This article was published in the daily newspaper Mohave Daily News, USA, on June 8, 2003.
By KAY JENNEY
BULLHEAD CITY - Approaching the one-year anniversary of an extraordinary UFO sighting over Bullhead City and Laughlin, a local man has decided to come forward with his story.
"It slithered over the roof of my house. It blocked out all the stars and was a glistening dark metallic color. I looked for any sort of propulsion or flames. There were none and there was no noise," Bill Hartinett said. Except for the sound of chalk being scraped on a chalk board. He said there were no signs of air turbulence and no flashing red, or green lights used by conventional aircraft. Hartinett said he did not think it was one of ours.
"I could have thrown a rock and hit it," he said.
The sighting happened about 1 a.m. June 12, 2002 when Hartinett, who says he is an amateur astronomer, was out in his back yard to view the stars with his telescope in the foothills above Bullhead Parkway.
He said there were three UFOs apparently being chased by a military-type helicopter.
"Three white lights came from the east," Hartinett said. The one "slithered" over the roof of his home, straight over his head, while one shot strait across the river over Laughlin and the third maneuvered towards the granite mountains across from Lake Mohave. Hartinett said he recognized the military helicopter as he has had military experience.
As one craft swept over his home, the helicopter, which was making a lot of typical noise, flew down the ravine next to his house as fast as it could fly.
"Somebody must have seen or heard something," Hartinett said. He said he thought he would see something in the paper or on television soon afterwards, but there was nothing. He said he thought he should tell his story now and he will be watching the skies this Thursday, June 12 and Friday, June 13.
The following day after the sighting his wife, June, called a friend in Las Vegas who told her "everything that could fly" was in the air that night. She said it seemed Nelis Air Force base had scrambled aircraft. Also, their real estate agent had told them there was a lot of activity in the skies over Lake Havasu City that night June said.
Hartinett said a neighbor who was staying in apartments further down the hill reported being awakened during the night by her windows rattling.
Hartinett has been a amateur astronomer for 23 years and last Oct, 6, at 1:58 a.m. he caught "something unusual" on a digital camera attached to his telescope. Two streaks of light appeared about 10 minutes apart using time-lapse photography. Hartinett said he had his telescope pointed at Galaxy NGC1055 at the time and his computer gave him the coordinates. He traced the entrance of the streak to one star with no other stars in that trajectory. Likewise, the ending of the streak was in the path of another solitary star with no others. Hartinett said he would like scientist to see his pictures and recalculate the coordinates.
"I thought it was an asteroid at first," he said. Hartinett said his telescope and camera will be aimed at both those stars this October to see if he can capture the object again. He said NASA explained another streak recorded by an amateur astronomer in El Centro, California as space rocket debris in the December 2002 edition of Sky and Telescope magazine.
Hartinett said the SETI website on the internet has recently acquired a large grant to do optical studies of the skies, plus its research to listen for radio waves that may indicate intelligent life.
