge, or huge and farther away as the helicopter seemed like only a red blinking speck.By this time I had reached the intersection of Counce Rd. and MS HWY 3. My view was obstructed for a second or two as I turned right on to HWY.3. I considered trying to take video but figured it would look like every other dark and blurry night shots I'd ever seen. Instead I called my friend...it was exactly 00:14. Right when she answered the bottom right light shot quickly away to the east and stopped...pulsated different colors for a short time...three seconds at most then began to slowly move east until it completely disappeared. It reminded me of someone turning off a flashlight. The top and bottom left lights remained in position until I reached the intersection of HWY 3 and Old Mississippi 304/713 when the top light began to slowly pulsate as the first but did not accelerate, instead it appeared to move slowly north or northeast and disappeared as the first did.Only the bottom left light remained. It did not move. It remained stationary and pulsated as the other two then slowly dimmed and disappeared. I ended the conversation with my friend, and said I'd be back shortly.Last night was perfectly clear and cool, odd for mid-August in Mississippi, so the humidity was low as was the haze. It almost felt like fall.Before I returned home I made a loop re-driving my route. At 00:42 I stopped the truck again on Counce Rd., but this time got out. There were still planes lined up for landing, but realized that where I had seen the lights were well southeast of the airport. They were perfectly framed by a horizon of trees, cropland, and stars above."I can't f**king believe this!" was on continuous replay in my head, and apparently vocally as well. As my friend related after I returned home "You kept repeating their formation, movements, and the pulsating white, blue, and green lights...and 'I can't f**king believe this'.I attached two sketches and a photo for what they're worth. Clearly, for some reason I omitted the pole in both sketches. 1855 - I did this morning1856 - was done after I returned home last night.6884 - pic I took this afternoon of location. cell phone tower is in middle right above trees."