Unsolved Files: Photos of UFOs at Marfa Radar Site from 1999 Surface

• When: October 1st, 1999
• Where: Marfa
• What: Several lights circling each other, interacting and hovering


If you live in Texas, there's a pretty good chance that you've heard of the Marfa Lights, a strange collection of lights that have appeared for witnesses since at least the 1800s and are still unexplained to this day.

Well that's what makes this sighting - from October 1999, but only recently submitted to MUFON - intriguing. It seems to show similar lights, but at a different though very nearby site, specifically at a "Marfa Aerostat" site, or a "low-level airborne ground surveillance system that uses aerostats (moored balloons) as radar platforms." Apparently, when the witness and his brother contacted the site about what they'd seen (and photographed) they were given an explanation that they probably saw navigational lights for one of their balloons, but those balloons only have three lights and the photos clearly show more than that. The staff at the radar site maintained that explanation, however, even after seeing the photos:

My brother and I were driving together on Texas Highway 71 approaching Marfa, Texas near Valentine, Texas, when we saw multiple flashing lights in the sky ahead of us. As we approached the nearest location to the lights we stopped and I retrieved my 20 power Olympus Camedia camera and started zooming in and out snapping multiple shots. My brother used his binoculars to verify the numbers of objects and he said "there are nine of them!". The nine circular objects seem to circle each other in groups of 2 or 3 while they illuminating themselves sequentially. We stayed there for 15 minutes or so while they continued to maneuver in full view. Before we drove off (with the UFO's continuing their maneuvering) we observed a gate, driveway and sign "Government Property No Trespassing". I later found out after talking with the Valentine Sheriff's Office that was the gate to Aerostat Marfa Location.
When I called the Aerostat Marfa facility the next day they simply said what my brother and I saw was most likely the Nav-Lights on their balloon they had launched in that same time frame. When I asked how many lights are on the balloon they said "three". I said we saw nine objects illuminating! They put "Langley" on the line with us and Langley said same thing . . . "...we most likely saw Nav-Lights" on their balloon. Langley asked me to email them my pics (which I did) and they said they would reply with their comments . . . which they did a couple weeks later simply stating the same thing "what you and your brother saw that night was the Nav-Lights on the balloon which was launched that evening".

I can't actually find an address or Google map location for the site, but it does exist, according to multiple sources.

As a refresher, check out a video of the classic Marfa Lights, these have been seen since the 1800s. Could they have been seeing similar lights? Or something else? Share your thoughts on the Facebook page!