NUFORC Sighting 50879

Occurred: 2006-06-03 13:45 Local
Reported: 2006-06-09 00:15 Pacific
Duration: 5 minutes
No of observers: 1

Location: St. Peters, MO, USA

Shape: Cylinder

Saw 2 objects in broad daylight within 20 minutes

I was in this area from out of state visiting relatives. On this Saturday afternoon, I was running some errands with my 4 year old son, driving east on Old Hwy 94, when I looked to the north and saw a vertical white cylinder cruising from west to east. It appeared to be about 3/4 of a mile away and at about 2000-2500 feet above ground. Its proportions were about 1 to 5, so I guess it was about 6' wide by 30' tall. It was moving steadily at a speed equal to or greater than that of a twin engine propeller-driven airplane, so I would guess 150-200 mph. I worked my way through an intersection and then pulled to a stop in a parking lot for a better look. This thing cruised and then quickly slowed to a complete stop, where it hovered for maybe 10 seconds, then traveled straight up at about half it's previous speed for about 1000 feet, then stopped and hovered for maybe 30 seconds, then began accelerating to the east again at 150-200 mph. I watched its departure until it went out of sight. It remained very bright white the whole time, and as it moved, it never looked thinner or flashed brightly as if it had edges, so I think it was a cylinder. The sky was sunny with a broken ceiling of alto-cumulus clouds, with moderate winds out of the west. The object remained below the clouds. The object was traveling with the wind, but maneuvering unlike a balloon or anything else. I continued with my errands, constantly looking up to the sky as I drove around town. After a few minutes, I stopped at a Sonic drive-in for lunch and parked so that I could look to the north-west. I began eating my lunch while looking up through the windshield, and was rewarded almost immediately (this was 20 minutes later)when I saw a dark round object flying from west to east. I got out of the car for a better look and saw as it was approaching and then passing almost directly above, that it was round when viewed from below and a flattened oval when viewed from the side. It was shaped just like a glass piece from the game "Pente". This object was bronze-colored (a dark blend of green, brown and gold). As it made distance, I could see that the top was highly refective of the sun. I wanted to rule it out as a toy balloon, but it wasn't. As it traveled, I gained a sense of its approximate height and distance and surmised it was not small and low to the ground, but higher, larger and faster. It wobbled as it flew; listing 20-30 degrees but never flipping end over end. I would guess it was at about 1000' above ground and maybe 8'-12' in diameter. I later called the St. Louis FAA Fight Service Station which offers detailed weather conditions for pilots. The briefer told me that at that time the cloud ceiling was at or above 5000' above ground, the winds aloft at 3000' were at 18 knots (approx. 20 mph) from the west. This told me that although both objects were traveling with the wind, they were cruising on their own power 8 to 10 times faster than the wind could push them. I feel lucky to have seen these things, but returned to the family reunion not saying a damn word about it. I'll tell my son about it when he's older and will look up to the skies a lot more often. I am 45 years old, a private pilot and I work as an architect.

Posted 2006-07-16