2018-03-11 - Issaquah, WA - Light

Strange 'headlights' in very early morning hours traveling east on Interstate I-90 and east of Issaquah, WA.

A friend and I were returning home to the North Bend area around 4:15am, on March 11th.

We were traveling eastbound on I-90, enjoying the drive with almost no traffic going eastbound.

We had just passed the exit for Preston, and headed down the grade and were traveling up the rather long uphill grade of I-90, traveling in the number 3 lane.

I had the cruise control on 70mph, as I almost always do when there is little or no traffic.

I am a former County and Federal law enforcement officer and always cognizant of other vehicles in my vicinity of travel. I check my rear view mirror very often for approaching traffic.

There were no vehicles traveling eastbound from the time we passed through Issaquah and onto this stretch of I-90.

Approximately half way up this rather long grade of I-90, and before exit #25, that exits onto I-18, I glanced in my rear view mirror and was shocked to see what appeared to be two rectangular headlights right on our tail. I assumed this was a motor vehicle, and there was no noise.

I quickly glanced to my right side mirror to make sure no other vehicles were approaching, and was planning on making a quick lane change to get out of the way of this vehicle, then quickly glanced in the rear view mirror, and the lights were gone.

This happened so quickly, that I did not change lanes, but we did immediately slow down so I could look behind us to see if a vehicle had swerved off of the freeway on either side. There were no taillights or headlights that I could see on either side of the highway behind us.

My passenger and I talked about this, and what had just happened, and I was in bewilderment. I tried to reason things out as to what had just occurred. Something in my mind was telling me that something else besides just the 'headlights' was strange, but I could not put my finger on it.

Roughly 3 or so minutes later, while still traveling, I got a pounding headache in the center of my head, and this continued well into the following day, even after taking several Aleve tablets.

The next day, this incident continued playing through my head, and this is when I realized that the headlights were not only rectangular in shape, but they did NOT emit a forward shining beam, that headlights are designed to do. Both of these 'headlights' were just lights and did not actually shine into my rear view mirror, but were bright nonetheless, and the rectangular shape of both lights were defined in their shape.

I have no explanation of what these lights were, and neither did my passenger.

Two days later, I traveled this major highway into Bellevue, and on the way home to North Bend, I carefully checked out both sides of I-90 in the area of this incident to see if there was any indication of a vehicle going off the roadway, there was none.

Just a little bit about my background, I was enlisted in the Air Force, and obtained my Commercial pilot license and instrument/seaplane ratings. I have over 3600 hours in fixed wing aircraft.

Rather than pursuing a career in aviation as a young adult, I chose law enforcement, where I worked with the County, as well as a Federal law enforcement agency.


((NUFORC Note: We spoke via telephone with the witness, and found him to be both eloquent, and convincing. His credentials as a law enforcement officer, as well as an experienced commercial pilot, speak for themselves, we believe. PD))