- Thursday (8-20-98) was a calm, clear
night in Ripley, Illinois. Members of the Bowman family were working late
outside, and talking with some neighbors when all of a sudden strange lights
appeared in the sky.
-
- "I saw two lights in the sky, quite
a way apart," said Patrick Bowman, describing the lights and their
movements. "They went out and moved over behind the trees, no more
than a second or two. They came on, then disappeared again to the right
behind another tree. When they came back on they were three-dimensional,
like a three-winged craft with lights at the bottom. The lights went on
in sequence, then they went back off in sequence, and shot up through the
top wing. Thatís all I saw, then it was gone."
-
- "It wasnít anything from
here. It made me nervous...I stayed up till 5 oíclock this morning,"
added Tilford Bowman.
-
- The residents in Ripley say they saw
the UFO just after 10 oíclock Thursday night. The object also was
spotted in other areas of Illinois: in Rushville, Mt. Sterling, and Pittsfield.
-
- An Illinois State Trooper who wished
not to be identified, also saw the strange lights just west of Mt. Sterling
around 12:20 a.m. He declined to comment other than to say he saw them.
-
- So what would you do if you thought you
were looking at a UFO? Tilford Bowman says he thought about hiding when
he saw the lights.
-
- "It was one of the neatest things
Iíve ever seen," said resident Becky Spoon. "Iíve
never seen anything quite like that."
-
- The Illinois State Police contacted the
Federal Aviation Administration, who said the strange lights may have been
a meteor shower. They said they would take a further look at the situation,
but so far they havenít contacted any local officials with an explanation.
-
- Ripley residents also wonder, when is
the last time you saw a meteor shoot straight up?
-
- Updated August 21, 1998, 9:00 p.m.
|
