NUFORC UFO Sighting 182278

Occurred: 2024-07-12 11:00 Local
Reported: 2024-07-14 05:46 Pacific
Duration: 3 - 5 seconds
No of observers: 1 - Pilot

Location: Eagle Grove, IA, USA
Location details: Object observed slowly descending over a cornfield, while driving South on Highway 17.

Shape: Rectangle
Color: black
Estimated Size: between 12 and 25 feet
Viewed From: Land
Direction from Viewer: South-Southwest
Angle of Elevation: 20
Closest Distance: 150 feet
Estimated Speed: 2 - 5 mph

20 foot drone-like box.

PILOT STATUS. I was a private pilot, and I was cleared to fly solo. I had "officially" logged about 20 hours in my own Cessna 172 with my flight instructor. I also owned a Piper Warrior II, and an ultralight model of a Piper Cub. I have flown a Rotax-driven powered parachute, and have owned and flown four different powered paragliders.

SCIENTIST STATUS. I have a doctorate in financial management. I published my dissertation, which debunked a very popular financial model that won a Nobel Prize. The model I debunked was called the Mean Variance Hypothesis. I have a Masters degree as well. I work in the areas of A.I. and algorithms, banking and digital currency creation, and venture capital. Although I do not call myself a scientist, due to the financial nature of my practitioner's work, I had to take the same statistics courses and write my dissertation using the scientific method in the same manner as all of the other scientists.

ANECDOTAL REPORT. I was driving my car South on Highway 17, just South of Eagle Grove, the morning of Friday, July 12, 2024 with my wife and two puppies. It was around 11:00, although it may have been between 10:30 or 11:30. I had not been using any drugs or alcohol. We were our our way to Fort Dodge to do some shopping.

It was daylight and there were no clouds overhead. Visibility was excellent.

As we approached a farm acreage on the right side of the road, I noticed what appeared to be a somewhat peculiar black drone hovering in the air.

It was square, and shaped like a thick, square pizza box. I observed it for 3 - 5 seconds. I saw that it had solid sides, that were all at right angles. The dimensions of the boxy shaped object were approximately 1 : 6 : 6, with things protruding above and details visible on the underside. All of the details on the underside were also black or dark grey, and I don't know if I was seeing propulsion, landing gear, or what I was seeing, or if it protruded downward. There was a central feature protruding upward, which was less than twice as wide as the object's sidewall height. The central feature protruded upward less than the height of the object's sides. There were also four features protruding slightly upward, one at each corner. I thought this was peculiar because the motors of propeller driven drones are inset from the outer walls of a drone, due to the length of the propellers. These motors (if they were even motors), however, were out at the very corners of the object. There were no propellers visible.

At first I had no reference for the size of the object, and noticed that it appeared to rotate about 30 degrees in a counter-clockwise fashion, and began to descend slowly and smoothly. It appeared to be very stable, and had none of the typical drone wobble that I have seen on small drones. It descended behind a barn which shocked me, because I had thought it would have been in front of the barn. The fact that it descended behind the barn indicated to me that its size had to be at least 12 feet across, but it could have been up to 25 feet across. I cannot specify with any degree of certainty the exact size of the object, other than that it had to be substantially larger than any drone that can be purchased on the internet.

Judging from the size, flight observation, and dimensions of the object it very well could have been man-made. It displayed no characteristics of acceleration that were unexplainable. The square shape could have been a drone, but it was indeed a very unique drone if so. Judging from its size, and what I have seen of large, homemade drones on the internet, this object was large enough to transport a pilot and a passenger, if it was a drone.

As it descended behind the barn, I exclaimed in astonishment to my wife, "Did you see that? That was either a gigantic drone or a UFO." She had been playing with the puppies and did no see anything, and told me that I had not seen anything. our car passed the acreage and I looked back to see if it was still visible, but it seems to have descended down into or behind the corn in the field to our right.

Posted 2024-08-22