Light over North Sioux City, SD
A witness account on file, unevaluated. Most of the archive rests here, and honestly so.
The report, as filed
Put kids to bed around 9, then went outside to smoke a cigarette. I was on my phone when I saw a bright white light moving across the sky. I initially thought it might've been a low flying aircraft, but no blinking lights. I couldn't see a shape, just a singular bright white light. I thought, well maybe it's a heliocopter with a spotlight, but I've seen that before, & this was different. Also no sounds that you'd hear from a low flying craft. The light initially traveled from south to north, then made an abrupt 90 degree turn that initially looked like it was going east. The light then faded to look similar to a bright star or planet. It continued to fade and look like a dim star. Then it was no longer visible. What I initially thought it was moving east, seems more like it was moving out farther into space. I'm an Air Force veteran and I've never seen any kind of aircraft move like this ball of light. There weren't any sort of tail fire you'd seen in a jet either.
Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center (record NUFORC #130360). Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.
Ask for the records
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 2016-09-26 → 2016-10-13
From the same sky