1979-06-16 - Napa, CA - Triangle

Triangular UFO SIghting Napa County Summer 1979 (on the way to Lake Berryessa)

Having seen the ABC special ‘Seeing is Believing’ about UFO's recently, I recalled an incident that I had witnessed in Napa county back in 1979 along with a former girlfriend whom I’ve not spoken with since we parted in 1981.

This prompted me to perform an internet Google search (‘Triangular UFO Napa’) which led me to a website in which she had previously posted her recollection of the event in 2002 as per the link below:

http://www.scifi.com/ufo/encounters/laura_enc.html

My account differs slightly and given the years since, this is probably to be expected. I am writing to corroborate our story and acknowledge that this experience was a true incident. (If for some reason you need to corroborate this sighting with another’s from that area and year, you may contact me via telephone collect. In fact, if you have such information, I would like to read about it)

My personal recollection of the incident follows below: As I recall it was a dark moonless night, but clear as the stars were visible. We had stopped briefly for some KFC takeout in St. Helena and were heading up 128 on our way to Lake Berryessa to meet some friends for a weekend boating trip.

At the crest of a small incline in the road which gave us a southwest view of the valley which was then about 20-30’ below us, Laura first noticed a bright light low on the horizon and pointed it out to me. (To my recollection, it was probably about 11:30pm when we made the initial sighting. When we arrived at the lake it was more like 1:30am as per her account).

My quick assessment was that the object (then perhaps 3/4+ mile away) was just a helicopter perhaps spraying the vineyards, but she remained skeptical. As we proceeded along the grade, it was evident watching the light that the craft was coming slowly in our direction moving perhaps at 10-20mph. Laura was not given easily to fear, and her apprehension made me nervous as I recall. All that was visible was a very bright circular light which hid the details of the object except for perhaps a hint of a horizontal wing form. The surrounding vegetation in front/below of where the object was flying was illuminated by the intense white light emanating from the craft. The object appeared then to be about 15-20’ off the ground.

As we proceeded a bit further up the grade with the object creeping ever closer and higher, we came upon a bend in the road which had a turn out and was surrounded by a grove of eucalyptus(?) trees. I instructed her to pull over and stop the engine so we could hear the motor and determine what the object was. We watched the object come towards us for a few minutes more. It continued to ascend and it wasn’t long before it came directly overhead.

Now directly overhead, the bright light centered on the craft was now facing forward and above us per my recollection. With the light shining away, it was easy to distinguish the triangular shape of the craft against the black sky and stars. Using the height of the 25’ trees as a gauge and having watched the ascent of the object, it appeared then that it was approximately 50’ overhead and perhaps 35’ wide. I would guess it was perhaps 5’ tall in height, but because of the light in front, it was very hard to gauge the shape/size of the object until it was immediately overhead.

My recollection differs here in that I do not recall the object making any sound nor do I remember any colored lights underneath. It was dead quiet as it passed overhead moving at perhaps 15mph and proceeded to climb still higher until it disappeared over the hill behind us. I believe that I saw what appeared to be some sort of metal support system underneath, but it was so dark it is impossible to say with any certainty.

Now rather anxious about what we had just witnessed, we didn’t wait but a minute to start the engine and get out of there. As we were heading around a corner shortly afterwards, two sets of glowing eyes were seen in the bushes alongside of the road. I guessed it was just a pair of deer given the height, but neither of were willing to stop the car and find out what it was, although in hindsight I’m relatively certain it was in fact just a pair of deer or other wildlife as it was a wooded and secluded area.

Now nearing our destination, we came upon a rest area which had a public telephone and stopped. With the hopes that someone could corroborate what we had witnessed, Laura got connected with the Air Force (likely Travis AFB). As I recall from her discussion, the AF indicated that they hadn't spotted any objects on radar nor were any test flights scheduled for the area that evening that might account for the mysterious object we had just seen.

We arrived at our final destination, thankfully, meeting our friends, but late, about 45 minutes by my recollection (which differs from her account of 1 ½ hours). We excitedly told our friends of our experience and they stared at us in utter disbelief and had a great time poking fun at us. Later as we were all sitting around outside gazing at the night sky and talking, we simultaneously witnessed 3 (?) bright objects which came shooting out of nowhere and stop in about a 10 o'clock position on the northwestern horizon, very similar to what we had seen in Yosemite Valley the summer before together along with a different group of friends.

The objects hesitated for a brief moment hovering perhaps at 2000’, and then darted in and out like a game of cat and mouse and with one final push, shot upwards and were gone in the blink of an eye passing through the thin cirrus cloud layer above. That incident lasted but a few seconds in all, but it was enough to convince our friends that perhaps we had seen something after all.

I personally don't recall any jets going after the objects neither before nor after as Laura recounts, but it has been many years and I may have just forgotten. With Travis AFB fairly close by, it wouldn’t surprise me if there were jets in the area at the time.

((NUFORC Note: Witness indicates that date is approximate. PD))