SIGHTING: ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI (UNITED STATES)

Witness Testimony

"Last night my girlfriend and I were sitting on our front porch watching some neighbors shoot off fireworks. At approx. 9:20 pm I noticed what at first looked like an airplane breaking through the clouds to the south of our location, approx. 4-5 miles away. I am a former flight instructor, and very familiar with aircraft and aircraft movements. This vehicle was a bright orange color, almost looked like it was on fire. There were no navigation lights on it, just a steady orange color. The object moved slowly towards our location. The movement wasn't straight, it would move laterally, then back towards us, then laterally. Between the erratic movements, and color made us both think this wasn't a typical aircraft. There wasn't any noise. At this point I stood up to get a better look, I was concerned that the movement would take it out of view.At this point the object seemed to come to a stand still. I grabbed my phone to video what was happening, at which point the object seemed to slowly back up and ascend back into the clouds out of sight.My girlfriend and I both looked at each other and said that was really weird.As I said I am a former flight instructor, I know an airplane doesn't move in that manner, with no navigation lights, or sound it wasn't a helicopter. Also I know most helicopters don't usually fly at night into IFR conditions. The light that was emitted from the vehicle did reflect off the bottom of the cloud base. I thought perhaps a drone, again there wasn't any sound, and drones aren't permitted to fly above 400 feet.I waited till today, as I wanted to sleep on what we saw, and rationally think about what it could've been. I don't have a logical answer at this point. As stated earlier this was observed by both myself and my girlfriend. "