Fire in the sky

FIRE IN THE SKY

"Good evening New York, Cessna 1557 Golf with you, leveling 230". "Good evening 57 Golf, maintain flight level 230, proceed on course." "Maintain 230 and on course, thank you, 57 Golf."

It had been a long day. We started off at our home base in Minneapolis and had been "working the East Coast" all day, in and out of various airports. I had dropped off my last passenger and was proceeding non-stop down to Miami, solo, on a positioning flight. Once there, I would have a couple of days off, more than enough compensation for this days' length. It was about eleven o'clock in the evening. I would not see the lights of Miami until the early morning hours.

Like everything else though in life, there were compensations. I was alone in the aircraft- I enjoyed that. With no passengers on board I could take my tie off and relax. I had refilled the coffee servers back in the bar area at the last stop, so there was plenty of caffeine aboard to keep me going. At this time of the evening traffic was light, so chatter on the radios was at a minimum, even in this busy part of our nation's airspace. Lastly, there wasn't a cloud in the sky- all the way to Miami. With no moon, the stars from this altitude were brilliant. I dimmed the lighting on the panel in front of me so that the instruments could just be read.

With the cockpit darkened, and the 421's expansive windows it was like being in a planetarium, watching the stars do their slow rotational dance through the night sky. I went back and got a cup of hot coffee. "Cessna 57 Golf, contact Washington Center on 123.75." "123.75, 57 Golf. Good night Sir." "Good night." "Good evening Washington, Cessna 1557 Golf is with you, 230." "Good evening 57 Golf. Squawk ident." I reach over and press the small ident button on transponder one. The "Reply" light glows steady for about 10 seconds and then returns to its' flashing mode. "Cessna 57 Golf, radar contact, maintain flight level 230." "Roger, 57 Golf."

Hmmm, what's that off to the left in the night sky? A glow, very faint but a glow nonetheless. Now that's interesting. Is it the moon? No. There's a new moon tonight, so that's not it. It seems to be getting brighter, and larger. Kind of a greenish color. Now what the heck? It's been a long day, but I'm not so tired that I'm seeing things. The glow becomes brighter, and seems to be expanding. There are other airplanes out there, not many, but I have heard them check in with Center. Do they see this too? And, if they do, why isn't anyone saying anything about it?

Is this my first UFO sighting? I always felt that if they were out there I might come across one some day. Is this it? Pilots are very leery of reporting UFO's. Lots of forms to fill out, plus ridicule from their peers. Usually if a crew has a sighting they just keep it to themselves. Easier that way. But this thing that I'm looking at is getting huge. The glow is getting brighter. How can anyone aloft not see it?

What the hell. I'm just a corporate pilot. I don't have to worry about walking into Central Dispatch at an airline company and being ribbed by other pilots.

"Ah, Washington, 57 Golf." (I threw that Chuck Yeager "Ah" in there just to show that no matter what came of this, I was cool.) "57 Golf, go ahead." "Have you had any reports of an unusual light in the sky tonight?"

There. I had said it.

"57 Golf, Washington, no Sir we haven't. What are you observing?"

Oh, great. Here we go, it's on the record now.

"Well, it's at about my ten o'clock position, above me, glowing green and expanding, 57 Golf." "Roger 57 Golf. We've had no reports of anything like that. Standby."

There is a pause of 30 seconds or so.

"Ah, Washington Center (he's cool too), United 623 we're seeing the same thing that 57 Golf described." "Roger 623. Standby." "Ah, American 581 (everybody is cool tonight) is reporting the same sighting." Now another four or so more call in to confirm that this dumb kid from the Midwest isn't totally baffey.

"OK 57 Golf, and other aircraft this frequency. We just found out that NASA fired a test rocket from Wallops Island that did a barium release in the upper atmosphere tonight. That must be what you all are seeing." "Thank you Washington."

The "cloud" continued to grow in both size and luminance. When I started my descent for Miami I looked back and it was still there.

UFO indeed!

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