Light over Farmington, MO

The report, as filed

Report received by the Missouri Investigators Group. http://ufomig.yolasite.com. BBecker ufomig@yahoo.com. I had spent the late afternoon, early evening, at my mom's house, with family, at Lake Timberline, Bonne Terre, MO. I would not attend the evening's fireworks display there, as I had a prior commitment to walk my friend's dog by 9pm (my friend was staying out of town that evening...he lives just west of Highway 67 in Farmington, MO). Because of my commitments, I was paying particular attention to the time. I left my mom's house for Farmington by just before 8:30 pm, heading north to my friend's house, and arriving at around 8:45pm. I took out his dog for a walk in the yard. We finished by 9:00 pm, and I remember hearing what certainly sounded like very large fireworks going off in the east, toward Farmington. I assumed it was their annual display. As the dog seemed increasing nervous at the sounds, I took her back in the house and left for my home in Farmington. I got on to Hwy 67 south, hung a left on Hwy H, headed east into Farmington. I continued to hear the "booming! " of what seemed to be Farmington's fireworks display, now behind me as I entered the city limits. There was some traffic that had passed on Hwy H heading west, and I was looking ahead at another oncoming vehicle, when just over the treetops appeared what I initially thought was a small plane. It is not uncommon to see small aircraft in this area as the pilots descend and make their way toward landing at the small Farmington airport. I suppose my immediate thought was that it could be dangerous perhaps for a small plane to be out, at this time on the July 4th holiday, so close to a large fireworks demonstration. The craft did not seem to be heading in a straight line, but sort of a "bee line" to the west-northwest. It took only seconds to realize that there were no flashing lights or beacon on this craft, it seemed very low, but very large, glowing brightly in an orange-red hue. I realized that this was unusual and I found my self startled. Quickly, I glanced! in my rear-view mirror, saw not traffic behind me. I slammed ! on the b rakes, and backed my car up twenty or thirty feet into the nearest drive, and parked, with my car facing north. I looked out my windshield and viewed the craft headed west. It seemed quite large, a fireball, with no discernible flashing lights, as with a plane or helicopter. I whipped out my cell phone and attempted to film the light. As soon as I got the recorder operating, I realized that filming through the windshield could interfere getting a "clean" recording, so I exited the vehicle quickly, with the phone in my right hand. I stood outside the car, between the open door and the car, leaning on the vehicle to steady my hand. The craft seemed to have moved further to the north of me, and as I filmed, it ceased to move, and hung in midair. I looked like Venus would appear in the night sky, but was as twice as bright as Venus, burning in that orange-red hue. While I watched and filmed, it seemed as though the craft appeared as a "V" shaped, but I cannot! be sure. After minutes, the object began to move due north, disappearing gradually from my line of sight. I recall stopping the camera record feature on the cell phone, and climbed back into my car. I was excited to see what I had filmed. I then realized that only ten seconds of video existed of this sighting, ending as I began to exit the vehicle, with no visual of the light I attempted to film from the windshield. I thought perhaps I "jostled" the phone upon exiting the car, but I cannot account for the fact that I remember stopping the camera record feature on my phone when the experience ended. Because there was no video to prove what I had seen, needless to say, I was extremely pissed off. I drove the rest of the way home, and explained to my waiting wife, what I had seen. I put a post on Facebook at about 9:34pm, asking if anyone else had seen this. Surprisingly, only a few responded, and some with skepticism. I was probably ranting at my wife for hours abo! ut this. How can tens of thousands of people be sitting outsid! e watchi ng the sky, and no one saw what I had seen? In retrospect, and this is purely speculation, I was left feeling that this object was responding to the fireworks in town, stopped within a short distance to observe, and then tracked slowly northward. I was extremely agitated after this experience, and in the following week, I would go outside around the same time of the evening to see if this craft would return, and I could get another chance at filming it. Investigators Note: Between July 4 and July 5 there were reports of similar object in Missouri at Perryville, Hematite, Arnold, Columbia and Monroe City. https://goo.gl/maps/1BEnM. Witnesses declined to file reports.

Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center (record NUFORC #120490). Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.