NUFORC UFO Sighting 183324
Occurred: 1972-01-02 21:00 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2024-10-05 06:18 Pacific
Duration: 10 min.
No of observers: 2

Location: Kinshasa, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Location details: Next to SIMS CHAPEL, the oldest building in Kinshasa, on the Amer. Baptist mission station

Shape: Orb
Color: Brights Light
Estimated Size: Unknown, estimated 20 feet in diameter
Viewed From: Land
Direction from Viewer: NNW
Closest Distance: 1/2 mile and more, see description
Estimated Speed: ?? Thousands of mph, at least
Characteristics: Lights on object, Aura or haze around object, Emitted beams

Thought it was a shooting star, until it kept coming down and instead of splashing into the river, just stopped and performed maneuvers

In 1972, while in Junior High school, my friend and I were sitting one evening on the steps of a mission house on the shores of the Congo River, watching shooting stars. Both of us were about 14 years old, and our parents were missionaries in Congo, Africa. That evening, we were overlooking an area of the river which, back then, was known as Stanley Pool, named after the explorer who located Dr. Livingston. We could sit on the steps and look out over this huge bay for miles and miles. There must have been a meteor shower that night, as there were hundreds of shooting stars, and we were enjoying the light show.

After about half an hour, I spotted one "shooting star" that appeared not to burn out, but rather kept coming down. It grew larger and larger, and began to appear as a bright glowing globe as it came closer, and at some point we believed it would splash into the river. It got larger, and larger, but remained glowing so brightly that we could not make out any specific shape, other than that it was either round, oval, or possibly football shaped, but at our distance it simply appeared as a large glowing light. It came down at the speed of a shooting star, and as it approached the river we jumped up and began screaming "It's gonna hit!".

To our dismay, however, it never hit the water. At approximately 10 feet off the water, it simply stopped. Dead stopped. Mind you, it did not slow down and stop...it just stopped.

As it hovered over the river, even at our distance we could see it's reflection in the brown, murky water of the river. After a few moments of just hovering over the water, suddenly a flash of light beamed down into the river from the object. The beam was so strong that we could, literally, see it penetrating down into the brown water from 1/2 a mile away! Then, a second, third, fourth, and fifth flash occurred, down into the water, in a circular pattern around the orb.
Then, without speeding up and slowing down, it simply shot over to another location on the river. Again, it repeated the flashing down into the river, following the circular patter. When done, it once again simply shot over to another location. Again, it moved from one spot to another like I would simply move my pointing finger. It did not accelerate and then decelerate, it simply moved like drawing a line from one dot to another.

It repeated this pattern at about 6 different locations on the bay.

Then, it simply shot nearly straight up into space until it was almost out of sight. Then, remarkably, it came back down a bit. After a second, it shot up again, and then dropped back a bit again. On it's third attempt, it simply shot off into space, back to the stars from where it came.

Posted 2024-10-07