SIGHTING: BILLINGS, MT
Witness Testimony
"Bright, glowing object at 5000 ft AGL.I came back from the airport at 21:30, pulled in my driveway, was unloading the car and something bright caught my attention. Initially, I thought it was an aircraft on fire traveling due south at about 5000 feet AGL. Approximately the size of my thumb nail it came to a hover directly over me and hovered for approximately 30 seconds. It then backed up roughly 3 arc seconds, moved west by the same amount, and then moved south east by about 4 arc degrees. The object then started ascending due east eventually climbing over the clouds which were in the eastern quadrant of the sky in approximately 20 seconds. I snapped a picture with my IPhone as it was ascending and then called for a weather briefing. At the time of the sighting visibility was 10 miles, wind 310 at 3, few clouds at 7,500, scattered at 12500. Temp was 23C, density altitude 5400, and altimeter 3002. Consequently, based on this weather report for 0339 Zulu for Billings, MT, I estimated the ! rate of climb from a hover (5000 AGl) to disappearing over the clouds at 12,500 giving it a rate of climb of approximately 22,500 fpm. The object was circular, glowed brightly the color of a campfire, and made no noise. The color of the object never changed during the 60 seconds of witnessing it. For whatever reason, I feel that this object was unmanned and transitioned to a hover in order to search for a navigation data point such as a magnetic field line or point of reference in order to begin a new displacement. "
