1983-01-13 - Seattle, WA - Sphere

An orange ball over Seattle left a stream of fluid along its path. Looking through the fluid the stars behind it were greatly magnified.

I was on a long flight back to Los Angeles on Pan Am's Clipper Class 747. We took the polar route over Canada, Seattle, and the Pacific coast. Looking out the window, I could see the stars shining brightly in the pre-dawn skies. I could even see what I initially thought was the planet Jupiter glowing orange in the distance. I then began to think that it could not be Jupiter, because it was not in this part of the sky. It must be something else. Sure enough, the object was moving along side of the plane. A big orange ball!. Judging from the time remaining for us to land, we were somewhere over Seattle. The object was moving from right to left and then right again. I then saw beneath it a stream of fluid along its path. Looking through the fluid, I could see the stars behind it were greatly magnified. After about ten minutes of this, I decided to try and take a picture of this object. But since I had only a cheap instamatic camera and it was night, I knew that the picture would not come out. But I too k the picture anyway. Soon thereafter, the object came straight towards our plane and I could sense the plane turning aggressively as if to avoid something. The object disappeared behind the plane's tail and I never saw it again.