Alternate Perceptions Magazine, April 2026
A Northern Ohio UFO Casebook - Part VI
By: Rick Hilberg
1978
A family of three was driving home after a visit with relatives in a southwestern Cleveland suburb at about 12:50 a.m. on December 9th and were northbound on I - 71 just inside the city limits. The wife was sitting in the passenger seat looking up at the many stars visible and also making note of several aircraft that were flying in the vicinity of Cleveland Hopkins Airport which was several miles south.
One light in particular caught her attention, as it appeared to be flying much slower than any normal aircraft she had ever seen, and also because it was flying in a south to north direction, which does not correspond to any Cleveland Hopkins Airport glide path.
At this time, she alerted her husband and daughter to the unusual object, and the husband drove the car off onto the Bellaire Road exit, and slowed his speed to have a better look.
At this point the object was almost directly overhead and appeared to be a long cigar-shaped thing with very short stubby wings. They all agreed that there were no running lights that normal aircraft carry, but they did see a band of "window lights" on the side of the object. The witnesses were sure that they saw no sign of any tail assembly on what they took to be the back side of the object, but did note a "dark band" on the body of the object where the tail would have been on a conventional aircraft. Since the thing was at a very low altitude, it was illuminated by the many ground lights from the freeway and city streets in the area, so all three were certain of their descriptions of the object. No sound was heard at any time.
After watching for several minutes, the wife became uneasy and asked her husband to leave the area and drive directly home.
At 9:34 p.m. on the evening of December 10th, a 24-year-old man was exiting the Ohio Turnpike at the #10 Strongsville exit when he became aware of a series of five horizontal yellow-orange lights off to the west about 20 degrees off the horizon.
Since the configuration as well as the color didn't match that of a normal aircraft, he quickly drove to the parking lot of the Howard Johnson's restaurant at the intersection of Pearl and Whitney Roads in Strongsville for a better look. In order to make sure that the object was indeed stationary in the sky he parked his car in such a way that a telephone pole was in his line of sight just below the object.
Observing it in this manner he was able to ascertain that it was completely stationary in the sky and that the lights were pulsating in a regular pattern from right to left. In the pattern of pulsation each light was illuminated for just under one second.
At this point the witness checked his digital watch and noted the time as being 9:37. He then turned on his CB radio and attempted to alert anyone on channel 19 to the object, thereby having additional witnesses to back up his story. However, no one came back to him, so he decided to drive the short distance to his home to get his family as witnesses. Since his home was east of that position at the restaurant parking lot, the object was not visible to him on his drive home. Upon arriving home, the object was nowhere in view to the west.
1980
On March 2nd a Cleveland man happened to glance up at the afternoon sky to observe a high-flying aircraft traveling from east to west leaving a well-defined contrail. After observing the plane for several seconds, he then noted a silvery, fast moving oval object come from out of the northeast and "pass" the plane, and then either disappear or (as the witness thought more likely) quickly change direction and shoot upward into the sky.
The object was in view for no more than ten seconds, and the witness noted that the time was 3:35 p.m.
On Sunday March 9th at 8:15 p.m. a man on Luray Drive in Painesville was outside his home when his attention was drawn to a lighted object that was giving off a "static, fluttery sound." The witness also made note that the night was cool and that there were many stars visible.
In the northern sky at approximately 60 degrees above the horizon, the witness saw a cigar-shaped object with a bulge on the top part that was rose colored with a slight grayish tint to it. The witness described it as large as a dime held at arm's length. He stood watching it for a few moments and reported that at the time it seemed to be hovering motionless, however after a time the object began making drifting movements.
The witness ran inside to get his wife and two children to join him in watching the strange lighted object, and when they all got outside it seemed as if another identical object was near the first one, but whatever they noted rapidly disappeared, leaving the original object in the same position as observed initially.
The UFO then went back and forth in the sky from east to west, and during these motions a passenger plane passed near the object, heading east. The witness stated that the object seemed to follow the airliner briefly and then resumed its drifting movements for about five minutes.
During this part of the sighting the local police were dispatched, and a squad car was sent to the scene. Also, during this period of time another neighborhood couple joined in the observation, making a total of seven witnesses.
At this point, the object did very rapid maneuvers from the northeast to the southwest two to three times, appearing to loom closer to the witnesses than at any time previously. The UFO then began to do spirals or circular motions very rapidly and seemed to move away to the northeast horizon and out over nearby Lake Erie, and then was lost to sight when it passed behind some trees.
The duration of the encounter was fifteen minutes or more.
At 12: 40 a.m. on April 3rd a woman observed a bright, silvery disk-shaped object from a location just north of Brookpark Road near Chevrolet Boulevard in Cleveland.
She was alerted by a very bright light shining through the window of her mobile home and decided to go outside to ascertain its source. Upon arriving outside, she noted that the almost full moon was visible, with few stars visible because of the brightness and the presence of a very light amount of cloud cover.
She walked a short distance away from the other mobile homes and nearby trees to get a clear look at the unnaturally bright light. It was then that she clearly saw the large disk-shaped UFO hovering over the nearby Conrail Belt Line railroad tracks and high-tension power lines serving the many medium to large industrial plants in the area.
She estimated the object as being at an approximate elevation of 30 degrees and thought that it was at an altitude of 180 feet or so above the power lines. She also estimated the object to be 30 to 40 feet in diameter, and 15 to 20 feet high at the bulge.
She watched the UFO circle or orbit over the power lines for approximately ten minutes, when it unexpectedly rose straight up at a high but erratic speed, and was quickly lost to sight.
