NUFORC Sighting 103055

Occurred: 1987-10-11 21:30 Local
Reported: 2013-10-08 11:38 Pacific
Duration: 30 seconds
No of observers: 2

Location: Minnetonka, MN, USA

Shape: Light


White light moves west to east, suddenly stops, then moves south at a high rate of speed.

I was attending a conference in Minneapolis, MN, and staying with a friend near Lake Minnetonka. I had just returned to the residence with another conference attendee. It was probably between 2230 and 2300, and the skies were clear.

I had my arms on top of the car and was thinking about what I needed to bring inside for the night when I noticed a bright white light reflecting off of my arms, the car, my friend’s back and the bushes in a 10-20 foot circle around the car. The light was flashing, like a very rapid strobe light, and seemed to be directly above us.

As I looked up, the flashing had stopped. I saw a very bright light moving from our position to the east at a very high rate of speed. In just a second or two it seemed to be over the city of Minneapolis. It stopped very suddenly, stayed in place for a second or two, then sped off at what appeared to be a right angle, now heading south at a high rate of speed toward the Minnesota-Iowa border. The light disappeared as I tracked it southward.

I had yelled to my friend to look up. By the time she looked up, the light had disappeared, though later she said she did see a very bright flash of light in her peripheral vision as she was getting some things out of the car.

Five to ten seconds after the first light disappeared, we both saw two other lights that moved more like meteors. One was bright orange and appeared to arc from east to west. After this one faded out, I looked slightly to the north and spotted a second whiter light arcing from west to east. Both of these lights left trails.

Comparing our observations, it was clear that these second lights impressed both of us as being consistent with meteors. The first light – with its brilliance, its burst of strobe-like flashing, lack of a trail, and its extreme speed, deceleration and sharp change of direction – was definitely something of a different nature.

I am presently a psychoanalytic-psychotherapist in private practice. Before I changed careers, I was chief of a large fire protection district in the western U.S., and had training in fire investigation. Before that I was a naturalist with the National Park Service, and have long been a student and observer of nature. I consider myself to be a curious, careful, and scientifically oriented observer.

Posted 2013-10-14

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