Incident · 8 January 2008 · Stephenville and Selden, Erath County, Texas
Stephenville lights, Texas (8 January 2008)
Also known as Stephenville UFO, Stephenville lights, Stephenville 2008, Erath County UFO
Partly explained. The Air Force Reserve first denied having jets in the area, then said about ten F-16s from Fort Worth were on night training flights that evening; officials had suggested an optical illusion or sunlight on airliners, but no official account explains the large silent object witnesses describe. (source)
On the evening of 8 January 2008, residents of Stephenville, Selden and Dublin in Erath County, Texas, about 100 miles south-west of Dallas, reported a large, silent, brightly lit object that hovered and then moved off at great speed; several said fighter jets chased it. Witnesses quoted at the time included a private pilot, Steve Allen, and a constable, Lee Roy Gaitan. The local Stephenville Empire-Tribune broke the story and counted about 40 witnesses.
Military officials first said no fighters had been in the area and suggested an optical illusion such as sunlight reflecting off airliners. On 23 January the Air Force Reserve corrected itself: about ten F-16s from the 301st Fighter Wing at Fort Worth had been on night training flights that evening, and the earlier denial was put down to an internal communications error. As far as the Reserve knew, the pilots reported nothing unusual and had not been interviewed.
MUFON investigators later analysed FAA radar data obtained under FOIA. They report the F-16s' tracks and, separately, unidentified returns without transponders in the area at the time of the main sightings; that analysis is theirs, not an official finding. No official investigation of the object itself is on record.
Sources: NPR (16 and 24 January 2008) · Associated Press (23 January 2008) · G. Schulze and R. Powell, Stephenville Lights: A Comprehensive Radar and Witness Report Study (MUFON)
Facts and claims
- documented NPR reported on 16 January 2008 that dozens of people near Stephenville, “including a pilot and a police officer”, said an object hovered over the area for about five minutes on the evening of 8 January before streaking away; the Stephenville Empire-Tribune put the number of witnesses at about 40. Source: npr.org (archived)
- claimed The pilot Steve Allen told NPR the object was enormous, silent and had flashing strobe lights, sped away at more than 3,000 mph followed by two fighter jets, and was “bigger than a Wal-Mart”. Law enforcement officer Lee Roy Gaitan described a red glow suspended about 3,000 feet up. Source: npr.org (archived)
- documented Military officials at first suggested an optical illusion, likely “a reflection of sunlight on two airliners”, and officials at a nearby air force base said their fighter pilots had not chased anything that night. Source: npr.org (archived)
- documented On 23 January the Air Force Reserve reversed itself: the Associated Press reported that officials confirmed planes from the 301st Fighter Wing at the Joint Reserve Base Naval Air Station in Fort Worth, about ten jets, were on night training flights that evening. Maj. Karl Lewis told NPR the earlier denial was an internal communications mistake and that, as far as he knew, the pilots had reported nothing unusual and had not been interviewed. Source: npr.org (archived)
- claimed Claudette Odom told NPR that, just after 6 p.m., she and three others saw a silent object hover outside town, its lights forming an arch and then a vertical line that split in two, before two F-16s screamed over their hill at low altitude heading towards it. The Empire-Tribune reporter who broke the story, Angelia Joiner, said none of the witnesses believed they had mistaken the F-16s for the object. Source: npr.org (archived)
- claimed A radar study by Glen Schulze and Robert Powell (MUFON's director of research), from 2.8 million FAA radar returns and a redacted 457th Fighter Squadron logbook obtained under FOIA, places ten F-16s from Carswell in the area at 15,000–17,000 feet, most in the Brownwood MOAs, and reports unidentified primary returns without transponders north of Selden at about 6:15 p.m. in the direction the Selden witnesses described; if two returns were one object, it moved at about 2,100 mph. Source: doc-mufon-stephenville-radar-2008.pdf
Mentioned in this file
- Robert Powell (Person)
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Links
- NPR, 16 January 2008: Dozens Claim They Spotted UFO in Texas
- NPR, 24 January 2008: Air Force Alters Texas UFO Explanation
- AP via KVIA, 23 January 2008: military confirms jets on night flights
- Schulze & Powell (MUFON), Stephenville Lights: radar and witness report (PDF)