2000-07-19 - Venice, CA - Cigar

A single, silent, white, cigar-shaped craft was sighted in a clear sky, one hour before sunset.

A single, silent, cigar-shaped craft; white in color; was sighted in a clear sky, about an hour before sunset, by myself and 3 additional pedestrians (2 adults and 1 child). We were all walking near my apartment building which is located close to the intersection of Lincoln Boulevard and Venice Boulevard. I had been reaching up at near arm's length to pet the neighbor's usually docile cat, which was astride the top of the brick wall surrounding their property; and so, I had been looking up when I first noticed the object in the SW sky. (About a minute into the sighting, the cat 'spooked" and abandoned both his bowl of food and his place on top of the wall.) The UFO continued to travel at a steady rate of speed, from the SW to the NE corners of the sky, until it was finally too far away to be visible to the naked eye. The total observation time was approx. 3 & 1/2 minutes. When the object reached what appeared to be the closest point overhead, it looked like it was about two inches in length, as judged by comparing it to my outstretched hand. Clearly, the object was reflecting the sunlight, as if from a white painted surface. It did not appear to emit any additional light of its own, however; what looked like a very thin, spherically shaped and almost completely transparent cloud, halo or mist, seemed to cling to the object. This "mist" seemed to be fanned by the atmosphere as the object passed overhead. The object was low enough in altitude, (perhaps 3000 to 5000 feet) so that it DEFINITELY was not a likely to have been any type of conventional aircraft. It looked like a missle, but it's speed was far too slow for that, and the object made no sound whatsoever. A missle in flight, or a helicopter or fixed-wing aircraft this low would have made noise! The object was close enough and the sky was clear enough to recognize it for exactly what it was - unidentified. - I clearly observed the wings of a similar sized fixed-wing aircraft (commercial jet airliner) which flew overhead about two minutes after the sighting of the UFO began. It was plainly evident that the UFO, by comparison, HAD NO WINGS, ROTORS, MISSLE EXHAUST, ETC., of any kind. There was no aerodynamic tapering of the front of the object, such as would be expected to be found on a missle. Both the bow and stern of the object were flat, like a cigar that is cut straight on both ends. A man and his little boy approached, about a minute into the sighting. I pointed the object out to them, and the man immediately exclaimed, "Hey, that's a UFO!" A man walking across the street overheard our conversation and looked up also, saying, "Wow! - what the hell is THAT thing?" The four of us stopped and watched the object for about 2 & 1/2 more minutes, when it seemed to noticeably speed up during the last 30 seconds or so of its remaining, observable flight path, until it had traveled too far into the NE horizon to remain visible to the unaided eye. Up until that point, the object traveled at a slow, steady speed, in a perfectly straight line. Afterwards, I called KNXT news radio to inquire if anyone else had reported a sighting of the object. The reporter told me no, but that earlier in the day (at 13:09 HRS, PDT), there had been a missle test launched from Vanderberg AFB. Obviously, this missle test is NOT what WE saw - we observed the UFO around 1900 HRS, PTD; about 6 hours AFTER the Vandenberg launch!