SIGHTING: HARTLAND, MINNESOTA (UNITED STATES)

Witness Testimony

"Visiting with a friend who lives in a tiny rural community away from noise and light pollution. We were sitting out on the apartment balcony on the upper floor of two story building, west side. The sky is crystal clear, temp about 60ish with no wind or noise. I've sat here before and it's easy to watch the commercial air traffic heading north and southbound in and out of the Twin Cities area (roughly 100 miles north.) I was watching an airliner fly northbound with the typical flashing stobe and faint but perceptable engine noise when I noticed a brighter yellowish/white light moving across the sky from west to east. I was able to make direct comparison between the two objects. Because of the relative brightness and speed of the unknown it gave the subjective impression of being much "closer" than the airliner. The unknown was moving about 3-4 times as fast as the airliner in a straight flight path. Specifically the airliner traveled about a quarter way across the sky-or less-in the same time it took this unknown to traverse it's path from horizon to horizon. No shape visible, just a constant yellowish/white light that was definitely a different hue than the airliners strobes. This was several times brighter than Venus. It was totally silent as it moved across the sky and it was possible to hear the airliners faint engine noise the entire time the unknown was in the sky. Since the two objects were traveling perpendicular to each other there was a very brief point at which the "intersected" and my impression is that the light of the faster traveling unknown appeared to eclipse (i.e. be closer than) the commercial airliner. Appeared to be about 30-40 degrees above the southern horizon. I pointed it out to the person sitting with me and my observations were confirmed. After several seconds another essentially identical unknown followed the exact flight path and displayed the same speed and other characteristics as the first while the commercial airliner was still making it's way northbound overhead. Thought I'd share this observation, given that it could be simultaneously be compared with a known object. The speed and complete silence of the unknown are what immediately attracted my attention. "