Oval over New Orleans (80 mi. SE of; Gulf of Mexico), LA

The report, as filed

I am a Chief Engineer on an Offshore Supply Vessel, and the events I am going to put forward are accurate, to the best of my knowledge. Close to 7:00 pm on March 21st, just before dusk, myself and 4 of the crew members aboard our vessel saw a craft that appeared to be five times our 240 ft vessel in length. My line of sight was about 1/4 mile from our vessel. There was a rig behind the craft about a 1/2 mile. I used this to help gauge size of craft. Sighting was approximately 80 miles SE of New Orleans, Louisiana. The scene lasted about 40 seconds. The craft rose up out of the water (Gulf of Mexico) about 40 feet, no water was dripping from the craft. Within a split second the craft disappeared at a 30 degree angle into the sky. Speed appeared to faster than speed of a light turning on in a room. Within seconds it had disappeared completely. I can say for sure that the craft was dark colored, oval in shape and made no sound whatsoever. With as many rigs (2), there has to be more witnesses than just the four on our vessel. We spoke via telephone with this witness, and he seemed to us to be unusually sober-minded. We suspect that he is a very capable, and very reliable, witness. He estimates that upwards of perhaps 50 people, who were aboard nearby vessels, may have witnessed the event, as well. We would urge those other witnesses to submit reports of what they had witnessed. PD

Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center (record NUFORC #133275). Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.