Businessman Robert Estes was driving west on U.S. Highway 20 between Belden and Randolph, Nebraska, on September 14, 1978, when a brilliant object descended beside the road. The catalogue records a comparison with an army tank; that is a description of its appearance, not an identification of its operator.
A human-looking figure reportedly emerged, approached Estes and addressed him by name. After delivering a brief personal message, the figure returned to the object, which departed. Estes drove away, but said the object followed him.
He then became lost in an area he normally knew and reached home about two hours later than expected. The personal greeting, pursuit and unexplained delay form his reported sequence. The available account does not include a consciously remembered tour or examination inside the object, and the exact wording of the personal message is not supplied in the cited synopsis.
Recorded details
Local time
22:00
Craft description
Craft / Vehicle
Entity description
Humanlike
Coordinate precision
SOURCE_APPROXIMATE
Date precision
EXACT_DAY
Case videos and witness interviews
The Sky People: Six Seriously Strange UFO Encounters
The film includes transcribed excerpts of Estes’s immediate NUFORC call. The tank comparison describes appearance, without identifying the machine’s operator. The figure appeared human. Estes did not believe he had missing time; the narrator’s suggestion of an unremembered interval and a reverse-engineered craft are interpretations. No consciously remembered onboard tour or examination is described. The road is U.S. Highway 20, despite the narration calling it Interstate 20.
