UFO Description: Two women, a mother and daughter, were coming back home from the Portland International Airport on the Highway 26 freeway when they saw an unusually bright white light.  As they continued to watch, it got much bigger till they could clearly see that it was a large structured craft that came closer to them and hovered over a field beside the freeway as they slowed on the freeway to look at it.

Witness(es): Two witnesses:  Mercedes Corbin (pseudonym) and daughter Connie (pseudonym).

Date and Time: October 16, 2011, at about 6:10 AM.

Duration: About five minutes.

Place: On Highway 26 near North Plains, Oregon.

Weather: Mostly cloudy; winds out of the WNW at 3.5 mph; visibility 10 miles; about 48.9º F.

Case Report: Highway 26 Structured Craft UFO. Investigated by OM Field Investigator Doug Helbling with the assistance of OM State Director Tom Bowden and OM Chief Investigator Kato Harris.

Note: If you, or someone you know, saw this event, please email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..  During this sighting, the witness noticed at least a couple of other cars slowing down on the freeway watching this UFO just as she was, so we know there were other witnesses.

Brief Narrative

This fascinating structured craft sighting was witnessed by Mercedes Corbin and her daughter Connie (pseudonyms) as they drove west along Highway 26 coming back home from the Portland International Airport early in the morning of October 16, 2011.

Here is what Mercedes Corbin and her daughter experienced in Mercedes' own words:

I was on Highway 26 near Hillsboro, Oregon, just north of the Intel site. I first noticed the UFO before the Jackson School Rd overpass as a bright light ahead of me. I first thought it was a plane with its headlights on, coming straight at me. It started as a point of bright light about five miles ahead of me.

I woke up my daughter who was sleeping in the back seat to come sit in passenger side seat and view what I was seeing. I slowed the van as I drove along with at least four other cars that were on the highway and were looking at it.

It then zipped off to the right and was over the town of North Plains. Then it zipped to my right on the north side of Highway 26 and started to slowly cruise over the freeway in front of us about 50 yards in front of us heading to the southeast. It had only an unbelievable white light coming out the bottom.

Once across the freeway, it stopped and hovered over the open field to the left of the freeway.  It then turned on red lights that glided side to side on the far-side of it and green lights that glided side to side on the near side of it. They were gliding separately in opposite directions to each other with the white glow still present. It was at times easy to see the shape of a long rectangle with a triangle front, and at times it was hard to see the shape at all. It was dark gray and not shiny at all and made NO NOISE!

I was intensely focused on trying to figure out what I was seeing—looking for wings, looking for lights, looking for windows, anything that would have told my brain it was just a weird airplane.

But, when I didn't see anything I knew was normal, I started stressing and trying to explain to myself what my daughter and I were seeing. Then we passed the tree line and I knew I had to turn around and try to see it better. So we turned back around on Glencoe Road and headed back and that only took less than two minutes—if that—and it was COMPLETELY gone!

Something that big should have still been on the skyline or something! The last thing I was thinking was clicking pictures or stopping. I wish now that I had done that!

FAA Radar Data Acquired

When lower-level, structured craft UFO cases arise, Oregon MUFON sometimes makes a FOIA request for pertinent FAA radar data.  The Seattle office responded promptly to our request.  Some preliminary analysis of the data has been done, and it shows no large aircraft as described by the witness in the Hillsboro area at the time and date of the sighting.  Analysis of the data is continuing, however.

Download the case study and read more about this structured craft sighting.

Mercedes Corbin's Rendition of the Structured Craft UFO