Circle over Gallatin Gateway, MT
A witness account on file, unevaluated. Most of the archive rests here, and honestly so.
The report, as filed
Just above the mountain range SSW of Gallatin Gateway, I noticed what appeared to be a spherical light moving from peak to peak very quickly in a very irregular flight pattern very resemblant to that of a housefly's. Object began to change colors and seemed to have 2 smaller versions of itself splitting off from and readjoining with the main one. This was done in seemingly random pattern. The 2 smaller ones began blinking at irregular, non repetitive intervals. The 3 of them seemed to fly away from me until they were almost inperceivable, then in a fraction of the time, reappearing close as before again, but in different position equal to about 5 moons diameters away. Then, one time it didn't reappear.
Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center (record NUFORC #131699). Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.
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Routed to: Federal Aviation Administration · records window 2016-12-08 → 2016-12-25
From the same sky
Related entries
July 25, 2020 · 6:00 PM · OVAL
Gallatin Gateway, MT
Happened to look up saw a bright light in a very blue sky while camping. Got binoculars out, then proceed to get telescope. The four of us saw what look like a round donut with lights along one side. With the telescope a Little closer looked kind of like a jellyfish without tentacles. It didn't really seem to move, but as the sun went down it changed color and eventually disappeared.
January 13, 2015 · 9:45 PM · TRIANGLE
Gallatin Gateway, MT
I stepped outside to take my dog to the bathroom and saw a plane with blinking nav and collision lights about 30deg above the horizon, east of Gallatin Gateway. I assumed the plane was coming in to land at BZN. I happened to notice what I thought was a satellite in the same vicinity; at first, I thought it was the ISS as it was big enough. I kept watching it and dismissed that though as it appeared to be moving much slower than other times when I've seen the ISS and wasn't nearly as bright. In fact, I saw that what I thought was a satellite was really two lights--almost vertical--and, when my hand is held at arm's length, was about as tall as my thumb and forefinger held about an inch apart. It was interesting; I hadn't ever seen something like that before. I stood there watching it and it's direction changed, from headed N to headed W. At first, I still thought it was a satellite: it had no blinking lights, so I just thought it was a satellite in orbit and it's orbit happened to curve right then. The longer I watched it though, the more I realized that it was being followed by the plane. Its angle in the sky changed; the lights went from appearing to be vertical in the sky to being parallel with the ground. There were three lights in a triangle shape. It flew right through the constellation Orion, south of Taurus and the Pleiades, and the plane followed behind. At arm's length, the plane was about a foot behind the object. The heading of both the object and the plane continued to curve slowly around, from west to SW, and it eventually left the Gallatin Valley with the plane following behind, just off to the side. It struck me as odd; the object had no blinking lights AT ALL. Normally at night, even at high altitudes, it's obvious to tell if something is plane or a satellite, primarily from the blinking lights. This object had no blinking lights, no colored lights--other than white, and they weren't the same intensity as the "chase" plane. A description of the backgrounds of the observer(s) is useful as well: I have a MS in the quantitative sciences, a BS in Biology, and have been an aviation buff since I was a kid. I don't drink alcohol or use drugs so could not have been under the influence at all.
January 13, 2015 · 9:45 PM · TRIANGLE
Gallatin Gateway, MT
My husband called me outside to look at something tonight. There was a regular airplane with blinking navigation lights, and then in front of it was a triangle shaped craft with 3 orange lights moving from east to west. The airplane appeared to be following the UFO, and was east of the UFO as they traveled west. We could hear the engines from the regular airplane, which was obviously some sort of jet, but not from the UFO. The UFO appeared to be larger than the plane. They were still flying in a westerly direction. Not sure if this was some sort of military operation or if it was an actual UFO with a plane following it to see what it was.