PALM DESERT UFOs
(1979 to 2009)
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January 1, 1979, Palm Desert, California
Albert M. Chop (USAF, NASA) observed a Triangular UFO moving slowly eastward at night over the mountains of Palm Desert, California. The object was ten times more brilliant as the stars in the background. It appeared to be extremely large.
Albert M. Chop began his career as a newspaper reporter in Dayton, Ohio. Following World War II he went to work for the Press Section of the Air Material Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force base. Chop was initially very skeptical of UFOs, but after being promoted to Chief of the Press Section at AMC he had a change of mind. By then he had the opportunity to talk to top government officials who had become convinced that any UFO sightings represented very real crafts of an unknown origin. By 1952 Air Force Pubic Relations Office Chief Colonel DeWitt Seares, at the request of General Sanford and General Sory Smith of Public Information at the Defense Department, transferred Chop from Dayton to the Pentagon's Press Section to assist with media inquires about UFOs.
This interview was conducted at Mr. Chop's home in Palm Desert, by Thomas Tulien and Brad Sparks. It was transcribed by Gary Mangiacopra and Candy Peterson, with additional editing by Thomas Tulien.
Albert M. Chop, MSC Deputy Public Affairs Officer, shown at his console in the Mission Control Operations Room in the Manned Spacecraft Center-Houston, during a Gemini-Titan4 simulation on 30 May, 1965.
August 15, 1993, 4:00 AM, Palm Desert, California
Triangle with lights,seen by 2 observers for 30-40 minutes.
"I was sitting by the pool with a friend at around 4:00 AM. We were looking out into the night sky, talking, when we both noticed a single light appear in the sky pretty far out. It looked like a spotlight at first, yet it had no glow to it. We sat there observing this light for about 5 minutes when I said to my friend that I think it is coming in our direction. That was exactly what was happening. This object was heading right for us and in about five minutes more it had reached our field of vision. My friend got scared and ran towards the house front door but stayed outside. I on the other hand was fixated on this thing going slowly towards my direction. It appeared to be about 15-20 feet above, moving extremely slow. The light appeared to be on the upper part of it. I'm guessing it was about 10 - 20 feet in front of us when the light moved behind it. This object continued towards us. No light reflected from it and when it was directly over us I saw what I thought was some form of energy movement from underneath it which appeared rusty reddish in color with a dull illumination. It had a pattern swirling in the center and shooting in the opposite direction of the nose or the point of the object. It appeared to be a dark object with no reflection of any kind and no noise of any kind. The object was approximately15 feet long and about 10 feet wide at its bottom. It appeared to be flat on the bottom but not on top, sort of dome like. We both watched this thing for about 30 to 40 minutes until it was way out there. Then we saw two other lights moving from two other areas and all three were meeting up towards the same point. Then they all shot up at an extremely fast speed into space. This is the closest to a ship that I've been but I've seen something else really close. Can't really say what it was but can describe it."
October 7, 2000, 2:45, Palm Desert, California
UFO Casebook.com Report of "a large dark Triangle, 30 seconds, small white lights at each corner." - http://www.nufortrianglereports2000.html website by B.J. Both
March 11, 2003, Palm Desert, California
National UFO Reports Center (NUFORC) reports "triangular lights" over Palm Desert on their website at http://www.nuforc/webreports/026/526655.html
March 24, 2006, 6:00 PM, Palm Desert, California
Report by "Jean, age 32" (last name and phone# on file) at UFO Resource Center website - http://www.com/ufo_reports/uforc_PalmDesert-CA_032406.htm
Duration of sighting: 15 minutes
Weather; Clear, no wind
Witnesses (Full names on file)
Number of UFOs: 1
Shape: Triangular
Color: Black
Altitude: 1500-2000 ft high, approx
Details: seemed to be an aura around it; passed overhead; change in motion
"...It was a calm clear evening and it was very visible so someone else must have seen it. While was watching it we exhausted all possibilities of what it could be."
October 17, 2007, 3:30 Am, Palm Desert, California
Reported at ufoinfo.com (sighting form report)
Number of witnesses: 2
Number of objects: 1
Shape of Objects: Circular; appeared at first to be a planet or satellite
Weather Conditions: Extreme Santa Ana winds
"I was watching the stars and constellations on an extremely clear but windy morning. I saw what at first appeared to be a plane, a large and very bright spherical object very high up in he atmosphere. I later noticed the "planet" was moving in one direction across the sky at a speed similar to a satellite. As I watched the object it abruptly stopped and was motionless for about one minute. At this time I still thought it to be a satellite. After a minute of remaining still, the object suddenly burst into motion, describing an arc in the sky. The speed and maneuverability it displayed was astonishing. I watched it for about 15 minutes, then called a friend over to witness it. He also saw it. We watched it together for about 45 minutes to an hour as it stayed in the skies above Palm Desert / Southern California. It displayed an amazing propulsive ability - it described circles, moved in a linear fashion and at angles - all at different rates of speeds and from complete stops."
January 8, 2008 (Sunday), 6:45-7:15 PM, Palm Desert, California
Report of "lights in a formation"....
Number of witnesses: 2
Number of objects: 6+
Shape of objects: Triangular
Weather Conditions: Cold with high overcast haze
January 16, 2008, 5:08 PM, Palm Desert, California
"I am 72 years old and have seen 2 UFOs that definitely are not something that is produced in this world. Knowing the limitations of air travel speeds as well as radical movements we have the inability to duplicate with our own aircraft, it leaves me with only one conclusion. Something from another world outside our own has evidently been studying us. The fact is that not too many years ago breaking the sound barrier sounded far fetched. As we know, it is commonplace today. Why then should we not consider that breaking the light barrier (speed of light) is feasible. Relative to the age of our planet, perhaps our galaxy, we must consider that far more advanced civilizations have overcome these barriers."
-- Mel Rabinowitz
February 19, 2008, 7:20 PM, Palm Desert, California
Number of witnesses: 2
Number of objects: 1
Shapes of objects: Varied
"At approximately 7:20 PM on 2-19-08, I was standing in my backyard talking on the phone when I looked up to see this object that consisted of four glowing orbs that seemed to be undulating and sparkling. Not like the lights of an aircraft but as if the atmosphere was burning off of an invisible force field. It was moving from South to North over the Santa Rosa Mountains at a slow rate of speed, maintaining altitude guestimation approximately 8 to 10-thousand feet, due to the fact that the cloud cover around San Jacinto Mountain is 8500 feet at the peak...so it had to be below 8000 feet. As I observed the object it seemed to be changing shape and then at one point it literally began to shower down what looked like molten metal or some kind of sparks that seemed to rain down from below it, orange in color, similar to what you would see as slag from a welder. The object had to be as big as a standard home or larger. It then stopped raining the orange sparks and it changed to blue and white sparks.
All the while continuing to move from South to North..and then it seemed to almost come to a stop as it slowly became smaller and then disappeared below the clouds, as if it was not there. This is the third sighting of this object over a one-month period of time. It has always been between 7 and 8 PM with some cloud cover. It has always been below the cloud cover. The first two sightings of the object was of it moving West to East and it came to a complete stop and hovered in one place. At the first sighting there were three of us that witnessed it. The second sighting only two of us and the third sighting two of us. Also at the third sighting, which was the most recent, it seemed to be flying at a lower altitude and moving North, vs West to East.
It seems to be the same object because of the colors which is an amber orange glowing object and the entire object is emanating the light, not from external lights. After the third sighting we are wondering what exactly we are seeing. It is definitely not a meteorite or something of that nature. I took Astronomy in college and Astrophysics and I know that we have nothing in the sky that can do what this object has done and I do not believe that this is a natural phenomenon....Now that I have seen it 3 times, I have my video camera ready and will try to do my best to capture it on film.....I know I'm not crazy because I was not the only one that saw it."
Brian Vike, Director HBCC UFO Research
HBCC UFO Research, Box 1091,
British Columbia, Canada VOJ IZO
E-mail: hbccufo@telius.net
Website:
http://www.hbcufo.org
Radio show: http://jancikradionetwork.com/innerstreamsradio/showvike_report/index.html
December 17, 2008, Palm Desert, California
Alleged UFO Video:
http://www.utube.com/watch?v-dhl_fYzQ-xl&feature=related
Dialog: "Fast moving object, changing directions fast and low flying! The second time it came by we got it on film!!"
April 5, 2009, 11:15 AM, Palm Desert, California
Shape: Star-like
Distance: Unknown
Visibility: Clear
Vallee Index: MA1
"On a family vacation in Palm Desert, out for a walk on the sidewalks near a golf course, not a cloud in the sky, sun fairly high and bright, I heard a loud commercial plane overhead and looked up to see it. In the far background behind the plane I saw a bright glint of sunlight off an object. I focused on the object and it was a speck of sunlight. I believe it was North to Northeast of my position in Palm Desert, very high in the sky, likely 75-degrees or so above the horizon sight line. I immediately thought of a supernova,bright enough to see in the daylight. I continued to view this spot, thinking I was in on a spectacular event. I then sensed that the object was moving very slowly in the sky. I moved a few feet down the sidewalk to putt a tree, about 20 feet high, within my frame of view. The wind was very light to non-existent, so the branches of the tree were not moving appreciably. When viewed next to a limb of this tree, the object was definitely moving as it slipped behind the limb. I moved back, clear of the limb, and re-acquired the object It stopped moving, hovered for a few seconds, then reversed course, not quite 180 degrees. It moved in this new direction for a few seconds, then started moving in various directions, almost as if doing figure eights. At that time a golf course worker in a golf cart came by. I asked him to look at the object to confirm it. When we both looked up again, neither of us could see it. Feeling slightly foolish, I continued my walk. I could not help looking up as I walked, however, hoping to see it again. A minute or so after I started walking again, I saw the object at about the same spot in the sky. This time, however, there were at least five other similar objects in a loose configuration with each other. I blinked my eyes and rubbed them to make sure I was not seeing things. I was not. The objects persisted, moving together in a direction I perceived to be West to Northwest. Two of the objects started to move close to each other, but then moved away just before converging. I continued to watch these objects move slowly until they simply dissolved from view, as if suddenly moving directly away from me out of my range of acuity. There were no contrails associated with these objects, even though I saw several high flying commercial craft trailing contrails in all parts of the sky. I only saw one glint of sunlight off the original object, but it was bright enough to be unmistakable reflection of sunlight. I considered the objects to be balloons, but cold not explain the irregular, seemingly controlled movements closing with each other, then separating."
April 21, 2009, 11:00 PM until 11:33 PM, Palm Desert, California
(subsequently reported to MUFON)
"From my bedroom's glass slider, l was looking at the night sky a few miles to the North over Palm Desert, which is toward open desert, at about 11:00 PM. I observed a Triangle formation of 3 very bright lights...continuously until 11:33 PM. At first, the lights appeared to be twinkling and brighter than most stars. So I opened the glass slider and screen door for a clearer view. The lights then appeared to be steady, not twinkling. The Triangle of lights appeared to be at about the same altitude at which I see and hear planes flying from Palm Springs International Airport at this time of night, perhaps a bit farther away, and not like the military helicopters or other aircraft that fly over from Twentynine Palms Military Base. Also, the Triangle was silent and remained stationary or hovering the whole time I observed it, so I still thought it must be a triangle formation of stars. But the only star triangle, according to a Google search I did later, would not be in that location nor at this time of year.
At 11:32 PM, my attention was diverted for about a minute to the sound of rustling leaves skipping across the patio from a mild gust of wind. When I looked up again, the Triangle had disappeared. A couple minutes later, a commercial airplane (obvious from its sound and lights) passed from left to right at about the same altitude where I had just seen the UFO, so there couldn't have been cloud cover obscuring the UFO if I could see the plane's light in the same spot at almost the same time. I continued watching the same spot but the Triangle did not reappear before I fell asleep. Neither did it reappear in the following nights and weeks that I looked for it expecting it to be a constellation of stars. A star constellation would not have moved on so quickly.
This was not my first unusual sighting in the night sky over Palm Desert. Besides 'falling stars' with blazing tails, which are a fairly common sight on clear desert nights with no city lights to obscure them, several years ago, I (and the rest of Palm Desert residents) saw a spectacular asteroid shower .... But just as memorable is my daytime sighting of a UFO. Although I didn't make note of the date or details at the time, I recall it was in the afternoon as I was driving downhill, headed North on State Route 74 toward Highway 111 where 74 and 111 intersect in the middle of Palm Desert. I was looking toward the horizon when a brilliant glint of sunlight reflected off a silvery object which caught my attention as it slowly moved from Left to Right along the flight path and approximately at the altitude at which I had often observed planes.. However, when the object, which I thought was a small plane, reached the center of my field of vision, I saw several bright flashes of what I thought were changes in sunlight reflections that one would expect when a plane makes a turning maneuver... but instead of turning, the object zoomed straight upward at a speed that I can only describe as being 'in the blink of an eye' and it was out of sight in an instant. It never reappeared. Since my sightings, I found the above reports of UFOs that accelerate at impossible speeds and of strange Triangular lights, spanning 30 years of similar UFO sightings over Palm Desert. Whether man-made or extra-terrestrial, don't we have a right to know?"
Lori Carangelo, (27 year resident of Palm Desert, CA)
Founder, Americans For Open Records (AmFOR)
Website: http://www.AmFOR.net (on secrecy issues)
and http://www.amfor.net/SecretGovRecords#disclosure - on UFOs
