1978 UFO Sighting In Wyoming By Pilot And 100 Others

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Wind River Canyon, Wyoming

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A commercial pilot reports that in 1978, he, his wife and at least 100 travelers watched an extremely large object (over 1 mile in diameter), descended from orbit, land and 6-7 small objects exited and flew away at high speed.  Then the object flew back into space.

This report has been edited.  Click on case number for original report.

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MUFON Case # 34228
Date:    1978-07-08
Time:   19:30
City:    S.E. OF WIND RIVER CANYON
State:    Wyoming
Shape:    Fireball,Sphere
Duration: 00:30:00
Distance: Over one mile

Report:
While driving a semi truck hauling a Lowboy trailer w/caterpillar D-8 dozer in July 1978, about 7:30 MT time.  My wife noticed a star in sky at about 45 degrees inclination to the Northeast.  Looking to East I could see the moon well up and looking to the Southwest the sun was setting.  The sun was about 3/4 below horizon. 

When I looked back to the Northeast at my wife's exited urging, I saw to my amazement the star we had seen was now moving towards us and appeared to be growing larger.  The meteor, I thought was getting much bigger until it neared a small mountain directly in front of us, at about 5,000 ft. AGL/above ground level.

The object stopped and hovered for about 3- seconds, then landed on the side of the mountain.  I just mentioned, I'm assuming it landed but it could have been hovering behind the mountain.  It did not wobble at all.

This object was, I'm estimating, 5000-10,000 ft. in diameter, 1-2 miles.  I've never seen anything this large that was capable of moving under it's own power.

FYI, I am a licensed commercial pilot and used to be a certified flight instructor.  In 1988 I stopped flying, because I could only pass medical for private pilot, not commercial; my depth perception had deteriorated.  I'm 65 now as I write this, back to sitting.

After it appeared the large object had landed, nothing happened for about 2 minutes. Then about 6 very small silvery objects made one orbit around the large object and flew towards the Northwest, at what I would guess at mach 2+.

It's been many years since we saw this.  I've become dulled to the excitement, I felt this, what I now call a UFO.

If anyone would look at a NASA photo of the sun and it's corona, you would see an almost identical picture of what we saw that day.  I want to make sure it's understood that all this took place in full daylight, on a clear, almost cloudless day.

There were over 35 vehicles stopped with us on the north bound side of the road, with about 10 vehicles stopped on the south bound side.  There were 8 people that I talked to on my side of the highway, that took 8MM movies of all or part of this sighting.  I estimate that 100+ people witnessed this event.

When the object departed, it climbed about 5,000 ft, hovered for a few seconds, then accelerated back along it's approach path.  From it's hover position until it disappeared to space, took about 30 seconds.

FYI, this is the first time I've told anyone except for 3 or 4 friends and of course they didn't believe.

Oh yes, later the next day I called flight service and the FAA said they had no radar contact with any craft at that time of day, in that area.  The FAA would not tell me about any other reports.

This was a long time ago, so it may not be of much interest.

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Note:  I find it very interesting that so many people saw this and kept silent.  Who else is willing to come forward?  I'd love to see those videos! -SW

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