2000-05-15 - Buttonwillow, CA - Chevron

Dark "Chevron" shaped craft with 3 white lights flying sideways near Buttonwillow, CA

Myself and a friend had gone on day trip to Carrizo Plain in California near Bakersfield. We were returning to San Francisco along I-5, when at some point after passing through Buttonwillow or thereabouts (it could have been even further north than that, but it was a few years ago) I noticed 3 white lights in the sky to my right at about 1000 ft. I was the driver in my Jeep Wrangler with the top down, so the lights were easy for me to spot. What was interesting was the position of the lights - they were almost completely vertical. Eventually they became obscured by a tree line and I continued driving for about 5 minutes when I came upon an open field and realized the object was descending. It just seemed odd and I was curious, so I decided to pull over and try to get a better look at it (much to my friend's dismay!) As it descended, the 3 lights leveled out and it descended to just a few feet above the ground. As soon as it was level and was skirting across the field in my direction, one of the 3 lights, the one in the middle, faded out completely as though it had been switched off. It continued in our direction and it looked as if it would quickly overtake us when suddenly it shot back up in the air, again sideways, the third light came back on, and it seemed to cover quite a bit of distance in a short amount of time heading southeast. Then, apparently following the same course, it repeated the above... again it descended in the same field, light went out, came toward us, again it shot upward and sideways, and again headed southeast along the highway. It did this 3 or 4 times, and then it finally headed southeast and disappeared fairly quickly. By this time my friend was freaking out and wanted to get out of there, so we continued on our way. At first I thought it was a glider of some kind because it made absolutely no noise the entire time. But I was under the impression that glider pilots generally fly during the day and at higher altitudes, and I don't think it would hav! e been fast enough to cover as much ground as it did when it gained altitude and headed away from us. It also didn't look like any glider I've ever seen - it was dark, almost black and it was hard to discern its shape until it was almost right on top of us, and even then if it wasn't for the position of the lights we may have had a harder time noticing the outline as a sort of flying wing similar to a stealth bomber or something. By this time my friend was freaking out and wanted to get out of there, so we continued on our way. I have absolutely no idea what it was, but I always assumed there had to be some logical explanation, like maybe some kind of crop duster, an experimental aircraft, or maybe some crazy guy flying a home-brewed glider in the pitch black of night. Whatever it was it was wierd.

((NUFORC Note: Date is approximate. PD))