Two large, cylindrical aircraft flew overhead in a steady line, despite having no wings or tail.
On Tuesday, Oct. 30, somewhere around 10:30 and 11 a.m., I was one of three people who saw several strange aircraft flying over Hwy 11 in Pickens County, South Carolina. We were in the parking lot of the Table Rock General Store, just a few miles from Table Rock Mountain itself.
Two of us were visiting a friend who lives nearby and had stopped to check out of the motel beside the store. The woman who works in the store was outside, pointing her camera phone at the sky. She kept saying, “They have no wings and no jet stream (contrail).” I looked in the direction she was pointing and saw a metal aircraft of some type making steady progress, headed in a southwesterly direction. I could not see any sign of wings or any suggestion of a tail. The shape was long, as large as a commercial jetliner or even a C-130, rather cigar shaped, but somewhat wider at the front end and tapering toward the back.
At first I wondered if it could be a blimp, but it was not blimp-shaped. It also moved steadily forward at what easily could have been several hundred miles an hour.
The body was metal, looking like aluminum glinting in the sun. As we stood there, another of the same aircraft came into view, moving in the same flight pattern as the first and at what looked like the same speed. We watched for probably 15 minutes, during which time the first craft moved beyond our view.
It was easy to see because the sky was deep blue and totally cloudless. It was hard to estimate how big they were, but from that distance, they looked about 3/8” long if I’d held up my fingers to measure one from front to back at arm’s length.
The woman at the store said she had seen five of them the day before, flying in formation. I believe she said they appeared to be escorted by helicopters, but I may be mistaken.
Our curiosity was piqued, to say the least, but we thought a simple call to Air Traffic Control at the Greenville, SC, airport would reveal what they were. Due to their direction in which they were traveling, they surely would have shown up on the radar there.
But the friend we were visiting said she called, but the airport radar had picked up nothing that sounded like what we’d seen. She was referred to several other agencies, including the FAA, and finally to this site.
I and the friend who were visiting are both retired newspaper reporters, with more than 30 years of experience each. The friend we were visiting is also a longtime journalist. We all had worked together at the same large (and very reputable) newspaper in North Carolina. But our friend is somewhat handicapped and by the time she got out of the car to take a look, the aircraft had moved out of view.
The third witness is the woman who works in the store. I don't know her background but she seemed to be a very no-nonsense kind of person.
On Tuesday, Oct. 30, somewhere around 10:30 and 11 a.m., I was one of three people who saw several strange aircraft flying over Hwy 11 in Pickens County, South Carolina. We were in the parking lot of the Table Rock General Store, just a few miles from Table Rock Mountain itself.
Two of us were visiting a friend who lives nearby and had stopped to check out of the motel beside the store. The woman who works in the store was outside, pointing her camera phone at the sky. She kept saying, “They have no wings and no jet stream (contrail).” I looked in the direction she was pointing and saw a metal aircraft of some type making steady progress, headed in a southwesterly direction. I could not see any sign of wings or any suggestion of a tail. The shape was long, as large as a commercial jetliner or even a C-130, rather cigar shaped, but somewhat wider at the front end and tapering toward the back.
At first I wondered if it could be a blimp, but it was not blimp-shaped. It also moved steadily forward at what easily could have been several hundred miles an hour.
The body was metal, looking like aluminum glinting in the sun. As we stood there, another of the same aircraft came into view, moving in the same flight pattern as the first and at what looked like the same speed. We watched for probably 15 minutes, during which time the first craft moved beyond our view.
It was easy to see because the sky was deep blue and totally cloudless. It was hard to estimate how big they were, but from that distance, they looked about 3/8” long if I’d held up my fingers to measure one from front to back at arm’s length.
The woman at the store said she had seen five of them the day before, flying in formation. I believe she said they appeared to be escorted by helicopters, but I may be mistaken.
Our curiosity was piqued, to say the least, but we thought a simple call to Air Traffic Control at the Greenville, SC, airport would reveal what they were. Due to their direction in which they were traveling, they surely would have shown up on the radar there.
But the friend we were visiting said she called, but the airport radar had picked up nothing that sounded like what we’d seen. She was referred to several other agencies, including the FAA, and finally to this site.
I and the friend who were visiting are both retired newspaper reporters, with more than 30 years of experience each. The friend we were visiting is also a longtime journalist. We all had worked together at the same large (and very reputable) newspaper in North Carolina. But our friend is somewhat handicapped and by the time she got out of the car to take a look, the aircraft had moved out of view.
The third witness is the woman who works in the store. I don't know her background but she seemed to be a very no-nonsense kind of person.
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Pickens
USA
15 minutes
15 minutes
34.90
-82.71
cylinder
SC
Occurred : 10/30/2007 11:15 (Entered as : 10/30/07 11:15) Reported: 11/2/2007 1:41:18 PM 13:41 Posted: 11/28/2007 Location: Pickens, SC Shape: Cylinder Duration: 15 minutes
Two large, cylindrical aircraft flew overhead in a steady line, despite having no wings or tail.