1995-09-23 - Delta, UT - Flash

Huge flashing someting passed overhead. It lit about 1/3 of the sky. It flashed like a strobe light at about 4 second intervals.

We were prospecting and camped at the base of a canyon (Painter spring). We has eaten dinner and had gone into the tent. We began to hear a low rumbling sound off towards the desert floor. It continued and became louder. It sounded like a 2 1/2 ton truck approaching. Since the only way to our campsite was the road from the desert which no large truck could take, we went outside to see who was approaching. We looked west towards the desert and then there was a bright flash in the sky - almost like a flashbulb. It lit about 1/3 of the sky. After about four seconds, it flashed again. It continued this strobe light effect all of the time that we observed it. It was a dark night with stars. We never did see an outline of the thing (I guess that our eyes never got a chance to adjust). It moved from the west deseret, overhead, and on up the east canyon and over the ridge. The whole event lasted for about 1 minute. It moved very slowly and rumbled. After it had gone over the ridge, we looked back towards the desert. We saw two sets of lights coming towards us, following the path of the other object. They were moving about as fast as private airplanes move. They didn't make any sound. There was a red light in front and a green light in back (in a straight line). We figured that the lights were on the nose and tail of the crafts. They were flying in staggered formation (about 8 seconds offset). The two sets of lights passed overhead, up the canyon, and disappeared over the eastern ridge. We could never see the shape of these things (not even when they passed overhead). We could only see the lights. One of these things came back over the ridge, made a large sweep over the upper canyon, and returned over the ridge. We looked around for about a minute. We then saw two sets of lights coming from the desert towards us. They were moving fast. As they got over us, we could hear the sound of jet engines back on the desert floor. Their outline was clear. They were two military jets flying in offset formation (one was about 3 seconds behing the other). They went overhead, up the canyon, and over the ridge just like the other craft. About a minute later, we saw a small light (looked just like a star) up in the sky to our southeast. It was moving in straight lines i.e. it would go one way, and then change direction left, right, up, down, in straight lines. It kept in an area of the sky that covered about an inch at arms length. We saw one of the red and green light things come over the ridge and move quickly towards the moving light. When it got almost to the light, the light simply went out. This thing made a circle over the area and then went back over the ridge. That's it - never saw anything else.