SIGHTING: RUTLEDGE, TN

Witness Testimony

" Huge beam of light in night sky from horizon to horizon with perfectly straight edges.I witnessed a white beam stretching across a clear night sky. It went from horizon to horizon directly overhead going from northeast to southwest, and was perfectly straight and still. It was the same shade of white throughout and about the width of a football field. I was night fishing on Cherokee Lake when this occurred on a calm, beautiful night. No other boats or people were visible anywhere due to being late on a Sunday. After about 10 minutes, the perfect beam started to deform and shift just like a cloud does. I watched the vapor/mist or whatever it was, slowly get wider and wider, ever so slowly drifting to the north. After an hour, it looked like a normal huge cloud in the sky. I was trying to record it and take pictures with my smart phone several times. All were unsuccessful except on one picture which I took at 22:54. I zoomed all the way in and got a portion of it on the image. A straight edge and part of the beam are visible in the picture. There is a slight variation on the bottom right of the image, probably due to my boat light to my right. It was truly amazing and mysterious.((NUFORC Note: We spoke via telephone with the witness, and he seemed to us to be quite serious-minded and sincere. I have looked at the photos provided, and I do not see the objects described in the report. I see a small "smudge" on the left side of one of the still photos, but I do not see anything that I would characterize as a white "stripe" across the sky. Even if it is in the photo, I wonder whether the object might have been a contrail behind a high-altitude aircraft. The witness also reported a second separate sighting at 22:56 hrs. at the same location, and on the same date. PD)) "