2004-08-19 - Los Angeles, CA - Triangle

Irratic flying object seen east of highway 5 near midnight.

My wife and I were driving south on highway 5 and were between Stockton and Bakersfield, travening between Portland Or and San Diego Ca. At 23:55 pm, I noticed a white light that I assumed was an airplane climbing at a steep 45 angle as an airplane would in an agressive take off. The craft then changed direction at a 90 degree angle and then dove toward the ground at a 45 degree angle, stopping 5 feet from the ground and hovering with the craft tilted to the north. The craft was about 200 feet away across the north bound lanes of highway 5. I did not see anything else because I was driving. The craft was shaped like a Stingray with 3 white lights on the top of it. I first noticed the craft because it was not flying like a normal aircraft because of the sharp take off angle (I did not notice it taking off from the ground)and then the sharp turns, diving toward the ground and the hover.

My wife first saw the light of the craft and the saw it making a 90 degree turn and then dive toward the ground and since she was not driving noticed the stingray shape. She noticed the 3 white lights that if we used the stingray shape was two of the lights at the outside as the flippers and one light at the front where the nose would be. My wife heard noises similar to a jet engine making different noises like a acceleration and deceleration noises, I did not hear them. The craft looked to be about the size of a normal passenger car.

The area that we had the sighting was not populated as most of highway 5 is between Bakersfield and Stockton. The craft would have been sighted by cars in the north bound lanes, with a better view of the hover.

My initial thought was that it was a remote controled toy, but then I thought it was a crop duster, but both would not be operated near midnight. The whole thing did not look real to me, so I was not scared and did not think to pull over.