1998-03-10 - Columbia, SC - Diamond

Brightly lighted craft hovering over us on Interstate 26. Had lights shining down from the craft as well as lights shining up into the sky. It was quite low over our car and approximately the size of a large airplane.

My two daughters (ages 17 and 10) and I were driving from West Virginia to Florida for vacation and at approximately 7:00p.m. March 10 we were east of Columbia, South Carolina, heading east toward I95. In the distance, somewhat to the right of the highway we could see a very bright light in the sky. At first we thought it was from a radio tower as its altitude seemed to be only about that high and it was stationary. As we got closer we could see no tower, just this incredibly bright light hanging motionless. We kept driving toward it and the road somewhat curved to the right and the light was then right over the highway in front of us. It looked at first like an airplane but when we were almost under it we could see the shape. It had four distinct sides with the brightest lights on the points but with lights all along each side. It was slightly elongated, like a diamond shape, with the ends pointing east/west. There were lights similarly placed on the top of the craft which were shining straight up. We pulled off the road when we were directly under the craft so my daughter could get our binoculars and camera from the trunk. When we stopped, the craft slowly started to move away, to the east, and before we could get the binoculars out, it picked up speed and moved away. We had a very good look at the craft when it was above us. It was a clear night with no rain or fog and there was a nearly full moon. The altitude of the craft was quite low...maybe 500 feet above us. None of us had a clear look at the substance of the craft due to the intensity of the lights from it. My younger daughter thought she could see the triangular "wings" but was not sure about that.