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Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 60: Nov-Dec 1988 |
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Airborne Observations Of The Marfa Lights
The Marfa lights are elusive, and most people lucky enough to see them observe them from the ground. Neverthe-less, a few pilots and aircraft passengers have encountered them. In February 1988, R. Weidig was flying at about 8000 feet, some 20 miles from Alpine, Texas, when he noticed white lights in motion around the Alamito Tower's red beacon light.
"We noticed white lights coming up... I don't know how high, but it seemed like several hundred feet. Then the lights would just dissipate ... They moved around that tower for some reason. They'd get on the right hand side of it, the left hand side of it, and go just straight up."
In June 1988, a stranger case was reported by E. Halsell, who was a passenger on a plane flying toward the Chianti Mountains.
"'Suddenly a bright light came toward them rapidly, seemingly from a great distance. "It came straight at us til it got to the hood of the plane....It was engulfing us, larger than the plane.' It seemed as though they were inside the light. 'We couldn't see to fly. It scared us.' According to Halsell, as they tried to turn away from it, it moved in front of them. 'Always it moved around us, like it was observing us....We made right turns and left turns and it stayed right with us, like it was playing a game.' The light was very bright, but 'It was kind of fuzzy, like a halo or aura, a ball of light without an obvious center.' The light was white in color, was constant rather than pulsating or flickering. There was no unusual sound."
(Brueske, Judith; "Encountering 'The Lights,'" The Desert Candle, 2:1, July/August 1988.)
Reference. The Marfa lights are classified as "nocturnal lights" at GLN1 in the catalog volume: Lightning, Auroras Ordering details here.