Light over Lawrence, KS
A witness account on file, unevaluated. Most of the archive rests here, and honestly so.
The report, as filed
I was in my room in my apartment watching Dave Chappelle on Netflix, when I heard a helicopter overhead. It sounded very low and powerful, so I figured it had to be military, and I-being a total nerd-had to run out to the parking lot to get a look. By the time I was out my door and in the parking lot, I had just enough time to watch a small orange ball of light being chased by what I assume to be a Blackhawk helicopter (because of size and sound) disappear behind the rooftops of the buildings east of me. This struck me as bizarre because I saw something similar some months ago in the same general area (skies south of Lawrence, I live on the south side of town, not far from Baker Wetlands). The light was small and orange in color and was about 50-100 yards ahead of the helicopter. It made no erratic movements but was travelling at a fair clip as the helicopter was tracking it at almost the exact speed and it was moving pretty quickly. As such, I have my doubts that this could've been a paper lantern (though the color and intensity of the light were similar to one) and the distance ahead of the helicopter rules out a refueling boom. I'd give the altitude of the two objects to be between 500-1000 ft agl and the speed! of both to be about 100 kts at the time I saw them. Also of note, I saw another object in the sky in the general area at the same time, though it may not have been connected. This object seemed to be an aircraft judging by the red and white lights it had on it, but it hovered in place for a moment until the lights slowly faded out with no apparent change in location. The direction I was looking toward would be about a straight line to KCI, so I wasn't immediately suspicious, but--having seen plenty of air traffic heading to and from KCI on that flight path--this didn't look like anything I'd seen before (no landing lights). I mention this because it was odd and because the previous sighting of a few months earlier of the same kind of event had 2 helicopters chasing the light instead of just one. Maybe this was the second.
Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center (record NUFORC #133973). Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.
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Routed to: Federal Aviation Administration · records window 2017-05-01 → 2017-05-18
From the same sky
Related entries
December 8, 2023 · 4:29 AM · SPHERE
Lawrence, KS
The summary is pretty much it. I sometimes can’t sleep so I will look out my window and will sometimes see this object, sometimes I see plans coming and going from the airport nearby. This object struck me as different because it doesn’t move like a plane, it just hovers. It always pulses white, blue, and pink light with what looks like solar flares coming from the main body in those same colors. Sometimes it will disappear and reappear within the same second in a different area of the sky and will hover there for a while before disappearing altogether. I can’t tell if it is hovering high above Eastern Lawrence or if it is closer to Kansas City. It doesn’t behave like anything I know. My husband is a retired Army pilot and he says it freaks him out.
December 26, 2022 · 5:16 PM · CIRCLE
Lawrence, KS
I throughout my life have seen UFO's and they do not scare me as I find them fascinating. Lately since March 2022 I have seen objects above Douglas county while driving on Farmers Turnpike. Not every day but enough that my children have been in the car with me and have seen them as well. The object has it's own white light source and doesn't move from it's seemingly stationary place. The object has had a halo around it and sometimes it fades out to nothing and other times it moves off quickly. I have seen it no less than 8 times since March and it always seems to be in the same area. I have seen it anywhere from 5 pm to 9 pm. I normally wont report anything but I was talking to a co-worker who said they saw something similar to what I saw when they were in Lawrence. I have heard this from several other people in the area so maybe it may be something that should be on your radar. I have a picture on my phone from one of the times but I can't zoom in very well on the object but when I do it looks like it is a double image or two objects. The photo was taken heading W on N 1800 Rd at the cross of E 1000 Rd in Douglas County, Kansas. The object in the photo was the first one that I had seen as my daughter took the picture. The objects that I am seeing are bright and located in Northern Douglas county North of Lawrence. They look round to the naked eye and do not have any colors or trails. They are fast when they move and I have seen on one occasion it seemingly fly up away from the small planes that come from the Lawrence airport.
November 12, 2022 · 12:08 AM · CHEVRON
Lawrence, KS
12:07am Kansas, Southern sky 10-15 white lights close together making a wide V shape. But slightly irregular V shape. (almost like this shape { )They were flying from west to east, looked to be high up, and flying very fast, the sky was clear and the moon was waning 3/4 full. Then they disappeared and shortly, maybe 3 seconds later another grouping of lights followed in another wide V shape but slightly diffrent in shape. They followed the first set but a bit further south, then also quickly disappeared into the sky flying east..about 4 minutes later we saw the same V shape but looked to be higher in the sky, flying east to west, the lights were brighter and closer together. My husband also saw all 3 incidents.
November 5, 2022 · 4:30 PM · SPHERE
Lawrence, KS
As I was talking to my father on the phone while walking my dogs in a small field near my apartment I looked up and noticed a white transparent orb in the sky. I couldn't tell if it was moving but it definitely looked out of place. I didn't think much of it at first then the more I looked at it the more confused I got. It appeared to be much higher in the sky than an airplane, but the size of it would be much bigger than an airplane. It also didn't make any sound. I continued looking at it to see if it would move (maybe to see if it was a weather balloon or a drone). But it was also very windy that day so if it was any sort of balloon it would be moving around rather quickly. The object I saw appeared to be still or hovering. Then as I continued looking at it the object almost appeared to turn or shift. And as it turned or shifted it got really bright. But not light on an airplane bright or star bright. It was as if it was a very bright reflection off of a shiny metallic surface. This was especially odd to me because of how far away the object appeared in the sky. It was even almost difficult to look at but I kept my eye on it as long as I could (2-3 minutes maybe). Then my dog pulled me in a different direction so I looked down to see what she was doing. It couldn't have been more than 3-5 seconds then once I looked up the object was gone without even a trace of where it was. I looked for about 15 minutes in the sky after it disappeared to see if I was maybe just overlooking it or to see if it would show up again. But I saw nothing else. And this was on a perfectly sunny mid-afternoon day where there were few clouds in the sky. So it would have been easier to track something down if it had moved in the sky. Unfortunately I didn't capture anything on my phone camera because I was on the phone with my father and processing what I had just seen. The final thing I noticed is this time of year birds are flying around everywhere as they prepare to fly south for the winter. But during this sighting there was nothing in the sky or even anywhere near where I was looking. I didn't think this was odd until I thought about the two times I took my dogs out before the sighting and the next time after the sighting when birds were flying everywhere and making noises. There was none of this during the sighting. But that could have also been a coincidence or me just not paying attention to anything but the object I saw in the sky.
November 6, 2021 · 6:45 PM · SPHERE
Lawrence, KS
10-12 glowing orange balls were seen passing over the eastern end of Lawrence Ks. These orange balls were traveling from SE to NE, and were traveling roughly in a line. Several times one of the balls could be seen to pass other balls before fading out. This fading out appeared to happen when the balls would travel higher, out of eye-shot. It was fully dark at this time and I was walking from my neighbor's yard back to mine when I noticed them. I have never seen anything like this before. My background is educated, office worker, and not prone to believing in conspiracy theories. But this was weird!
July 18, 2020 · 10:48 PM · TEARDROP
Lawrence, KS
At 10:48pm CT in Lawrence, Kansas sky gazing in the parking lot of Rock Chalk Park a local recreation center near the outskirts of the city I witnessed the following over the course of about 6-8 seconds: A large teardrop shaped flying object appeared in the sky. The object forked at the end and the two ends of the tear drop didn’t quite touch . I could see the space between the two arms of the teardrop shape. The object had a yellow hallow around it as if it were glowing. The flying object was around 4 inches long in the sky and appeared to be as close to the earth as you would see an airplane or a jet. The object was moving from the SW (near Highway 10 entrance) to the NE (toward Queens Rd) and was flying straight and seemed to be moving both fast and slow at the same time. It covered the sky from point A to point B at a distance of about a 85 degree angle in about 7 seconds and then disappeared, it was completely silent.