Three residents in Nyssa and one in Ontario said they saw bright lights in the night sky Tuesday and Wednesday that were unlike anything they had ever seen before.
A clear, official explanation for what they saw, however, has yet to materialize.
The people said they did not want their names released, though, because they fear the community will think they are "crazy."
The bizarre light incident in the sky occurred between 9:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. both nights.
"I don't think it was from here," a 33-year-old Nyssa resident, who is truck driver and private pilot in training, said. "Every time I say that I want to kick myself. I know it sounds crazy. Man this is nuts, but whatever it was, it wasn't from here. Whether the government's got something funny flying around, I don't know, but we couldn't tell what it was."
The Nyssa man said the object appeared to boast one, distinctive characteristic.
"It was round," the Nyssa man said. "It was able to maintain an altitude, it flew without any relative movement. I don't know how it was developing lift. It was so big. I know it sounds nuts but it just kind of vanished into thin air. I had a pilot friend of mine who wanted to fly out to it and my wife was like 'no way.' I don't know what it was, all I can say is, it wasn't from here."
A female Nyssa resident who spotted the object said she was surprised.
"I'm 67 years old and I've never seen anything like that in my life," she said. "The way the lights came on, one time it had one big light, then it had three or four lights all together. It was weird, it was really weird. It didn't make any noises. It was in the distance, you knew it wasn't fire or a plane. A plane doesn't travel like that."
A mother from Nyssa was driving home Tuesday night when she said she saw the unfamiliar object in the sky. It looked saucer-shaped and was lighted, and then she saw the lights again Wednesday, she said.
"It was the strangest thing I've ever seen," the mother said. "Yellow lights were huge and changed shape. It was there one minute, then disappeared off into different spots."
The mother also insisted that her name not be released.
A 32-year-old businessman from Ontario said what he saw was unexplainable.
"The lights I seen were more rectangular, about 13 miles away. There was quite a bit of aura of light. The glow was huge. It wasn't out of our airspace. I know the difference between a plane and whatever this was. I don't think I'll ever find out what it was, unless someone says they were doing it," the Ontario man said.
The Nyssa pilot in training said the craft would appear and then disappear.
"At one point when all lights came on, it was a round object and it was turning real slowly. It would appear then disappear, and pop up seconds later across the valley. It was probably five to eight miles due south of our place, at 4,000 feet, just sitting there. I know it sounds crazy. If you would have told me that two days ago, I would have hung up. I'm a student pilot, I fly quite a bit, and I've never ever seen anything like that. I understand the theory of flight. And this thing had no movement to create lift, it was just sitting there stationary, it was huge. The thing was weird, we couldn't really size it against anything."
The residents said they heard no sound from the object, they took no pictures and they described its color varying from white, to amber, to yellow and red. Two residents called the Malheur County Sheriff's Office Wednesday night reporting unusual lights in the area above Nyssa, and questioned if the military was doing something, Sheriff Andy Bentz said. Bentz said they received no information from the military about the lights, but added that kind of information would not necessarily be something the MCSO would receive.
An officer from the Nyssa Police Department checked out the area regarding the report, Nyssa Police Chief Lenny Elfering confirmed. However, the officer did not notice anything out of the ordinary, the chief said.
The Vale Bureau of Land Management did not have any aircraft out during the time the residents saw the lights, and operations are usually not conducted after dark, their local spokesman Mark Wilkening confirmed.
A spokesman from the NASA Ames Research Center, Michael Mewhinney, said he was not aware of any operations over the area, and he said he did not know what the lights could have been.
A Mountain Home Air Force Base public affairs official said the lights were probably not from any of their planes, because they have their own large training ranges in Idaho with more than 100,000 acres.
The Federal Aviation Administration, though, received a report regarding a red laser light incident Monday, which came from a pilot flying an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 over the area at 22,000 feet. The light was "powerful enough to illuminate the cockpit of the aircraft," FAA Spokesman Allen Kenitzer said.
"We have checked with our Seattle center ... That would monitor that large sector of space. They have nothing that showed up on radar," Kenitzer said. "But, they did actually get a report of what we call a red light, a red laser light incident that night. It was Alaska Airlines flight 101 ... It had a red laser follow the aircraft. There were no injuries because of that and law enforcement officers were notified, and these things do happen from time to time."
No red laser light incidents were reported over Nyssa on Tuesday or Wednesday, but that does not mean it did not happen - it just was not reported, Kenitzer said.
The 32-year-old Ontario man said he does not think what he saw was a laser.
There was some military aviation activity in the area Tuesday and Wednesday night, Oregon Military Department Public Affairs Officer Kay Fristad said.
Details of the activity, however, are not being released, Fristad said, but it involved a "search," at the request of "local law enforcement."
Bentz said his office did not request any assistance during the week.
"We had no searches going this week at all," Bentz said. Bentz also said the drug eradication efforts that utilized assistance from Oregon Army National Guard were completed earlier this month, and usually are done during the day. The Oregon Army National Guard did assist in a search for a missing woman in Baker County with a helicopter Monday morning. Search flight activity continued Tuesday and Wednesday but only in the day time hours and not in the Nyssa area, Oregon Army National Guard Capt. Mike Brabish said.
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