SIGHTING: BUTTE (APPROX 40 MILES S. OF, ON NB INTERSTATE 15), MT

Witness Testimony

"Low flying red & white light, traveling from left to right, which stopped mid air, darted backward, spun around and drift/darted around.We were traveling NB Interstate 15, aout 40 miles S. of Butte, Montana at about 22:10 April 16, 1999, We stopped to watch the Northern Light,looking to the north east for a few moments whe we obseved what we thought was a low flying aircraft (one steady red light leading & one steady white light trailing), traveling from left to right, just the ridgeline , about an estimated 3-5 miles away. My son & I were out of the vehicle, my wife inside the van. The light travelled a horizontal path for about 5 degrees, whe it instantly stopped and reversed course, wising slightly. Then it stopped and apeared to rotate clockwise as the red light seemed to merge with the white light, then quickly wink out, like swinging a flashlight beam in another direction way from your view. The now alone white light began making rapid spiral dips& dives and then darted instantly to different positions in the sky, gaining and loosing altitude. As it dropped lower, we noted multiple very faint smaller red lights drifting slowly to the ground in fan shaped trajectories below the light. We contined observing this for 10 solid minutes, then decided to continue toward Butte. We kept an eye on the light, which continue to dart around for about another 10 minuted before we lost it behind some mountains."