1999-07-22 - Hood River, OR - Diamond

The critical detail would be of the shape and brilliant colors of pink and purple.

I was on a very delayed flight from Minneapolis to Portland, OR. We had begun our decent into Portland, just east of The Dalles, Oregon. At approximately 18,000 feet, which is my best guess, we were above the Hood River/Bridge of The Gods area. I always look out the window, and this case was no different. I travel a lot with my job, and I have never seen anything like this before, or sense. As I was looking out the window, a very bright light appeared, even with our Northwest airline, and about 1/4 mile away, to the north. At first, I did not know what to think. It was circular, and bright white, and if I had to guess, it looked to be about 50 feet diameter. I began to wonder more about it when it kept pace with the jet, and then it suddenly slowed or stopped, as we kept going. It then came imediately back even with us, and closer, and I then could see the most brilliant, flourescent, pink light around the bright white light, and then a very brilliant, flourescent purple l! ight around the most outer area. the only round part was the white center. The pink and purple were surrounding the sides, and this made it appear to be football shaped, but with deffinate edges, and that is why I call it diamond shape. This whole thing lasted about 45 seconds. The craft made a few sudden direction changes, and then left very fast and was gone. I told friends about this at the time, but did not know where to report it.