2001-09-13 - North Lima, OH - Rectangle

Sunset-orange rectangular object meanders in sky above North Lima, Ohio.

I was in my car driving north on Rt. 164 heading towards North Lima when I noticed a colored light meandering about fairly low in the eastern sky, above the town. It began to move west as I approached the intersection of Routes 7 and 164. It was at this point that I got a good look at it. In the middle of the thing was a sunset-orange, horizontally oriented rectangular light. It shone relatively brightly and had a solar quality, like the sun in its setting position. Set directly above and below the orange light were 2 smaller horizontal rectangles, powder blue in color and dimmer in comparison to the middle of the object. On the top and bottom object were singular, whitish lights blinking on and off about twice a second.

After watching it closely for around a minute, it began to head directly towards the west, kind of quickly in my opinion, and hung frozen on the distant horizon. Eventaully, I lost sight of it because of the terrain of the highway.

This was the first night planes were allowed back in the sky since the attacks on 9/11, so I was shocked to see such a unconventional thing in the sky sharing airspace with several other visible, normal looking aircraft. I thought perhaps it was a blimp, but have seen them at night before, and this object looked quite dissimilar. Plus it moved way too fast for such a thing. I then thought it was military, but if it was, taxpayers should be mad because this thing looked functionless and of the dumbest design compared to any other military craft I have ever seen. I doubt it was a helicopter since I could see no solid outline anywhere and the object was void of any kind of noise that I could here.

I am an experienced television director so I am used to making quick, detailed observations. I just want to say that the object I saw could have a conventional explanation, but none that I could come up with.