Just saw a UFO 1/2 Mile North of Tinker AFB!

[hollywood]

I was getting out of my car and my attention was drawn near due east as the moon was hanging in the sky, when I did so - I noticed these angular objects (numbering probably about a dozen) swirling around. They appeared to be tethered together in some fashion (my son said he thought they were connected by netting) and very slowly descending.

The area where they were located is part of the Base jointly with OK Nat'l Guard and is a little more than one square mile used intermittently for training exercises. The exact location was just slightly 1/4 mile or so West of lining up with the N/S runway and just about 1/2 mile north of the fence that runs parallel to 29th Street, with the runway just about 200 yards from that fence line due South (with a fence on the other side of 29th St, on the base proper.)

The best way I can describe each of them, was that they somewhat resembled one of those small inflatable palm trees you see at parties and bars sometime. Their was a tubular part at the bottom and at the top was attached 3 equal length portions (of the same length of the middle section) that were perpendicular to the middle component.

Impossible to be completely accurate on the size, given the distance and nothing to compare them in the sky. But I could gauge the distance between where I was standing and how far they appeared to be and I would estimate each of the portions to be about 2'-4' in length. When I saw them, they were no more than 400-500 feet up in the air, moving slowly to the South and descending ever so slightly. They were all white and whatever was linking them together was virtually invisible, but did sparkle in the bright sunshine a bit.

I've lived next to Tinker a fair share of my life and I have never seen anything like these. They were not drones, or blimps but appeared to be some kind of device held aloft by what were certainly lighter than air "balloon" structures. Like I said, just envision the "palm tree" above, except the tubes were straight, white and only had 3 equal length sections on the top forming a triangle of sorts at the top.

 

[purkey]

weather balloons

 

[hollywood]

Purkey,

I've never seen weather balloons that looked anything like this, never and believe me I've seen plenty of them. I even searched for photographs of weather balloons yesterday and saw nothing like this set-up (searched for other types of balloons as well.)

The other thing with weather balloons is that they are tethered to the ground. These appeared to be "free floating" as the wind was coming from the north and they were heading south. If they were tethered and being lowered, they would have been moving north from south, the way the wind would have naturally carried them.

I've seen a lot of strange stuff all my life I know was associated with TAFB (like planes the govt didn't even acknowledge existed at the time, like the SR-71) and all sorts of balloons and odd devices, but I never seen anything close to resembling this set up.

 

[purkey]

that was a little tongue in cheek hollywood, but around Tinker there is no telling what they might be up to. They do release those balloons, or used to, to get winds aloft, temps, etc. But it's usually just one balloon. No telling what it was that you saw. You've got the weather people over in that neck of the woods also, well, south around norman, but it depends on what time you saw them. I think the wind was out of the south until late morning Saturday.

 

[hollywood]

This was later in the afternoon and the winds were definitely out of the north at that point, I'm going to have to draw something that approximated what I saw. As I was driving I remember that there was a plane in that general vicinity flying kind of low, which is not uncommon as they approach for a landing. I cannot completely rule out that the plane released this thing so it could be recovered in that area as it was definitely descending at the point I saw it. There were at least 12-18 balloons involved, tied together in what I believe was at least 3 tiers, with 4-6 balloons at each of the 3 levels. I was getting a very good view for a minute or two and then it dropped below a few very tall trees which obstructed my view at that point.

Bet, yep - it was probably weather balloons - I remember as a kid the SR-71 flew into Tinker and my dad said that they even made the air craft movers go inside as they had flown in a special crew and cleared the area around the hanger where they moved it, so virtually no personnel were able to see it once it was on the ground. When people called the base and the local TV stations when the thing took off, Tinker put out a release saying that everyone was just seeing some new sort of "weather balloon" they were testing. As if, weather balloons flew at the speed of sound, shooting out blue flames from their engines in the same length of the plane itself and looked like something out Star Trek.

 

[100TonsofOrangeFury]

This was later in the afternoon and the winds were definitely out of the north at that point, I'm going to have to draw something that approximated what I saw. As I was driving I remember that there was a plane in that general vicinity flying kind of low, which is not uncommon as they approach for a landing. I cannot completely rule out that the plane released this thing so it could be recovered in that area as it was definitely descending at the point I saw it. There were at least 12-18 balloons involved, tied together in what I believe was at least 3 tiers, with 4-6 balloons at each of the 3 levels. I was getting a very good view for a minute or two and then it dropped below a few very tall trees which obstructed my view at that point.

Bet, yep - it was probably weather balloons - I remember as a kid the SR-71 flew into Tinker and my dad said that they even made the air craft movers go inside as they had flown in a special crew and cleared the area around the hanger where they moved it, so virtually no personnel were able to see it once it was on the ground. When people called the base and the local TV stations when the thing took off, Tinker put out a release saying that everyone was just seeing some new sort of "weather balloon" they were testing. As if, weather balloons flew at the speed of sound, shooting out blue flames from their engines in the same length of the plane itself and looked like something out Star Trek.

Any resemblance here?

 

[WCPoke]

Purkey,

I've never seen weather balloons that looked anything like this, never and believe me I've seen plenty of them. I even searched for photographs of weather balloons yesterday and saw nothing like this set-up (searched for other types of balloons as well.)

The other thing with weather balloons is that they are tethered to the ground. These appeared to be "free floating" as the wind was coming from the north and they were heading south. If they were tethered and being lowered, they would have been moving north from south, the way the wind would have naturally carried them.

I've seen a lot of strange stuff all my life I know was associated with TAFB (like planes the govt didn't even acknowledge existed at the time, like the SR-71) and all sorts of balloons and odd devices, but I never seen anything close to resembling this set up.

When was the SR-71 at Tinker?

 

[AC_Exotic]

@hollywood -- a good friend and I saw one in SOKC in the early 80's. I'm still not sure what we were watching, but there's no aircraft that then or since could do what we saw in the sky.

The last time I saw that dude I asked him if he remembered and he kind of nervously shook his head affirmatively.

 

[Deepfork]

My mother's cousin saw a UFO about 25 years ago over his house in the country. He was a county commissioner so he could never say anything about it. Clear as a bell, it was a ship right over the house. He couldn't hear any sound but it was slowly moving and a door opened up underneath it and 2 "balls of light" came out and shot off in different directions. It stayed until a couple jets showed up and it shot off out of sight.

I can tell you this man and his wife would never make up a story.

 

[3Gamma]

i have some beach front property in Enid... heck of a deal. you should bring your friends to the sales pitch. hahaha