Light over Des Moines, IA
A witness account on file, unevaluated. Most of the archive rests here, and honestly so.
The report, as filed
Fast moving silver light
Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center. Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.
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What would the paper say?
For a dated, located U.S. sighting, FAA radar data and ATC communications are the records most likely to exist. Through Aletheca, the house instrument, anyone can commission the request — filed, chased, and published in the open, refusals included. The draft goes over already written: the records sought, and the date window they would live in.
Routed to: Federal Aviation Administration · records window 2012-12-05 → 2012-12-22
From the same sky
Related entries
October 8, 2022 · 7:40 PM · OTHER
Des Moines, IA
Driving on the interstate my son exclaimed “what is that?”, looking automatically at the moon while driving I witnessed a large linear slightly convex shape in the 6 o'clock position going over to the 4 o'clock position of the moon. It was one solid object that quickly moved towards the right side if the moon, as if it was passing infront of the moon. It lasted approximately 10 seconds to leave visibility, as it was a clear dark night without clouds. My son shared with me he witnessed it more of a large cigar shape. Defined edges. No lights or other abnormalities. It was huge to be able to black out such a large portion of the moons light.
November 28, 2021 · 10:00 PM · RECTANGLE
Des Moines, IA
Driving with my brother at 10 pm at night and saw a "large , huge rectangular ark shape object" like object floating slowly low in the sky. At first appeared to be a big UPS jet which is common in this area. However it began to hover and then turn methodically and made two wide circles in the sky. Also it had red, white lights that clearly defined the rectangular shape. Also it appeared the traffic lights were flashing or fire trucks/ police cars flashing lights ahead of us as we drove. Then at the exact the same time the lihgts stopped flashing exactly when the object disapperaed or landed close by. We just don’t know. Brother noticed light haze. At first looking ahead of the road with all the flashing lights that a building was on fire. W saw object circle twice in the sky and vanish or land. 3 miuntes was all it took to do all this. Clear night not a cloud in the sky. Like a big noahs ark in the sky. Slow moving hovering was huge object. That’s it.
August 19, 2020 · 9:32 PM · TRIANGLE
Des Moines, IA
I couldn’t see as well as I would’ve liked, as I was driving I saw a triangle in the sky, non-blinking blue light on left side and non-blinking red light on right side. I looked up as it passed above me and it was indeed a triangle.
April 30, 2020 · 9:09 PM · DISK
Des Moines, IA
This ufo was seen at 9:09 p.m. 4/30/20 in Des Moines, Iowa 50321 approximately 5 minutes from the Des Moines International airport. The airport is so close to where this ufo was spotted (in a residential neighborhood) that plane’s could be seen and heard taking off. The flying object seen was approximately the length/width of an average home. When seen, it was approximately 200ft in the air above me. What stood out the most was the red dot of light in the center of the bottom (stomach one could say) of the aircraft. Smooth shiny metal, like one might see on a brand new car from the 50’s, detailed this aircraft as seen in the illustration above. It accented the red light while branches of this metal lining reached the sides of the aircraft. The actual build of this ufo was of blue color at first sight, but when looking longer, it had more of a teal color, one might even perceive as green. The aircraft’s build was smooth with absolutely no bolts or screws in sight. Along with ! this, the blueish teal material around the metal-like accents looked almost translucent and soft. When this aircraft was in the air, it did not fly in a straight line, but more so hovered and traveled where it liked. There was a low rumbling noise that came out of it, but there was absolutely no exhaust coming out of the hovercraft like a normal airplane would have, including no smell of gases leaving the ufo as a normal aircraft would have. When flying away, the ufo simply disappeared in the distance. When first spotting this aircraft, I attempted to take a video which ultimately failed as when I was holding my camera completely straight, the aircraft seemed to push and pull my camera away and unfocus it, which reminded me of trying to stick two pieces of magnetic pieces together which can't be done as the force between them moves each of the pieces away. There was a white light that topped this saucer which is what could be seen from far away. The side view drawn above is more of a rough sketch of what I saw, only drawn to give one an idea of the shape, while the view from directly underneath is a more complete and accurate view of what I saw, as this is when the aircraft came very close.
January 2, 2020 · 1:40 AM · DISK
Des Moines, IA
I was walking to a QuikTrip nearby my apartment. I go occasionally to buy a few things for the night and always admire the night sky. On my way there I noticed a star that was twinkling in the sky (changing from red, green, and white quickly. Got my snacks and left. On my way back home (facing away from the twinkling star) I noticed what I thought to be another one. This one was different.. it was changing colors but very slowly. I couldn’t keep my eyes off it. Between the color changes I squinted my eyes to try and make out a shape and I could kind of see a oval or typical “saucer” shape. I was thinking “yeah right” to myself but this is where shit got weird. This craft began to move very slowly. I then knew it wasn’t a star anymore.. I kept watching. It then moved to the left very quickly then STOP at a dime. My heart sank and I ran inside. My girlfriend tried to calm me down on the phone but I couldn’t believe my eyes. Do drones behave that way? Do they! fly then stop abruptly at a split second? I personally NEVER seen one do it. The movement just seemed unnatural.. like there was some sort of pilot maneuvering this thing. I still am very shooken by this and don’t know what to believe. If there was a confirmed drone flying around Des Moines shining as bright as a star I would feel relieved. Until then, I feel like I’m going to remain puzzled.
November 19, 2019 · 12:00 AM · LIGHT
Des Moines, IA
Found a light shining during the sunset it's shining in the sky. At first I thought it was a plane but it just stayed there. After 20 minutes it was still in the same place. Later when the lighting changed to a red but quickly changed back to its original state. I could tell it was a disk shape since you can see black around it. I am currently outside seeing this and typing it. So what I notice about it l. It's blinking and stops for a moment and starts again. We saw a plane pass it from a distance and by the naked eye you could tell it's way too big to be a plane.