What happened
On the evening of January 8, 2008, at around 6:15 p.m., residents of Stephenville, Dublin, and nearby towns saw in the sky a row of very bright lights that changed configuration and moved quickly. Pilot and trucking company owner Steve Allen described an object more than a kilometer (over half a mile) long, and police officer Lee Roy Gaitan saw red lights in the sky. Several witnesses claimed that the object was being chased by military jets. The local newspaper, the “Empire-Tribune,” published dozens of accounts, and the story was picked up by national television networks. The Air Force initially denied that any of its aircraft were flying in the area that night, but two weeks later it changed its position.
Witnesses
Several dozen residents of Erath County, including pilot Steve Allen and police officer Lee Roy Gaitan.
Explanations and hypotheses
Two weeks later the Air Force acknowledged that ten F-16 fighters from Fort Worth had been training that evening in a nearby airspace and may have dropped illumination flares. MUFON analyzed FAA radar data and claimed that it showed an unknown target heading toward President Bush’s ranch in Crawford. Skeptics believe the reports involved flares, aircraft, and a planet, but some witnesses reject these explanations.
Disputed A likely explanation exists, but some of the facts are still disputed.