UUFOH REPORT:UFO Lights Near Kennecottby Don Rogers
About 6:50 PM on Monday December 15, 2003 I received a call from Dave about two UFO’s that were spotted in the South end of the Salt Lake valley. Since I live near the State Capital building he wanted me to go out and see if I could spot anything. So, I grabbed my 35mm camera and binoculars and went over to an empty field at the top of Victory Road.
When I started looking around I was surprised to see over a dozen planes (three were helicopters) in the air instead of the usual 4 or 5 that are going in or out of the airport. I didn't’ see anything unusual in the South end of the valley, but there were two bright lights that were flickering and not moving located somewhere between the Salt Lake airport and the Kennecott refinery plant.
They appeared to be about 500 to 1000 feet above the ground and were far brighter than any of the other planes. I new I couldn't’ get much detail about them because I estimated that they were about seven to ten miles away (the airport is five miles West of where I was.) So, I started taking time lapse pictures and watching them through the binoculars. It was hard get a good look at them through the binoculars because they were so far away and the image wasn’t very stable.
But each one looked like a group of six to eight bright white lights surrounded by some smaller red lights.
A few times, for a split second, I thought I was looking into the back of a Chinook helicopter (a large two rotor cargo helicopter.) After a few minutes, one of the lights slowly started going southwest toward Tooele. I watched it until the light faded out. After about 10 minutes it came back from the same direction and stopped near the other light. At one point they both started going towards the Kennecott plant and then returned to their original location.
After about five minutes, they both headed west and I watched them until the lights faded out again. I couldn’t tell there speed, but it wasn’t real fast.
I packed up my camera and started to go home and warm up, but changed my mind and decided to wait and see if anything else strange showed up. In less than ten minutes they came back again to the same location.
After a couple of minutes, one of them made a “J” turn where it started going southwest and then headed north over the Great Salt Lake slowly gaining elevation as it left. I watched it until the lights faded out, somewhere west of Ogden and a couple of thousand feet above the ground. I estimated its speed at 200 mph or less, about the same speed as a landing jet. After a couple of more minutes, the remaining light followed the same path as the first light.
After it went out of sight, I went home to warm up and reload my camera. I had been gone for a little over a half an hour watching the lights. Dave had mentioned that the lights were first reported about 6:30, so the lights had been around for about an hour. I kept going back out about every ten minutes for the rest of the night but never saw the lights again.
During the whole time that I was watching this, the air traffic around the airport seemed normal. Many planes took off and landed and several small planes came close to the lights but didn’t appear to pay any attention to it.
UFO Lights Near KennecottReportby Don RogersCONTINUED BELOW
________________
Note on PHOTOS:
Of the UFO's on Monday 12/15/2003.15 shots taken but only 7 are worth studying. Don was a bit disappointed with them because of a couple of things. First, there is a reflection of the city lights in the sky that happened because of reflections that happened between the camera lens and the ultraviolet filter that showed up in the long time exposures. Second, the pictures are a bit fuzzy because of what he believe was condensation from the change in temperature between the room and the outside.
The first picture was taken about 5 min after first saw them and one of them had gone West. The second picture was taken about 15 min later after they both had gone West and then returned.
These were scanned at 800 dpi Don Rogers
Photos taken with: Minolta SRT101 , Kodak Max 400 film.
The first few pictures were taken at an f-stop of 4 with a exposure time frame between 5 and 30 seconds.
The later pictures were taken with the f-stop set at 1.4, again with exposure time being set between 5 and 30 seconds.
The pictures I've sent you were taken with a cable release. I have some pictures that were taken without the cable release, but they have so much camera movement that they don't look very good.
UUFOH REPORT CONTINUED:UFO Lights Near Kennecott by Don Rogers
The next day, I called the Salt Lake City Police Media department and Press Information department and asked if they had received any reports of unusual lights in the sky over that area. They replied that they had not received any reports or calls about anything unusual that night. and suggested that I try checking with the Weather Bureau. I didn’t feel that they wouldn’t have anything to report and didn’t call them.
I finally decided that they were probably military helicopters that had something to do with Dugway and Hill Air Force Base. But, there were some very unusual things about this sighting that makes it out of the ordinary.
For example:
> What were they doing at that location for such a long time? There is very little in that area and nothing that should be of military interest.
> Why were they lit up so brightly? If it was done so they would be seen by other aircraft, it was done with lights that are not normally used on aircraft.
> Why were they at that altitude? I never saw them get close to the ground, so it was unlikely they were picking up or dropping off anything. If they were searching for something, they didn’t move very far and I never saw any search lights going to the ground. However, some other reports do talk about lights coming down from them and I may not have been able to see them from this distance.
> Why were there two of them? While it’s not unusual for the military to send out groups of aircraft, it is strange for them to have helicopters hovering in the same spot so close together for such a long time. Usually, if one helicopter is working on something the other helicopter “orbits” the working one to observe how its doing. The lights never did make any of these motions.
I see aircraft flying around the airport every day, but to me this was a very unusual event.
While they may have been helicopters and not“true” UFO’s this appears to fit the definition of a “UMO”an Unidentified Military Operation.
I called the Salt Lake City Police, Media and Press Information department and asked if they had received any reports of unusual lights or anything in the sky on Monday. They said that they had not received any calls about anything unusual that night. The lights I observed never did move that fast (around 200 mph when they left) and some of the moves they made were the same as what a helicopter would do. Also, the air traffic around the airport seemed normal and there were a lot of planes that flew past the lights and didn't seem to pay any attention to the lights.
It was hard to get a good look at the lights through the binoculars because they were so far away and it was hard to hold them still. But, each "UFO" looked like a set of 6 to 8 white lights grouped together with some small red lights around them. A couple of good glimpses that I got of them gave me the impression that I was looking into the back of a Chinook (a large two rotor cargo helicopter.) So, it seems that they probably were helicopters.
But, it's still pretty strange that they were lighting up the sky like that and not just something on the ground like a police helicopter would do. If they were helicopters, they definitely looked like cargo ones because they were far bigger than the news and air meds that you usually see flying around. However, they never got close enough to the ground to pick anything up with a hoist and I never saw them land. They appeared to be flying to and from Dugway and when they finished, they flew towards Hill AFB staying West of the cities (maybe for noise reasons.) Anyway, it was still a pretty strange event.
Note:The objects reported may have traveled from the West Jordan area north to positions documented in above photos together, later breaking formation one going south one going north, then returning.
UUFOH
Photo 5: shows trianglation with positions giving refferance with the UFOs
Photos:more information
The last picture with a long red streak in the sky was very puzzling for me at the time. When I first saw it I assumed that it was just another jet going by. It was going at the normal altitude and speed for a jet, but it didn't have any strobe lights like the other jets and the red lights were unusually bright. This was the first picture I took after they had left and then come back.
FYI, the pictures where you can see the clouds were taken after they left and came back. I knocked my camera over when I saw them coming and in grabbing it I accidentally changed the f-stop to the widest opening of 1.4 It turned out to be a good thing though. This is because you can see the clouds and notice how much they change between pictures. This is proof that the pictures weren't taken in a short period of time.
Photo analysis: position changes(above left): shows objects position changes in three of the photos in reference to the telephone pole and the city lights below (all of the photos also show position changes with the UFOs)
map: trianglation(above right): Shows line of sight from photo/veiwing location.(in pink) using this prepared map and the trianglation photo(below): easily narrows down the UFO's position at time of photos, at approx. 7:00pm-7:30pm 12/15/03. the SLC UFO'swere in the vacinity & just South of I-80, between I-15 & the Great Salt Lake. near Kennecott
UUFOH Report: UFO Lights Near Kennecott Report by Pete Day
I was contacted by Dave Rosenfeld via a phone call on the evening of Monday Dec. 15th with a report of unusual lights by the Kennecott range. I live in West Jordan and have a pretty good view of the mountains there.
I could see two bright lights on the mountain, however, I had seen lights up at Kennecott that were very bright the last couple of nights. These lights, although not moving, were very bright.
I drove up to the bottom entrance by the mines and because of the angle of being close, could not see the lights at that point, did not see anything unusual from where we were at.
There was not much traffic out there, however, there was a West Jordan Police officer driving around out there panning his spot light out into a field. I did not see anything out of the ordinary and not sure what he would be looking for. He was the only car driving around out there besides us at the time.
Photo 6: enhanced, with close-up of UFO's, noted plane positions in frame, 6 total
explain -[The one with the small streak under the UFO.
That streak is a small plane that had taken off and I waited for it to go by the UFO.]
_________________________________
1/05/2004
Re: Kennecott sighting and pictures
I have noticed, living in West Jordan and only a few blocks from the Utah Air National Guard site, that the UANG sends out teams of two helicopters, usually Black Hawk or Apache, at least every other night. I either hear, or see them returning to the Air Guard field from either the South, the North or the East. I do a great deal of my grocery shopping at the West Jordan Walmart Supercenter, which is on the east side of the the UANG base. I have watched them run training and practice runs all over the valley. I have also noticed that sometimes, but not all of the time, they will run these training flights with high beam lights on.
I will watch them and record a few of their training flights from my house. I can get a good record of them, because they usually fly right over my apartment, rattling windows and such, and can get a good visual of the aircraft and how they are configured, such as lighting. I have also seen them run these training flights almost totally blacked out, because I have been outside looking for them, after hearing them, and didn't see them until they were practically right above me. It pretty much scared the bajesus out me a few times. Give me a call on my cell phone, ----------, if you have any other reports like these in my area. I will be happy to grab my Sony Digicam and any stillshot cameras that are accessible. I usually have all of my equipment prepped and ready to go, just in case.
Thanks,
Brian Whitesides
________________________________
If you have any other information regarding this event - PLEASE CONTACT US+UUFOH
Dave, I think you did and excellent job on this. It show's a very connected group that you have, and your responsivness immediately to a report of UFO's. This is what makes your site great and I believe will attract those like us who are looking for answers to life long questions.
Good job !!!
Pete Day
_________________________________
Excellent report, and pictures. Great coverage by you and your network.
shows close up of UFOs, major locations, plane positions, reflected light explaination:
[the camera lens and ultraviolet filter used, sometimes causes reflections during long time exposures]
UUFOH REPORT:by Dave Rosenfeld
UUFOHDirector, Dave Rosenfeld receives a call appox. 6:15PM12/15/2003
from SLC MUFON Director, Marlee Spendlove concerning a call in report she recieved of 2 UFOs currently over or near Kennecott Copper mine, and suggests confirmation from UUFOH (sighting reported by Matt )
UUFOH (Dave) Procedes to contact members that would have viewable positions and that could confirm visual on objects. Dave successfully contacts UUFOH members:
Pete Day at 6:30PM in West Jordan, who confirms imeadiately with visual, stationary bright lights in the Kennecott area below the horizion & notes they caught his eye earlier.. continues observations...
& Don Rogers at 6:50PM in Salt Lake City, who procedes around the corner to a better viewing location, minutes later, calls Dave back and confirms two bright lights & notes that photographic documentation is being performed. continues observations...
UUFOH confirms with SLC MUFON ( Marlee) at 6:55PM the appearance of two bright lights near Kennecott by two UUFOH members one in west Jordan one in SLC.
7:28 PM - Don Rogers describes details veiwed through binoculars, mutiple 6-8 flickering white lights with red lights around edge, brighter than anything else in sky. Notes: mutiple planes traveling close to or in proximity of UFO's also seen below horizion. Describes UFO's direction of travel as they split from each other, one moving south over mountians in direction of Dugway, Other object moves North passing SLC International Airport and continues in Northerly direction.
