NUFORC Sighting 18189

Occurred: 2001-06-21 00:00 Local
Reported: 2001-06-25 00:00 Pacific
Duration: 45 min
No of observers: 3

Location: Lewistown, MT, USA

Shape: Circle
Characteristics: Lights on object, Emitted beams, Aircraft nearby

Bright light from sattelite sized object pans area in which we were camping

At approximately midnight, after my friends and I had decided to retire for the night. My boyfriend and friend became excited after seeing a satellite sized object move across the sky and then stop and become intensely brighter, then appearing to "pan" with this same bright light across the area. At this time the circular object was to north of us. After panning across the sky it dimmed as if someone had switched off a light and then became very small again and headed to the west. After 20 to 30 minutes, my friend began to flash his flashlight upward to the sky overhead, wher I noticed to the south the same object, but much lower, repeating the signal back. I told the other two and they confirmed this. The light was larger and fairly closer this time. Afterwards, it returned to the sattelite size and shot again to the west. After becoming upset, we loaded up the truck and went back to Lewistown. My friend riding in the back of the truck noticed the object again as we were leaving. He said it repeated a similar action to those of before. Each time the light was very bright, and much brighter than any star or planet in the sky. It even outshone Jupiter which was clearly visible in the sky. There were no clouds that evening to block our view. After the first sighting, we noticed that within five to ten minuts afterwards, two planes intersected over the spot, one from the east and one from the west, almost as if investigating the incident. This is meerely speculation though.

NUFORC Note:

We observe that the "flare" that the witness describes might have been the phenomenon caused by Iridium satellites. That can be checked at the website, . PD

Posted 2001-08-05