Flying saucers are passe.

Now people in Bristol are seeing "long, cigar-shaped object" flashing across the sky.

But Bristolians were not the only spectators of the strange craft yesterday evening.

The flaming object was reported sighted at Kingsport, Christiansburg, and Roanoke and three at Pulaski.

Rex Rainey, 1805 State Street, reported that he saw a "whitish, glistening mass, long and cylindrical like a big cigar," flying from east to west about 7:15 yesterday. he said he sighted the "cigar" flying very rapidly over Virginia Heights and got out his binoculars to look at it.

An unidentified caller informed the Herald Courier last night that she had sighted something that "looked like white smoke with a blue flame that traveled to the north and east" about the same time. "It didn't look like an airplane," she said, "Only like white smoke. It was just a streak and almost out of sight it was so high."

Another local woman reported that she had seen a "silver streak that looked like it was about 100 feet long" flash across the sky shortly after seven o'clock. She estimated the speed to be about 200 miles per hour.

A traffic controlman at Tri-Cities Airport, who asked that his name be withheld, said that the strange craft had not been seen at the airport although they had had inquiries on the "cigar-streak."

He said he had checked with the Atlantla Air Route traffic center after receiving inquiries but they reported no knowledge of any jet aircraft in this vicinity.

Pulaski radio reported two seen there. One about 4 PM, and the other an hour later. He said that Pulaski also had a pilot's report on the "streak" traveling northeast at an altitude of about 30,000 feet.

Reports on the "flaming object" were received at Christiansburg and Roanoke but airports in those vicinities reported no information on the strange craft.

  

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