SIGHTING: SILOAM SPRINGS, ARKANSAS (UNITED STATES)

Witness Testimony

"My wife and I were laying in a hammock enjoying an unusually clear night sky. The moon was near full but had not risen yet so the milky way was clearly visible as well as many other constellations that are normally difficult to see. We saw many satellites and a couple of shooting stars. We even saw one satellite flash us as it's solar panels must have reflected light from the moon or sun briefly. About 10:10 PM or so (I'm judging from the time we went outside to the time we saw the object. Neither of us had a watch or phone with us), I saw what I just assumed was a satellite moving across the sky in a West/Southwest direction. What confused me is that it was flashing. About once a second it would get approximately twice as bright as a typical satellite. My wife noticed it shortly after I did, as I was still trying to figure out what it was. She asked me what it was and suggested that it was an airplane. There were a couple of large jets flying over at the time traveling in a similar direction. I told her that it wasn't a plane of any kind. There were no colored lights and the only light similar to one we were seeing would be landing lights. They don't flash and they point forward. I couldn't tell where this light was "pointed" but it did not seem to be any kind of landing light from a plane. The light was typically a slight shade of blue and flashed brightly white. Again, the light was similar to a satellite. I suggested that maybe it was a fast spinning satellite that was repeatedly flashing us. In fact, told the wife that had to be what it was. It was traveling faster than the jets in the area and quickly caught up to and passed one of the jets while continuing in a straight line from straight above us, where we first noticed it, to about 15 degrees above the western horizon. I was content with the idea that it was a rotating satellite and was pleased to see something that I had not seen before. Then as I continued to watch it, it slowed down in it's path and slowly changed course. This happened quite slowly and I questioned if I was really seeing it move out of it's original trajectory. My wife asked if I saw it change direction, I confirmed and we began intently watching it now moving in a northerly direction from our perspective. It could have been moving west or east as well which was difficult to determine from our perspective, but the light did not appear to be getting brighter or more dim. although at this point it was far enough away that we could only casually see it when it was bright. The flashing consistency never noticeably changed from the roughly 1 second interval. It continued to move what appeared to be north, very slowly, until it passed behind the tree line near our property. The whole experience lasted maybe 8-10 mins. We discussed what we had just seen for several minutes and could not come up with any reasonable explanation."