Occurred: 2008-01-15 03:30 Local
Reported: 2008-01-15 09:01 Pacific
Duration: 10 minutes
No of observers: 0

Location: Quad cities (near; over I-88), IL, USA

Shape: Unknown
Characteristics: Lights on object, Changed Color, Aircraft nearby

The Craft had several brigth colored ligths, appear to be large, disappeared when it flew straight up, it's lights faded off

On January 15th 2008 at approximately 3:30 AM near the 30mile marker of I-88 in Illinois, I noticed a bright light directly ahead while driving East bound from Iowa. At first I thought it was some sort of plane, perhaps a small aircraft flying straight towards my direction. After a couple of minutes I noticed that the object appeared to be larger and brighter, at this point I realized that the craft’s lights seemed odd since none appeared to be what I’ve come to recognize as conventional aircraft strobe lights. The lights did change either color or brightness, I’m not certain which, it may have been doing both. However, they did not appear to be those of an airplane and I then thought it may be a helicopter, but did think it would be odd to see one near this location at just over 3:30 am.

As I continued driving towards it I fixated on the object since it appeared to remain stationary over I-88, and I didn’t seemed to be getting any closer to it. It did appeared to be increasing and decreasing in size from time to time, it also became brighter and seemed more colorful.

After what might have been 5 minutes I noticed that the objected moved in a semi-circular fashion. It appeared to have flown away in an upwards direction and then circle back towards my direction while remaining higher in the sky than it had previously been. It moved in this manner a couple of times and was very easy to keep track of since the sky was absolutely clear. In this stretch of high-way there aren’t many lights and the moon was no longer present. The sky was absolutely dark except for all the bright stars and the craft that was flying/hovering around.

A moment later the craft was almost directly over my vehicle, at this point I came to almost a complete stop, pulled onto the shoulder and rolled my window down to get a better look at the object. I became a bit anxious at this point since I still did not recognize this flying object, and it seemed to be moving in a fashion that it just doesn’t seem to fit any conventional aircraft that I’m familiar with.

As I was looking almost directly up at the object, I could clearly see several lights that appeared to be located under a solid structure. The lights were different colors and I believe some seemed to be located around or near the edge of the object while other lights seemed to be fixated directly under the object. It remained in this position for a few seconds, perhaps 10, and then appeared to ascend straight up. I assumed it ascended because it became smaller. Then all the lights appeared to have faded at the same time and then the object simply disappeared into a completely clear sky. I did not loose sight of it because it increased it’s altitude to the point where I lost sight of it and it did not fly off in another direction, or through a cloud, even though it pretty much appeared to have done just that . It simply dimmed quickly and vanished. Again, there were no clouds present what so ever and I was able to see stars in the exact spot of the sky the object had just occupied. Soon after I saw a couple of aircraft circling the area.

For the last three years I have driven this road nightly five to six times a week from Chicago Illinois to Iowa City and back. I have never seen anything remotely resembling this object, and while I have seen occasional small aircraft from time to time, none have ever behaved anywhere near this manner. I’m also able to recognize how planes of all sorts generally appear in the night sky because first of all I attended flight school for 2 years at Lewis University in Romeoville Illinois, and I later worked at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport for ten years. I actually worked as the Night Hotel Manager at the Hilton Chicago O’Hare located directly in the middle of the airport itself. It’s a ten floor building. It’s the tallest structure except for the control tower. I mentioned this because I routinely spent my break on the roof of the hotel seeing aircraft land, take off, and fly holding patterns a countless amount of times. I also lived only ten minutes away from the airport itself. So I’m very familiar with how aircraft look and fly and generally behave in the night sky and I’m convinced that what I witnessed on this Tuesday morning of January 2008 was not a conventional aircraft.

There were other vehicles in the area, not many, but I’m sure others saw this object as well.

Please let me know, via e-mail, if you are aware of any other reports regarding this incident Thank You,

Posted 2008-01-21

© 2023 National UFO Reporting Center. All rights reserved. Use or reproduction within any application without written consent is prohibited.