SIGHTING: OWENSBORO, KENTUCKY (UNITED STATES)

Witness Testimony

"I'm on aa flight 2409 from ord to tpa. after breaking through the clouds south of chicago i looked through my window to the west. there was a brilliant white light above the cloud and near the top of my window. even though it was dark out i could see the clouds below me and used this to gauge the hight of the light on the horizon. the light was near the top of my window and i swore i saw the light drop suddenly and then rise, repeating the change in elevation. i kept thinking it was an aircraft flying towards ours, however, i could see other aircraft flying outside of my window and this had to be the the brightest thing in the sky, while the other airlines were dim and rapidly moving across the sky. while passing over owensboro, ky i finally asked the stewardess if she could ask the captain (capt smith) it he could identify the bright white light on the right side of the plane. she left to ask the captain and came back and reported that the captain didn't know what the light was but suggested it could be an airport indicator light bc we were flying over owensboro. i took photos and videos of the light and it was clearly the most visible light in my he night sky. i logged onto the internet and searched for planets that are able to be seen in the night sky, several websites said that venus is very bright and i convinced myself that it was just a planet. i started watching a movie and then as we were passing auburn, al i looked out the window and saw that the light was greatly diminished and nearer the right side of the road window. i also observed two aircraft flying above the elevation of the light. i went back and zoomed in on the inflight map and looked back outside the window and the light was completely gone. i could only think that this was another airline pacing ours to the west and much higher in elevation, but again in comparison to the other aircraft that i could see this was like someone was pointing a flashlight right at my window from a distance, very very bright, especially compared to the other aircraft i could observe. i saw the light on our flight path from just south of chicago all the way to just outside of birmingham al before the light started to diminish. it was odd that the captain of the flight had no idea what the flight was. the light rose in elevation and dropped in elevation quite rapidly and most often returned back to the same point on my window near the top. i'm sitting in seat 8f on the right side of the plane. "