NUFORC Sighting 72943

Occurred: 2009-10-17 20:40 Local
Reported: 2009-10-20 20:00 Pacific
Duration: 10 sec
No of observers: 2

Location: Manchester, MO, USA

Shape: Chevron
Characteristics: Aura or haze around object

Bright white chevron shaped object traveling at very fast speed over St. Louis area.

On the night of October 17th, 2009 my girl friend and I stepped outside to light the pumpkins we had carved. We sat admiring our work while we both smoked a cigarette. I was talking to her and looking up at the stars as it was a beautiful clear crisp night. I noticed a brightly lit object approaching at high speed from the north. I kept looking trying to figure out what it was. At first it kind of looked like a big white bird gliding through the air with light from below reflecting off of it. As it got closer I realized that it was not a bird. I immediately told my girlfriend to look and she spotted it right away. We both watched it fly from north to south at a very high rate of speed. It was a bright white light, kind of chevron shaped. At times it kind of looked like 2 chevron shapes but the whole time as only one unit. As it headed south it took a slight, but very noticeable, left turn to the southeast and then a right turn back to the south. It ! was hard to judge the altitude of the craft but it looked to be maybe 10,000 feet or higher. I have seen many satellites during my career as a pilot and for sure this was not a satellite, it was low and moved across the horizon much faster than an orbiting object. Also, the object was very visible and large with a distinctive shape, not just a star size as a satellite appears. The speed was definitely super sonic/hyper sonic. I saw it the whole time from a small light to the north until it disappeared out of sight to the south. The whole incident lasted maybe 10 to 12 seconds so it was moving fast! There was absolutely no sound at all, I listened very close for a couple minutes after it had passed for any sort of sound trailing behind it and there was none. The exact time was 9:41pm.

As I mentioned, I am a professional pilot. I am a pretty good judge of speed and altitude. In my opinion this was not a military aircraft as it was traveling much too fast, was brightly lit and there was no trailing sound. I’m pretty sure military aircraft, unlike civilian aircraft, are allowed to travel supersonic speeds over the continental US; however, this was at lower altitude and over a major metro area. I know there is an air force base in central Missouri and if someone were to check I’m sure that supersonic speeds are not allowed in the area.

Posted 2009-12-12

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