SIGHTING: WEBSTER CITY, IA

Witness Testimony

"The following investigation details are result of Iowa MUFON's telephone and e-mail interviews with one of the three witnesses involved in a sighting reported to NUFORC 5/23/2003 11:54:21 PM 23:54. At 9:30 p.m. CDT, on May 23, 2003, a family of three (mother, father, and 23-year old son) were headed north on Highway 17 in Webster City, Iowa when they met and drove under a dark, slow-moving triangle (speed is estimated at only 15-20 mph, and the sighting was of 3 minutes duration) as it headed south above Highway 17. The son estimates the triangle's altitude as only a few hundred feet in the air, and even though it was deep twilight, the sky was still light enough to not only see the triangle as it approached, but to also discern the structure as they drove beneath it. [Weather conditions were as follows: Clear, below 12,000 feet; Visibility 10 miles; Temperature 57 degrees Fahrenheit; Wind out of the East at 6 mph] Bright orange lights were observed at each angle of the object, although those lights did not illuminate the structure nor surrounding area. The family observed what seemed to be a lighter gray circular area on the underside of the structure, with some sort of line, or stripe, or structural component leading from each angle in toward the circle in the middle. With the car radio turned off and the window rolled down, the family could hear no sound associated with the object. After meeting the object and driving beneath it, the family turned off on a side street and circled back around the block (while doing so, trees blocked their view) so that they were now back on Highway 17, only now they were headed south -in the same direction as the triangle had been moving - but by this time, the triangle was nowhere in sight. The bright orange lights they had observed as the object approached (during this 3-minute sighting) had actually seemed a bit dimmer as they drove beneath the object, and the family theorized that perhaps the orange lights at the three angles were situated toward the top of the triangle rather than closer to its underside. "Apparent" size estimate is that the object looked to be about the size of three full moons. The family has indicated that they are not looking f! or any public attention regarding this incident. Bev Trout Iowa MUFON State Director((NUFORC Note: We express our gratitude to Bev Trout, and the other MUFON personnel, for following up on this report, and for having conducted a follow-up report. PD))"