Bloomington, IL (McClean County) (February 06, 1995) - At 1845 hrs., February 06, the Hotline received a telephone call from a truck driver, calling from the Dixie Brothers Truck Stop on Rte. 136, who reported a dramatic sighting approximately 15 minutes earlier, together with a second truck driver. The two drivers were eastbound on Rte. 136 and were located about 15 miles west of the truck stop, when the lead truck began to slow. The trailing truck slowed with it, although the latter driver was confused by why his partner was reducing speed. The lead truck finally pulled off the highway and came to a full stop on the shoulder; and the trailing truck did the same.
At this point, the driver in the second truck looked to one side of the highway, and was aghast to witness a bizarre, unearthly object hovering motionless in a cloudy and hazy sky. He described it as at least two, and probably three "vertical slashes of light," apparently oriented vertically in the night sky. (Ed.: It was not clear at the time of the call why the caller was uncertain as to the exact number of elements to the object.)
The center "shaft" of light was longer than the other "shaft(s)," and it may have been of different color from the two "shafts" to each side. After the two truckers had watched the display for approximately five minutes, the center "shaft" belched out a cloud of "red dots" and suddenly disappeared from sight.
The caller added that, peculiarly, the highway was notably devoid of all other automobile and truck traffic during the sighting. However, both he and his partner noted, apparently independent of one another, the fact that traffic started appearing on the highway immediately following the disappearance (departure?) of the strange object.
In describing the incident, the caller said, in alluding to the incident, "It was nuts." The emotion he apparently was experiencing after the sighting was quite evident in his voice, and he had gone to some trouble to pull off the highway to make his calls to both the FAA and the Hotline. The trucker who called is based in West Monroe, LA.
(Ed.: The Hotline received another report, together with an excellent drawing and written report, which seems to describe an object intriguingly similar to what the trucker described. In addition, we have received many reports, in particular from Boston and Portland, which have described "slashes of light" in the night sky.)