1990-10-29 - Burlingame State Park, RI - Other

Small airborne, manta-shaped object observed from a closest distance of ~15 feet for around 6 seconds by two reliable observers.

On the last day of camping season at Burlingame State Park in Rhode Island (back in 1990), an adult relative and I witnessed the close pass of a small, seemingly living object, which was clearly illuminated by the headlights of my vehicle, shortly before 9PM. I remember the time as we were concerned about getting to the office to obtain a campsite pass and the office was to close at 9:30PM. This was a quiet evening with good conditions, clear weather and skies. The expansive 500-site State campground was sparsely populated on that last night of the season, with maybe a dozen campsites taken in the entire park and forest.

The object approached from the ten o'clock position, sweeping down to the right through the upper reach of my headlight beams, proceeding over the road immediately in front of and above our vehicle, then rising abruptly on our right side to a verticle climb up between the heavy branches of broadleaf forest which lined either side of approach road. My observation of the object lasted only 2-4 seconds. My relative in the passenger seat saw more of both approach and egress, totalling for her possibly 8 seconds.

A description: the object could be said to have had a rounded-chevron shape, maybe 18 inches across side-to-side. My own impression was that it had the general shape and the grace, of a manta. We both had an extremely clear and close view of the object and agreed that it did not appear to be mechanical in any sense, but rather living material or possibly a living form itself. For what it's worth, both of us felt we were in the presence of a highly aware and seemingly social object. We agreed that there was no possibility that the small thing was any known sort of flying animal. It did, however, have some attributes of deep-sea animals, including, along with its shape and graceful movement, a circular area near the rear centerline which radiated a distinct and clearly visible internal glow. There was clear structure evident internally in this central area (a subtle pattern of radiating lines) and its glow extended out to give pale illumination to the entire internal structure of the object. Again, the thing was very close to us under good conditions. My passenger reported to me that the object had moved directly upward rapidly after making its pass. She also noticed that there was a recurve to the rounded wingtips. I had not noticed this from my vantage point.

For those interested, I'll mention that my background has been mainly as an electronics engineering tech. Hobbies have included optics, amateur astronomy and amateur radio. I have no explanation for what we saw.

((NUFORC Note: Time and date are approximate. PD))

((CORRESPONDENCE FROM WITNESS, DATED 21FE05))

Hi Peter, the enclosed two pics are similar to the small object we saw in 1990. Minus the wingtip lights
and the manta's tail section. Other differing details per my report. Note that the object we saw was only
about 18 inches across. Best, ((initials of witness deleted))

((END))

((NUFORC Note: Witness includes two illustrations, one of which appears to be an object similar to a skate or manta ray, and the other, a photo of a triangular-shaped shaped UFO, seen and photographed over Belgium in the late 1980's. PD))