NUFORC Sighting 159315

Occurred: 2020-09-11 05:15 Local
Reported: 2020-09-13 19:31 Pacific
Duration: 2 minutes
No of observers: 1

Location: Chisholm, MN, USA

Shape: Cylinder
Characteristics: Lights on object, Aircraft nearby

Bright lights following an aircraft and then rapidly changing directions and disappearing.

On my daily commute to work I, I generally see a scheduled flight coming in to the Range Regional Airport. On this particular morning, I noticed the inbound when they turned on the landing lights in preparation for landing. Navigation lights were also visible. Then I noticed a second inbound. About 4-5 miles behind the first and appeared to be on the same glide slope.

The second inbound was surprising to me because it’s a small regional airport. Then I noticed the second inbound looked a bit “off”. The landing lights were much brighter than normal and were vertically oriented rather than horizontal. I momentarily took my eyes off the second to watch the road and follow the first aircraft disappear below the horizon as they were on short final for the airport. I concentrated on the second inbound to try and determine what it was. After a few seconds of watching it still following along the approach lane for the airport, it was about 5 miles out in front of me when the lights dimmed a bit. That’s when i noticed it appeared to be a cylinder or a rectangular shape with lights on the top and bottom. The lights came back up and it translated straight up.

It went to 30,000 + feet in a second or two then bolted off due west and was out of sight in less than 3 seconds. Well beyond the capabilities of known aircraft. Total time I watched this was about 3 minutes. Please note, I work part time for MNDNR forestry as an aerial observer spotting wild land fires over this area.

Posted 2020-11-05