# UFO Sightings by multiple people?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ufo-sightings-by-multiple-people/433768
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [January 16, 2008, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ufo-sightings-by-multiple-people/433768 "2008-01-16T19:21:31Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Red\_Barchetta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Barchetta)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2008, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ufo-sightings-by-multiple-people/433768/1 "2008-01-16T19:21:31Z")
Inspired by this story about a UFO in Texas:
[http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/01/14/ufo.sightings.ap/index.html](http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/01/14/ufo.sightings.ap/index.html)
Are there other UFO sightings that have been spotted by more than just a few people, say a dozen or so?I ask because I’ve argued to a coworker that sightings of a UFO by multiple people is a “relatively common phenomenon” – I base this on seeing numerous news reports over the years that interviewed multiple witnesses. But between a few quick searches, I haven’t found the evidence I need to support my assertion.
Any help?
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### Author:  [@Gadarene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gadarene)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2008, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ufo-sightings-by-multiple-people/433768/2 "2008-01-16T19:30:19Z")
There’s the one from [Washington, D.C.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1952_Washington_D.C._UFO_incident). I also recall one from Mexico City in the 80s, which I’m looking for now. I bet [this Wiki page](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_UFO_sightings) could be a handy starting point when looking for supposed multiple witness sightings.
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### Author:  [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2008, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ufo-sightings-by-multiple-people/433768/3 "2008-01-16T19:36:48Z")
There are several- kind of makes it hard to call those who saw it crackpots/drunks/liars/famewhores when there are that many of them. I’m willing to allow it could be a secret military thing, but the explanation that it could’ve been light reflecting off two airplanes is insulting.
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### Author:  [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2008, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ufo-sightings-by-multiple-people/433768/4 "2008-01-16T19:42:52Z")
There have been many UFOs sighted by multiple people. But in the 1890s multiple people also saw mysterious airships, piloted by humans, which we now know never existed. Some were mistakes, some were hoaxes.
[Here](http://keelynet.com/gravity/aero1.htm) is the first link I found. There is a book, now out of print, called “The Great Airship Mystery” which describes this panic in great detail. Must reading for anyone worrying how so many people seeing UFOs could be wrong.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2008, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ufo-sightings-by-multiple-people/433768/5 "2008-01-16T19:57:36Z")
There have been many UFOs observed by multiple people. Philip Klass, the UFO debunker, once noted that Air Force maneuvers where they simulated attacks on a city often drew multiple UFO reports by people who thought the unusually-behaving lights were UFOs. He could even tell when such maneuvers were taking place by spikes in such reports.
Meteor falls and burning-up space debris have been reported by multiple eyewitnesses as UFOs (Klass reports on such cases that can be verified by known falls).
Any time many people see an apparently aerial phenomenon that they can’t identify, you have a “UFO”, and often one that is misinterpreted as an alien spacecraft or the like. It might be a real object – a planet seen through clouds, a misidentified far-off aircraft reflection – or a meteorological optical phenomenon, like a parhelion (sun dog) or circumzenith arc.
> [@](#):
>
> I’m willing to allow it could be a secret military thing, but the explanation that it could’ve been light reflecting off two airplanes is insulting.
No, it’s not. Under the appropriate circumstances, that could be ety difficult to identify properly.
Just because people see something they can’t identify doesn’t mean they’re stupid/unobservant/famewhores/otherinsultingterm.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2008, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ufo-sightings-by-multiple-people/433768/6 "2008-01-16T19:59:31Z")
Here’s a famous list that Donald Menzel, noted UFO debunker 9and director of the Harvard Smithsonian Observatory) came up with:
[http://www.cufon.org/cufon/ifo\_list.htm](http://www.cufon.org/cufon/ifo_list.htm)
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### Author:  [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2008, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ufo-sightings-by-multiple-people/433768/7 "2008-01-16T20:21:15Z")
I remember seeing a report on TV of a UFO seen by several people in…New Mexico? Arizona? Some state like that, and they basically all said it was a triangle of three red lights flying through the sky. Then, the lights would move relative to each other because, clearly, the UFO was _changing shape_, which no man-made plane could do. :rolleyes:
I don’t think the TV show producers had the heart to tell them it was three jets flying in formation. 😛
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### Author:  [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2008, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ufo-sightings-by-multiple-people/433768/8 "2008-01-16T20:36:58Z")
[QUOTE=Voyager]
There have been many UFOs sighted by multiple people. But in the 1890s multiple people also saw mysterious airships, piloted by humans, which we now know never existed. Some were mistakes, some were hoaxes.
[Here](http://keelynet.com/gravity/aero1.htm) is the first link I found. There is a book, now out of print, called “The Great Airship Mystery” which describes this panic in great detail. Must reading for anyone worrying how so many people seeing UFOs could be wrong.
[/QUOTE]
Assuming it was not a hoax by the townsfolks, how they be wrong when they gave that much detail- they could see people, hear them talking, etc? Its one thing to think a jet is a UFO, or a planes light pattern is, but I don’t get it in this case.
A lot could be learned if they would ever dig up the grave and do a study on the alien that crashed in Aurora Texas in [1897](http://www.ufocasebook.com/Aurora.html) and was buried in a cemetary there.
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### Author:  [@Gadarene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gadarene)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2008, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ufo-sightings-by-multiple-people/433768/9 "2008-01-16T20:43:06Z")
Supposedly the Aurora thing was a joke drummed up by the local newspaper to draw attention to the town.
So says Wikipedia, anyway.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2008, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ufo-sightings-by-multiple-people/433768/10 "2008-01-16T20:45:00Z")
> [@](#):
>
> A lot could be learned if they would ever dig up the grave and do a study on the alien that crashed in Aurora Texas in 1897 and was buried in a cemetary there.
read Philip Klass on that case. There _isn’t_ a grave for an alien. They have a cemetary plan, and all the graves are accounted for. Apparently an unaccounted for _rock_ was seized upon by the pro-UFO crowd as being a marker for an extraterrestrial. Me, if an alien had crashed in my town, I’d chip in a few bucks for an inscribed headstone.
Here’s another report:
> **[Aurora, Texas - A Story That Won't Die](http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com/2005/03/aurora-texas-story-that-wont-die.html)**
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### Author:  [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2008, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ufo-sightings-by-multiple-people/433768/11 "2008-01-16T21:02:20Z")
Well shit, it would be a lot easier to tell if these are real or not if not for these damn hoaxers. 🙂
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### Author:  [@The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Chao_Goes_Mu)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2008, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ufo-sightings-by-multiple-people/433768/12 "2008-01-16T21:19:27Z")
It would stand to reason that with population on the rise and in the case of the Stephenville sighting that several people would get to see the aircraft in question. Stephenville is in the midst of three US Airforce bases. [Link](http://benefits.military.com/misc/installations/Browse_Map.jsp?state=TX)
Now if they’re flying training runs, they’re going to last long enough for Stan to run in and get Mildred to show her the big light in the sky. Dammit Stan why didn’t you grab your camera?
Also, if these things are happening early enough at night, then more people are likely to see them.
Ok so that didn’t really answer the OP but I haven’t really hijacked a thread in a while so… Sorry. As you were.
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### Author:  [@Lanzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lanzy)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2008, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ufo-sightings-by-multiple-people/433768/13 "2008-01-16T21:37:48Z")
There were 8 of us when I saw mine.
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### Author:  [@fatgail](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fatgail)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2008, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ufo-sightings-by-multiple-people/433768/14 "2008-01-16T21:42:58Z")
Let me preface this by saying most of these people are goofball nuts, but for the sake of argument, what would it take to get some of the staunch deniers in here to say “hmm…now maybe there’s something to that?” For me, if it was seen in the day time on a crystal clear day, within 500 yards of the earth’s surface, with picture enhancement…you may have me.
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### Author:  [@jimmmy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimmmy)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2008, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ufo-sightings-by-multiple-people/433768/15 "2008-01-17T00:17:51Z")
UFO just means an unidentified flying object - the association with extraterrestrials makes it jokey and embarrassing for some to talk about.
A group of twelve [airline employees at O’Hare](http://www.chicagotribune.com/classified/automotive/columnists/chi-0701010141jan01,0,5874175.column) just over a year ago saw something that they couldn’t identify.
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### Author:  [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2008, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ufo-sightings-by-multiple-people/433768/16 "2008-01-17T00:51:49Z")
[QUOTE=Wee Bairn]
Assuming it was not a hoax by the townsfolks, how they be wrong when they gave that much detail- they could see people, hear them talking, etc? Its one thing to think a jet is a UFO, or a planes light pattern is, but I don’t get it in this case.
[/QUOTE]
It happened in waves all across the country, with many people saying that the pilot claimed to be an inventor from New England who was going to announce the airship shortly. Many of the witnesses were churchgoing people and very respectable. (The big known hoax was otherwise.) It was well covered by the newspapers, and I believe at least some of the sightings made it into Charles Fort’s books.
The book is great, since many of the sightings seem inexplicable, enough to make one a believer if they hadn’t happened over a century ago. There is an sf story in here somewhere, or an issue of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, at least.
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### Author:  [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2008, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ufo-sightings-by-multiple-people/433768/17 "2008-01-17T04:29:42Z")
[QUOTE=bouv]
I remember seeing a report on TV of a UFO seen by several people in…New Mexico? Arizona?
[/QUOTE]
You mean the [Phoenix Lights](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_Lights) from 1997?
> [@](#):
>
> The Phoenix Lights, sometimes referred to as “the Lights over Phoenix”, is the popular name given to a series of optical phenomena and sightings that took place in the sky over the U.S. states of Arizona and Nevada, and the Mexican state of Sonora on March 13, 1997. Lights of varying descriptions were seen by thousands of people between 19:30 and 22:30 MST, in a space of about 300 miles, from the Nevada line, through Phoenix, to the edge of Tucson. There were two distinct events involved in the incident: a triangular formation of lights seen to pass over the state, and a series of stationary lights seen in the Phoenix area. Although the United States Air Force (USAF) identified the second group of lights as flares dropped by A-10 Warthog aircraft which were on training exercises at the Barry Goldwater Range at Luke Air Force Base[citation needed], some who observed the events believe differently. Notable among those who reported they had observed a huge carpenter-square shaped UFO, having lights or light emitting engines, is Arizona Republican governor at the time of the incident, Fife Symington.
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### Author:  [@Oregon\_sunshine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oregon_sunshine)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2008, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ufo-sightings-by-multiple-people/433768/18 "2008-01-17T04:35:46Z")
My husband and I saw a UFO last year while we were out in our garden.
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### Author:  [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2008, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ufo-sightings-by-multiple-people/433768/19 "2008-01-17T04:37:03Z")
I have no doubt that a bunch of people saw something and have now convinced themselves and each other than it was anything more significant than a couple of airplanes. If it wasn’t two airplanes, it was one airplane. If it wan’t an airplane, it was something equally unremarkable.
The one sure thing is that it wasn’t an alien space craft.
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### Author:  [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2008, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ufo-sightings-by-multiple-people/433768/20 "2008-01-17T05:03:04Z")
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic]
The one sure thing is that it wasn’t an alien space craft.
[/QUOTE]
Why is that a sure thing?
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