NUFORC Sighting 14999

Occurred: 2000-11-21 05:07 Local
Reported: 2000-11-22 00:00 Pacific
Duration: 2 min
No of observers: 1

Location: Warrior, AL, USA

Shape: Light
Characteristics: Lights on object, Aircraft nearby

Object was like the picture on the home page "During July" except the color was bright white.

November 21, 2000 at 5:07AM I looked out my second floor bathroom window facing East and noticed the moon and stars in a clear sky. I noticed a bright object to the North East traveling in a South West direction that was a very bright white light. I would estimate the object had to be at an altitude of 8,000 to 10,000 feet and 2 to 3 miles from my viewpoint. I assumed it was an airplane but the object was going pretty fast, faster than an airpane. At this point I thought it might be a shooting star but the object had a pulsating bright white light not leaving a trail behind it. The object suddenly stopped for a few seconds then the glowing became very dim and dropped at a slight angle to the ground. It went out of sight behind the hills and trees for a few seconds then it moved back up to the position it dropped altitude from, began to glow bright again then took off in a climbing direction in the South East direction at a faster speed than before. It went out of sight in about five seconds. I also noticed two aircraft in the sky at this time. I know that these pilots had to see this object. I have seen many shooting stars but have never seen one stop, fall to the ground, then return to the sky and take off again. Got any ideas what I saw?

Posted 2000-12-02