Date: September 8 2010
Time: 4:45 p.m.
Location of Sighting: Haro Strait Near Victoria British Columbia.
Number of witnesses: 3
Number of Objects: 1
Shape of Objects: Cigar shaped.
Full Description of Event/Sighting: My husband, mother-in-law and I were at a viewpoint on top of Mt Tolmie in Victoria. The sky behind us to the west was solid black thunder clouds, but to the east over the water the sky was clear. My husband was the first to see, in the east, what looked like a very large jet liner that was stationary in the sky. His comment was "That plane sure isn't moving very fast." He was right.
The object was bright white with no visible markings and was sitting completely still. If it was actually the size of a jet, it appeared to be about five or six miles away. If it was something else, the distance was difficult to judge as we did not know its size. We do know it was over the water. Although it was near the flight path from Victoria to Seattle and it was a bit lower than the planes usually are.
We've seen enough large planes to know that at a certain angle they can look like a long tube as the wings appear superimposed on the body of the plane. We took that into consideration. We also know that a plane flying directly towards or away can look like it is not moving. However in this case neither scenario seemed correct. It definitely looked like we were seeing the side of the object.
In that case it should have been moving. If it were coming right at us, or going away, it should have become larger or smaller. Actually, if we were seeing just the end of the "plane" that would have meant it was immense! None of that happened. It stayed exactly the same. After several minutes it suddenly seemed to shrink then fade away, although it did not change its position. Just as suddenly it reappeared a few seconds later in the very same place, in it's original size, shape and again a bright white.
After a few more minutes it started to move very slowly in a southerly direction towards the Straits of Juan de Fuca. I've never seen a plane fly that slowly and stay in the air! We discussed the possibility of it being a balloon or strangely shaped kite. We eliminated the kite idea as there was no wind on the water, in the trees far below us or on the mountain top. In fact it was unusually still. If it was some sort of tethered balloon it had an incredibly long string and at some point became loose.
However if it had been tethered then broken free it would be surprising that it managed to maintain a course that did not wander or deviate at all. We watched it for about 10 minutes. I wanted to follow it along the waterfront below and try to find, but we had to get my mother-in-law home. So, after much consideration, I decided to pass on the information to you as it really was an "Unidentified Flying Object". Perhaps some others saw it that afternoon and can give a better description or better still an explanation.
Additional Information: Sighting Solved.
Hello Brian- The UFO that you report seeing on September 8th, was a zeppelin (dirigible) that was contracted through Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in collaboration with the NOAA Marine Fisheries Service in Seattle and the Center for Whale Research on San Juan Island to take aerial photographs of killer whales. I was aboard the vessel and we did hover over an area of Haro Strait on the west side of San Juan Island called False Bay for approximately 45 minutes between 4 and 5 p.m. I will be posting a more in-depth article about the mission this afternoon. I would be happy to send you a link to the article once it is posted.
Brian Vike's Note: Thank you to the person who emailed me to say it was them inside of a Zeppelin (dirigible) which was the cause for the sighting.
If you have seen anything like this in the same area please be kind enough to contact Brian Vike at:
sighting@telus.net with the details of your sighting.
All personal information is kept confidential.
Sightings.com website: http://www.sightings.com/
