NUFORC Sighting 10448

Occurred: 1999-11-05 21:35 Local
Reported: 1999-11-06 00:00 Pacific
Duration: 4 minutes
No of observers: 1

Location: Springfield (14 mi. S of, near Highlandville), MO, USA

Shape: Fireball

Two strobing white lights very close in the sky, followed by a low flying red fireball at approximately a 20% angle

At 21:35 Friday night November 5th the sky was extremely clear and I was finishing burning leaves and old limbs. I saw two blinking white strobe like objects in the south sky, extremely close together. ASNd they appeared stationary. It startled me because I did not think aircraft could get that close and also there were no blinking colored lights. Four minutes later, an extremely bright red fireball, descended at a very low altitude of 5000 feet or less, at a 20 degree angle in the vicinity of the blimnking strobes. The fireball went from west to east and disappeared behind some trees. Then the two strobe like objects departed each other, one going to the east and one to the west.Then at 21:55, three aircraft with blinking green lights started circling the area where I lost sight of the fireball. They circled around about 12 minutes and then departed the area, going north toward Springfield. After the fire ball incident, I also emailed the meteorologist of a local TV station to see if there were any reports of any fireballs.

Posted 1999-11-09