textfiles/ufo/SIGHTINGS/alki.ufo

                          UFO Sighting Report
                       West Seattle, Washington
                    March 13, 1988, Sunday, 1:55 AM
                      
                     by Donald A. Johnson, Ph.D.
                    MUFON Washington State Direct
                                  or
              Narrative by Mr. N (name on file with MUFON), 
                           age 26, witness:


I was coming back with a friend from a trip to eastern Washington, 
and I dropped him off on California Way and the north end of Alki 
looking towards the North [across Elliott Bay toward Magnolia] when I 
saw this object.  The object was on its side; its manuevers were so 
weird.  I saw 3 lights going around and around.  It was low, maybe 500 
feet up.  

Q.  Did your friend see the object too?
     No.  My friend was asleep in the car and he had had a long trip 
so I didn't want to wake him.  He was pretty sleepy when I dropped him 
off so I didn't mention seeing the UFO.

Q.  What did the object look like?
     It was on its side, like a plate on its side.  I'd seen it when 
it turned, like a frisbee, it went up and down, around and around, and 
then up and down.  It was a very light night that night.  The moon 
might have been out.  [The moon was in fact out and was in its last 
quarter.]  The stars were really bright that night.  

Q.  What were you doing when you first saw the object?
    I was driving on I-5, and I had just exited and was driving across 
the West Seattle bridge, when I first saw the object.  I saw it again 
when I drove up California Way from Alki Drive [actually this highway 
is Harbor Way, the road becomes Alki Avenue after it passes Duwamish 
Head].  I couldn't see it again until I drove up the hill on 
California Way because of the trees.  After I dropped off my friend I 
stopped at the park [Hamilton Viewpoint Park] but by the time I got 
there it had vanished.
    It had green, red, and violet lights.  The green and red 
lights were more visible but the other light looked like it was mixed with 
the other colors, kind of soft like.  The object was darker than the 
background, what with the reflection from the lights along the outline 
of the Sound.  It was basically a dark shape with lights.  It was out 
over Puget Sound, closer to Alki than to Magnolia.  It was on its 
side, up about 500 feet.

Q.  What was your first reaction to seeing the object?
    I was trying to determine if it was an airplane or a helicopter 
but even a helicopter couldn't make those kind of manuevers.  First it 
made a sideways step motion:  sideways then forward, sideway
s then forward, sideways then forward.  Then it bounced up and down like a 
basketball.  Then it repeated the step motion three more times, 
followed by the up-and-down motion like a basketball.  It never 
repeated this sequence for the same length of time.  It made it look 
like a streak in the air, like a welding torch in color.  It was disk 
or plate shaped, and seemed thin.
    It also stopped, in the air, sideways, and I could see the lights 
going around the rim (3 lights).  Whenever it bounced like a 
basketball the lights stopped moving in a circular motion.  Then it would 
turn on its side and move in the step motion.  I would guess that its 
width was about a car length (a small import car).  The motion it made 
really looked like the "blip" tracings you see on a heart monitor 
[oscilloscope].

Q. How did you lose sight of it?
    Once I drove into the park I could see it and then it was gone.  
Like it disappeared.  That really surprised me.  I was thinking, 
"Where the hell did it go?"

Q. How much sleep had you had?
    Well, I had slept for 3 hours at a rest area.  We left eastern 
Washington at 3 p.m.  We had stopped along the way so we had had a 
5-6 hour drive plus sleeping.  The trip took a total of 11 hours.


File: ALKI.UFO  3968-T    03-APR-88
 Dir: 12  Sec: 1 - UFOlogy
From: Donald Johnson
 Acc: 8

Erratic Motion UFO seen in Alki, Wash.