“This was a bright, white light, not an aircraft,” he reported to a group that investigates unexplained phenomenon nationwide.
The unidentified man said he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
“I’m a skeptic until proof is in my face, and this sighting really spooked me,” he said. “I really believe what I saw was not an aircraft, shooting star, etc. This was different than anything I have ever seen.”
Since then, there have been at least 79 reports of unexplained phenomenon in the skies over west-central Illinois. Those are just the ones reported to the Mutual UFO Network, a Newport Beach, California-based network dedicated to the scientific investigation of unidentified flying objects.
There were two sightings last year in Morgan County alone: on Jan. 30, 2020, in Jacksonville and on July 7, 2020, in South Jacksonville. The second one was described as a bright flashing star that emitted red, white and green lights while making irregular movements in the sky. The most recent in the area was in October in Glasgow, where a Scott County resident reported seeing an extremely fast-spinning craft that was making unusual maneuvers.
One of the larger unexplained sightings in Jacksonville came Jan. 7, 2014, when MUFON received at least seven reports from Jacksonville and surrounding communities of unusual lights in a triangular formation in the sky.
“I noticed a single light that was much brighter than a star and had an orange-yellow color,” one person reported. “It faded into sight and, after sitting motionless for a couple of minutes, then several more lights appeared, forming a large triangle.”
Others reported similar sightings that night, including people in Virginia, Springfield and Carrollton. In all, seven people said they saw the bizarre display.
For those who believe we are not alone, and for those who do not, there was hope that last month’s release of a watershed report by the Pentagon would resolve the question.
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It didn’t.
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said the report on Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon was inconclusive. The report said there were 144 official unidentified flying objects reported between 2004 and 2021, with many coming from military personnel who could not rationally explain what they had seen in the sky. Only one could be demystified — it was a deflating weather balloon and not a UAP. The report avoided the acronym UFO to deter people from automatically thinking the sightings could be extraterrestrial in nature.
“The term UFO, although not necessarily related to ET, is a loaded term and many people do link the two automatically, so that is why they use the more awkward term,” said Leslie W. Looney, director of the Laboratory for Astronomical Imaging at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
With technology being far more advanced than in years past, experts say much of what is seen can be attributed to something explainable, such as drones, balloons or lens flares — ideas that are far more acceptable to many than the thought of another life form from a distant world.
“Although many people want to jump to the conclusion that at least some of these are related to aliens, we can’t do that,” Looney said. “There are many much more likely explanations that must first be examined before we can link them to aliens.”
There hasn’t been any conclusive evidence of extraterrestrials in the universe, let alone one visiting this planet, he said.
“I do think these (sightings) should be further investigated for many reasons in the report, but looking to these sightings as proof of aliens is wrong,” he said.
