‘Did I Really See What I Thought I Did?’ Harrisonburg man shares UFO sighting

HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) – While driving in Harrisonburg on a Sunday evening, one man says he saw three objects in the sky that caused him to stop driving and pull his car over. After reaching out to WHSV to see if anyone else saw the same thing, he shared his story.

The sighting happened around 5:15 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 19, and Loren had just left the Valley View Mall area and was on Neff Avenue heading towards Port Republic Road. As he was driving, Loren said he looked up and something caught his eye.

“It looked like it might be a plane, but a very large plane.” Loren said. “I rolled my window down and it wasn’t making any sound, and I noticed it had a fuzzy, reddish outline. It looked like a rocket because it was almost going straight up.”

Loren said he wanted to see what the object was, and decided to pull his car over to take a photo. When he got his phone out, the object was gone. With no cloud cover, Loren said no plane or satellite could have disappeared that fast.

Getting back on Neff Avenue, Loren traveled for a bit before he noticed two more objects in the eastern sky.

“I saw what I thought might be a traditional plane, and there was a colorful object below it. I decided to quickly take a photo before they disappeared.” Loren said. “After about 5-10 seconds I was able to stop and get my cell phone out and both objects were gone. It was definitely a silvery plane shaped, or tube shaped object and there was something below it.”

Once again, the objects were gone.

Loren told WHSV that he doesn’t normally notice things in the sky and that he doesn’t see much air traffic over Harrisonburg. Having seen planes coming and going from the Shenandoah Valley Regional Airport, Loren said he knows what normal civilian and military aircraft look like, but that these objects were different.

“Sometimes planes look like they’re heading straight up but they eventually fly over you, but these objects didn’t do that, and it was something about the reddish outline that was odd.” Loren said. “I thought ‘it’s a big jet, and if it’s a military jet then it’s big.”

Loren said he has never pulled over to take a photo of anything in the sky before and said when the objects disappeared he began to doubt what he had seen.

“You kinda doubt yourself because you can’t compute what you saw.” Loren said.

After returning home and telling his wife, Loren said she laughed and made a Facebook post joking about the situation. Then other people started commenting, saying that they had seen the same thing.

Some friends commented saying they had seen the object in the same part of the sky at the same time, and even shared some of their own recent sightings.

“One lady was in Charlottesville and she reported seeing a strange object in the western sky, and the other lady mentioned seeing bright lights swirling around and then disappearing over the last week.” Loren said. “I didn’t feel quite so alone or crazy.”

Loren told WHSV that he had never seen anything like this before and that aside from reading news about the government releasing info about UAP’s.

“When you see it for yourself it really gets your attention.” Loren said. “When you see three things within two minutes, then you start questioning what you saw and it gives you a funny feeling. Did I really see what I thought I did, but I know I did.”

The Shenandoah Valley has a long history of UFO sightings, and was even the site of an investigation by the U.S. Air Force after a UFO reportedly landed near Fishersville in 1964.

If you have seen any strange lights or objects in the sky over the Valley, you can send your sighting to: jacob.fife@gray.tv

Copyright 2023 WHSV. All rights reserved.