Table of Contents
Analysis of Seattle, Washington UFO Sightings in 2001
We analyzed all 38 UFO sighting reports in Seattle, Washington to identify possible patterns and gain insight into the phenomenon:
- The most commonly reported UFO shape or appearance was "light" (8 reports, 21.05% of total).
- September was the month with the most reported UFO sightings (6 reports, 15.79% of total).
- Sunday was the weekday with the most reported UFO sightings (8 reports, 21.05% of total).
- 03/13/01 was the single date with the most UFO sightings reported (3 reports, 7.89% of total).
- Sightings occured more often during the night, between the hours of 20:00 - 23:59 (17 reports, 44.74% of total).
UFO Reports in Seattle, Washington from 2001
These Seattle, Washington UFO reports from 2001 are presented as they were submitted other than paragraph breaks added for easier readability where necessary.
You can click the 'Report' link to view the original report along with any photos that may have been submitted to the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC).
Full Report Text:
Two yellow-amber spheres; one disappeared slowly, the other changed direction, stopped, & vanished. While observing the meteor storm, and about ten minutes after sighting a large, crescent shaped object (see previous report), I spotted a yellow-amber colored sphere or circular oject flying slowly from east to west. There were no apparent lights on it, so at first I figured it must have been a balloon or a plastic bag caught up in a breeze.
It flew slowly in a straight line, and slowly disappeared as it flew out over the water. Plastic bags usually don't do this and aircraft normally have lights on them (this did not), so I shot at it with a 11.6 milliwatt 632nm (green) DPSS laser while it was moving away from my position, but did not see any light reflected back.
Since I can see the beam from this laser slicing through the sky at night, targeting was not an issue; it simply didn't reflect any of my green light back to me. About a minute later, I saw another, smaller one; going in approximately the same direction at approximately the same speed and in approximately the same flight path as the first. I shot this one with the laser as it was moving off as well, and *did* manage to hit it several times as I saw the green dot light up on what I believe to be its underside.
After I'd hit it four or five times, it slowed down to almost a stop, abruptly turned to the north, and started moving again; only more slowly. I half expected the thing to start shooting back at me; but instead, it slowed down again and came to a complete stop. By this time I'd thrown the laser to the floor and kicked it under the bed.
Then the UFO just hung there stationary like a one of several of the other stars visible near its position. After observing it stationary in the sky for 25-30 seconds, it simply winked out as if somebody kicked the plug out of the wall. There were no visible light sources on them (they appear to have been illuminated solely by reflected light from below), no sound was detectable, and no moving parts were visible.
Their color was sodium yellow; so they may have actually been white or light grey in color; and reflecting light from the sodium vapor lamps illuminating the streets in this area. And both objects had a slow and rock steady flight; not fluttering, rocking, wavering, rotating, or changing speed/direction except as noted earlier. The size of the first one was approximately that of a small dress shirt button held at arm's length; the second one appeared to be about half that size.
The laser I used has an effective range of only a few thousand feet with this amount of light pollution in the area, so the altitude of the object I actually hit had to be ~3,000 feet or below for me to be able to easily see the spot on it. Both objects traversed about 50° worth of sky (a mile or two if they were at this low an altitude) before disappearing. I attempted to take pictures, but neither object was large or bright enough to show up on my cheap digital camera.
The pictures came out as just digital noise. I watched the meteor storm & the sky intently for approximately another 90 minutes after this sighting, and did not see anything else out of the ordinary. I am a full-time museum curator & product evaluator, I do not use drugs, and I haven't consumed any alcoholic beverages since mid-September.
And I know I wasn't just seeing things.
Full Report Text:
Slow-flying crescent made up of lots of little balls flies over downtown Seattle While observing the meteor storm from my decidedly bad vantage point (inner city, facing northwest), I noticed a slow-moving object high up in the sky. The object was crescent-shaped, colored a medium grey (judging by the color reflected from the city lights below), and seemed to have a texture like it was made from dozens of small balls or spheres. It flew very slowly from north-northeast to south-southwest, and was accompanied by a very faint rumbling, engine-like noise which I could make out over the normal nighttime sounds of downtown Seattle.
Once it was nearly overhead, it turned slowly west and faded from view, and the rumbling noise faded away with it. The size was approximately that of a thumbnail held at arm's length, and it flew with the rounded portion of the crescent shape aimed forward. There were no light emitters of any type visible on it.
Its height could not be accurately estimated; I have only the amplitude of its "engine" noise to base any guess upon. And if I tried to guess using only that, it would have been at least 5,000 feet in altitude. I'm on the approach path for commercial airliners, and I know what they look and sound like from varying distances.
This was *not* a commercial flight. According to my handheld GPS, I'm located at 47°36'23N by 122°19'51W. This is in downtown Seattle near the monorail terminus.
This is the first of three unidentifyable objects I will be reporting on tonight. Incidentally, from my decidedly poor vantage point, highly restricted viewable area, and severe light pollution conditions, I still observed approximately 150 meteors between 1am & 4am; with only one being very substantial. The projectile itself glowed an eye-piercing whitish violet and was surrounded by a darker violet coma; and the long tail was green & white with violet & blue-violet along its edges.
It's a fair guess it left some elements in our upper atmosphere that aren't even on the periodic table yet. All but three of the meteors I saw were Leonids.
Full Report Text:
Three dark orange objects flew quickly across the sky at about 2:00 AM (approx) during the Leonid meteor shower. The sighting occured while watching the Leonid meteor shower from West Seattle. Three ufos, flying in formation, streaked across the sky from the west to the northeast.
The objects were dark orange and appeared to be very high. All five of us watched as the moved across the entire sky in approximately 8 to 10 seconds before disappearing into the night sky.
Full Report Text:
V-Formation over West Seattle It was approximately 8:30 PM in the Alaska Junction area of West Seattle. I was home, just looking out the window at the northwest section of the night sky, when a large v-shaped formation of 7 round white lights came into view, slowly moving south. The formation seemed to be at the same altitude commercial jets use when they fly.
It definitely got my attention, since I didn't think any pilots (military or civilian) would be flying at night in close formation like the Blue Angels. The v-formation appeared almost vertical, poised to gain altitude quickly. Each of the round lights seemed larger than regular aircraft lights, looking more like spotlights instead.
Also, even though the lights were bright, I couldn't see any outline of a craft. To my complete amazement, the whole v-formation appeared to come to a complete stop, and then all 7 lights started blinking and moving irraticly in and out of formation. This went on for almost 10 seconds.
Amazed by what I was seeing, I jumped up to get a better look, but just as I did so, the lights went back into v-formation and flew over my house, continuing south. I quickly ran to look out a window on the south side of the house to see it emerge, but there was nothing there. It seemed as if the whole v-formation just disappeared, or went straight up into space.
Very strange, very ufo.
Full Report Text:
Glowing bright orange, looked as though it was gliding. 5:35pm November 03, 2001 Dusk, only 1 or 2 stars visible in the sky. Only one group of small clouds in the sky (Just went outside to check).
Sitting in my room with the curtains open watching TV. Saw it as soon as it passed into view over rooftop within frame of window. Saw 1 single bright orange object very low in the sky.
Glowing bright orange, looked as though it was gliding. Orange glow faded to bright blue then faded completely away (vanished) well before reaching the next 'out of sight' boundary witch was the neighbors rooftop. Traveled in a perfectly straight line towards the N.
E. It flew below the cloud layer at one point during its flight path. Looked lower in the sky than commercial aircraft.
Seemed larger than a single prop airplane like a Cessna (difficult to judge its distance by other aircraft that were in the area). Faster than an airplane, slower than a meteorite. It left no tail, streak, or visible wake of any kind.
Extremely graceful and smooth. Was wearing glasses at the time of the sighting. The object definitely had a silhouette and shape but was moving to fast to make out its exact shape.
Sighting lasted approximately 2 and a half to 3 seconds. After it faded out there were no visible objects in its flight path. As if it had simply vanished.
I opened my window immediately after words to listen for sound, there was no sound at all not even from insects. 10 to 20 seconds later normal aircraft were spotted within view of my window and those appeared much higher in the sky and also had the normal aircraft sounds that would be associated with them. It does defy all my current knowledge and experience of weather, meteorites, and aircraft.
I require more information about what I've just witnessed before I could tell myself for sure what it was. I wrote as much of this down as possible right after the event happened. I would have called this in over the phone, but at this moment there is no phone number available for me to call it in with.
I've looked over the entire web site and can not find any other form of c! ontactin g Mr. Peter Davenport. ((NUFORC Note: Our Hotline number, (206) 722-3000, is on our website, and in the Seattle phone book.
Our telephone number is on the NUFORC webpage. PD)).
Full Report Text:
green fireball ocross nite sky as heard on 10:00 komo 4 news seattle.
Full Report Text:
i saw a large flaming blue sphere west of seattle i saw a flaming blue sphere west of seattle.very large in size.much like a meteor ((NUFORC Note: Event occurred at 20:21::52 hrs.
(Pacific Daylight Time), as reported by Mr. Ed Majden, astronomer, Courtenay, B.C.
We have changed the time above. PD)).
Full Report Text:
just a meteor sighting. hi, just a meteor sighting, in case you get other reports. a bright one, ENE from me, on Phinney Rodge.
path was similar to \. visible path length was about 2 hand widths. visible for most of a second, before it went behind a tree.
it got brighter as it came in. color was just off-white, a little orange. no sound, no flash.
no fragmentation.
Full Report Text:
four stars in the day time sky to the south east I observed a star coming north towards me.I watched as it got brighter.I watched it until it had got almost due east.
I looked down at my freind to see if he was seeing it too.When I looked back up I had lost its position. To my suprize I was now seeing three more of these star shaped things in a line heading north.
the original one had now fallen in line with these new ones .I watched them travel north for about thirty seconds .then one of them I think it was the third one stared heading east .
Then the fourth one sped up and seemed to meld with the other .Then they were to far ovewr the houses for me to see them . so what the hell were they ? I know we had jets from the military flying over a week ago.
Full Report Text:
Possible Aurora Sighting Over Seattle Must have been an SR-71 (any still flying?) or Aurora-type, high altitude, enormously fast craft. A vehicle streaming two contrails from the direction of 335-345 degrees true overflew Seattle/Issaquah, WA area. Made a high speed, 180 U-turn directly overhead and departed area at very high speed.
Estimate altitude at 35,000 feet. Diameter of turn estimated at 2.5 miles.
Time from directly overhead to beyond visible horizon heading toward NWest approximately 25 seconds. Vehicle was audible entire time, but shape of vehicle could not be discerned due to altitude. Sun still up, but dusk approaching.
Very loud noise consistent with un-hushed military jet engines. No doubt of military origin, but speed, altitude and flight path (plus solo operation) tend to rule out air cap flight due to recent events. Sure you'll get other reports.
((NUFORC Note: This is the second reported sighting that we have received over the last ten days of what the witnesses presumed were "Aurora" aircraft. We are awaiting a report from an individual, known to us, who reported the same type of phenomenon. He is a former U.
S. Air Force fighter pilot, who reported the event to us verbally on the day he witnessed it. PD)).
Full Report Text:
Bright red light in the Seattle sky. I was walking down Harvard Ave. near Seattle Central Community College heading south from Thomas St.
and in the sky was a bright red light. It was brighter than any plane, rather like a flare, but steady and without a flare's smoke. I did not hear any plane or engine noise.
The light's course was paralell but to the east. It continued at the same speed for a few seconds & went behind a tree, but I could still see it. When it was behind this tree, there seemed to let go of a another red light that moved down to the ground (or at least to the northeast, out of view).
Within a few more seconds the light had moved behind a buliding & I was not able to see it anymore. ((NUFORC Note: We spoke with this witness, and we found him to be quite credible. He described the event in quite eloquent, unambiguous terms.
PD)).
Full Report Text:
Non-mobile red white and blue steadily flashing light at 40 degrees in the west sky We saw a light twinkling steadily red, white and blue (this is NOT a hoax) at about 40 degrees west over Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains. It looked like a very bright star, even through binoculars, except for the steady red white and blue light flashing from it. It was as bright as Mars was when it was at it's closest to Earth.
Fort Lewis is only 30 miles or so away, and Boeing field is about 10 miles South, but there were no commercial flights and besides, it did not move. We left after about an hour, so I do not know what happened to it. Among the witnesses: a chemist, a biologist, a teacher, a bar owner, an airline employee, a web designer.
((NUFORC Note: Our first suspicion would be that the witnesses were observing a celestial body of some type, but they sound like qualified witnesses, which might militate against our theory. We would like to know azimuth and elevation of the object, in order to rule out Mars, which would be in that part of the sky at the time indicated. PD)).
Full Report Text:
Four circular objects over Seattle. i realize at this time that any UFO may well be military. nonetheless, this was unlike anything i've seen or heard reported, and thought it may help.
i was standing at the water's edge of Myrtle Edwards Park in Seattle, looking up at the sky towards the southeast. the sky was pink, as the sun had just gone down behind the Olympics. i then noticed 3 tiny solid black circles moving from the south to the north in a triangular pattern.
they seemed to be moving very slowly. theie size was to this scale: if i extend my arm, and stare at my index finger's nail, the size of one of the craft was a quarter of the entire size of my nail. the 3 objects had no lights.
they were completely circular. they then stopped and spread out into a line and just sat in the sky, it appeared to be VERY high.i could also see one or two planes in the sky, rather low, as they were on appraoch to SeaTac Airport, and these objects were tiny compared to the planes.
i then noticed a 4th object.i did not see how it approached, i rather just suddenly noticed it moving upwards to meet the other 3. i did not see it rise from the horizon.
the 4 objects then moved , with an odd uniformity of movement towards the south. not fast or slow, just discreetely, i'd say.they faded from my view in approx.
1 minute once they began to move.
Full Report Text:
colored lights stationary in sky on night of air traffic shutdown in USA 9/11/01 Id be surprised if this turned out to be a possible extraterrestial issue, but it WAS an Unidentified Flying Object (at least to my brother and I). From about 2100 hours we watched a tight group (seemingly on a single object) of three colored lights remain roughly stationary for about 3 hours (when we stopped checking) in the sky (about 10 oclock high) to the North-East (visible from SE Seattle, from ridge above south end of Lk. Washington).
The colors were a distinct green, red and white. They moved just slightly, relative to each other, indicating some small movement, but over the period of viewing, the object stayed basically stationary in what was seemingly a hover pattern from our distance (up close, maybe a tight circle?). We were interested in particular due to the total grounding of all civilian aircraft that night.
The size of the lights and intensity was about right for a planet, but the lack of move over time ended that thought for us (as well as the sharply varying colors). I would be very interested to find out what this was.I ended up guessing a military object of some kind doing some sort of surveillance in light of the NY City attack.
but, the stationary nature of the object and duration of presence confounded me. Can anyone help with ideas here?.
Full Report Text:
Object seen over West Seattle In our front yard Sunday morning 08/26/01 my boyfriend said to look up and there was an object very far up, not moving accross the sky at all but turning enough to reflect the sun now and then, glinting very brightly. There was no discernable shape to the object since it was so high. It remained in one spot for several minutes, then slowly moved to the south-east, turned into a white spot and headed east at a very high rate of speed.
Full Report Text:
A dark aircraft with deep red colors triangularly shaped A dark aircraft with deep red colors triangularly shaped moved in a south-north direction. Living in Seattle I see many jets and even though they go 200+mph while they land, they move slowly across the sky. Compared to the jets this aircraft moved very, very fast and absolutely quiet.
Full Report Text:
Dark Low Flying Plane-Like Object on Flight Path to Seatac Airport I was heading home from the video store when I noticed an object flying low over the ground (seemed to be less than 500 feet). The object seemed to be hovering just west of Aurora Avenue North and to the south of Woodland Park zoo. At first I thought it was a helicopter, as it seemed to be hovering for over 10 seconds.
But I then noticed that it had more of the contours of an airplane. I rolled down my window expecting to hear a helicopter sound, but I heard absolutely no sound from the object. The object than started flying very slowly and completely silently at what seemed to be too low of a speed for a commercial aircraft, heading southwards across Wallingford and Lake Union towards Seatac airport.
I ran home to get my binoculars and try to view the object from my deck. By the time I got to my deck, the object was far away and not very visible with my binoculars. ((NUFORC Note: Anonymous report.
PD)).
Full Report Text:
Creamy yellow, slow moving light moving N to S, high in the sky, slow turnon/turnoff, then vanished. While observing the meteor shower from my NNW facing window, I noticed a creamy yellow light appear out of nowhere high in the sky, a few degrees WNW from the second brightest star I can see from my vantage point (possibly in the constellation Casseopia, the thing that looks like a big "W" in the sky, which is almost directly overhead and to the NNW from my view at this time of day). The light was tiny and it looked & moved like a satellite in polar orbit, but the time of sighting would seem to preclude that possibility, as the sun has been down for some six hours.
It "came on" slowly while moving directly south, increased in brilliance over about 1 second, stayed lit at around magnitude -2 to -3 for about another second, then dimmed & vanished over the next second, never to reappear. I tracked its projected course until my view was obstructed by the exterior wall of my own building, and did not see it light up again. The color did not change, and no trails or tails were left behind.
Once it dimmed out, it could no longer be followed. The apparent size was smaller than the head of a common pin held at arm's length. The two meteors I observed earlier this morning before sighting this object both travelled very quickly (est.
many tens of thousands of MPH), on a generally southeast-to-northwest track, and were colored white and blue-white respectively. One left a blue luminescent trail for a brief time. This object was nothing like them.
The speed was all wrong, the direction of travel was wrong, and the color of the light wasn't a typical "meteor" color compared to any meteor I've ever seen. Any ideas? ((NUFORC Note: At 0230 hrs. local time, no man-made satellites would be visible overhead.
They would be in the Earth's shadow, and therefore not illuminated. If a satellite is not reflecting sunlight, it almost certainly is not visible to a person below without special optical equipment. PD)).
Full Report Text:
Green Quick Moving Light This was a green light, moving left (don't know my directions) across the horizon over the mountains you can see from Golden Gardens park in the Ballard part of Seattle. Facing the mountains it was on the left side of the horizon, too. On the left, moving further left.
It was moving quickly and sporadically up and down as it moved left. Eventually I lost sight of it. I didn't speak to anyone else at the beach but the two people I was with witnessed the same event.
I NEVER believed in UFOs til last night! I'm a college grad (Tufts & University of Michigan) and rational! But this is. IRRATIONAL!.
Full Report Text:
In the wee hours of July 3rd I saw a giant red fireball fall slowly over the north of Puget Sound. I am an employee of a major hospital in Seattle Washington, and I work the graveyard shift. I was on my break this morning, on the 6th floor of the hospital on Capitol Hill.
The lounge on the 6th floor has a commanding view looking westward, toward Puget Sound. The skies were clear, there was no precipitation. I was sitting on a couch in the lounge reading when out of the corner of my eye I saw something big, red and moving.
Looking out the window I saw a very large RED FIREBALL descending rather slowly, apparently over the north Sound area. It was quite large, appearing to be nearly half the size of the almost-full moon. It was extremely bright, a glaring reddish-pink in color.
It was definitely burning as it fell, not sparkling or hazy, no diminishment in size as it arced downward through the sky. I watched it as it went behind the 3 radio towers located atop Queen Anne hill - I could clearly see the framework of the towers illuminated from behind as the fireball descended behind them. It then fell out of sight behind Queen Anne hill itself.
There were no bits of debris of any sort that flew off the fireball as it fell, no ejecta, just a BIG red ball lazily falling through the night sky. I was miles away, and this thing, whatever it was, was huge. Needless to say, I have no idea what it was I saw.
((NUFORC Note: This report may address an apparent emergency flare that was reported by a tugboat, whose crew reported that they thought it was somewhere over Lake Union. King County (Washington State) Search & Rescue performed a search, as did the U. S.
Coast Guard. Also, King Co. performed a "first light" search at dawn.
Our gratitude to the U. S. Coast Guard Search & Rescue Unit, Seattle, for making this information available to NUFORC.
PD)).
Seattle, Washington UFO Sightings From 2001 By Shape
This is a standardized set of shapes a UFO report can be filed under.
Shape / Appearance | Sightings | % Of Total |
---|---|---|
Light | 8 reported sightings | 21.05% of all reports |
Circle | 7 reported sightings | 18.42% of all reports |
Other | 5 reported sightings | 13.16% of all reports |
Fireball | 4 reported sightings | 10.53% of all reports |
Unknown | 3 reported sightings | 7.89% of all reports |
Triangle | 2 reported sightings | 5.26% of all reports |
Sphere | 2 reported sightings | 5.26% of all reports |
Cigar | 1 reported sightings | 2.63% of all reports |
Diamond | 1 reported sightings | 2.63% of all reports |
Rectangle | 1 reported sightings | 2.63% of all reports |
Formation | 1 reported sightings | 2.63% of all reports |
Chevron | 1 reported sightings | 2.63% of all reports |
Seattle, Washington UFO Sightings From 2001 By Month
This data point is an aggregation of all UFO reports by the month the sighting occured in.
Month | Sightings | % Of Total |
---|---|---|
September | 6 reported sightings | 15.79% of all reports |
March | 6 reported sightings | 15.79% of all reports |
August | 5 reported sightings | 13.16% of all reports |
November | 5 reported sightings | 13.16% of all reports |
January | 4 reported sightings | 10.53% of all reports |
June | 3 reported sightings | 7.89% of all reports |
October | 3 reported sightings | 7.89% of all reports |
February | 2 reported sightings | 5.26% of all reports |
May | 2 reported sightings | 5.26% of all reports |
April | 1 reported sightings | 2.63% of all reports |
July | 1 reported sightings | 2.63% of all reports |
Seattle, Washington UFO Sightings From 2001 By Weekday
This data point is an aggregation of all UFO reports by the day of the week the sighting occured on.
Weekday | Sightings | % Of Total |
---|---|---|
Sunday | 8 reported sightings | 21.05% of all reports |
Tuesday | 8 reported sightings | 21.05% of all reports |
Saturday | 7 reported sightings | 18.42% of all reports |
Monday | 5 reported sightings | 13.16% of all reports |
Thursday | 4 reported sightings | 10.53% of all reports |
Wednesday | 3 reported sightings | 7.89% of all reports |
Friday | 3 reported sightings | 7.89% of all reports |
Seattle, Washington UFO Sightings From 2001 By Date (Top 5)
This data point is an aggregation of all UFO reports by the date the sighting occured on, limited to the top 5 dates with the most sightings.
Date | Sightings | % Of Total |
---|---|---|
03/13/01 | 3 reported sightings | 7.89% of all reports |
11/18/01 | 3 reported sightings | 7.89% of all reports |
08/26/01 | 2 reported sightings | 5.26% of all reports |
10/15/01 | 2 reported sightings | 5.26% of all reports |
09/15/01 | 2 reported sightings | 5.26% of all reports |
Seattle, Washington UFO Sightings From 2001 By Time
This data point is an aggregation of all UFO reports by the time of day the sighting occured during. We took logical 4 hour windows in order to split the day into early morning, morning, afternoon, evening, night, and late night buckets for this analysis.
Time Of Day | Hours | Sightings | % Of Total |
---|---|---|---|
Night | 20:00 - 23:59 | 17 reported sightings | 44.74% of all reports |
Late night | 00:00 - 03:59 | 10 reported sightings | 26.32% of all reports |
Evening | 16:00 - 19:59 | 7 reported sightings | 18.42% of all reports |
Afternoon | 12:00 - 15:59 | 2 reported sightings | 5.26% of all reports |
Morning | 08:00 - 11:59 | 2 reported sightings | 5.26% of all reports |
Other Years with Reported UFO sightings in Seattle, Washington
These are running counts of how many UFO sighting reports are filed per year in Seattle, Washington.
All Washington Cities with reported UFO sightings in 2001
These are running counts of how many UFO sighting reports are filed per city in Washington in 2001. You can also view the state-level list of UFO sightings in Washington in 2001.