SIGHTING: FERRYVILLE, WISCONSIN (UNITED STATES)

Witness Testimony

"I was traveling south on wi state highway 35 from lacrosse to prairie du chein, wi. hwy 35 runs right along side of the mississippi river on the west and high bluffs on the east of the road. it was about 10:30 at night and i had just broken out of a strong rainstorm into just a few sprinkles. i had passed village of genoa and was about a mile or two south of there. my eye caught sight of two fairly bright large red lights above two separate bluffs on my left. i could barely see an outline of the bluffs, but the lights were globe shaped and seemed to be well above the bluffs. they slid out of sight as i traveled along and then disappeared behind the bluffs. i estimate the two bluffs were 1/4 and 1/2 mile from me. as i proceeded south another mile or so, i saw another single red globe over the center of the river at about 600 feet agl. in another mile or so i saw another similar light over the river. i thought at the time that the electric utility may have recently installed power-lines with aircraft warning globes on them. however, i travel this route often, and can not recall anything like that at those locations. i did observe several tow boats with barges on the river during this part of my trip. but i saw no trains on the bsnf railway along side the highway. as i went south i observed two "sheriff" squad cars pulled to the side of the road at the north edge of the town of ferryville, wi. later on it occurred to me they were parked in an excellent spot to see a large expanse of maybe 6 or 8 miles of river, since it is 2 or 3 miles wide at that point. just north of lynxville i slowed way down for a car stopped in my driving lane. i passed him slowly and could not ascertain why he was stopped. another auto was approaching from the south so i went on, to avoid further blocking the road which was rain covered and slippery. i proceeded south past the lynxville lock and dam about 1 mile and that's when i saw an object hovering over the water at about my eye level. (i estimate the highway is about 80 to 150 feet higher than the water.) the object may have been a helicopter, however, the weather was very marginal for any aircraft operations because of the intermittent rain. the impression i got was, that it looked like a head on view of a huge c-5a transport aircraft at about 300-500 yards, where the fuselage was a glowing red ball, and a glowing single white ball was slung under each wing! i only saw this for about 4 to 6 seconds because of all the trees in the way. i should have gone back and looked, but i only pulled off about a mile later to try and get another glimpse but saw nothing. i was too tired to investigate further. i am 74 yrs old and i am a pilot and i have good eyesight. i had not been drinking but i was tired from a long 7 hr drive in stormy weather. however, i did see each of these things and all may have an explanation. but it was quite unusual to say the least. "