Formation over Vestavia Hills, AL

The report, as filed

Twenty minutes ago I went out to look for meteorites since the sky is very clear. After about five minutes, my eyes had adjusted to the darkness. I had my back to nearby parking lot lights so I could get the best view of the sky. I hadn’t seen any meteorites yet it was easy to spot constellations. While looking toward the Pleiades, I saw this gray, wedge-shaped object moving from SE to NW. It seemed to move and change shape subtly like a formation of birds would fly but it was obviously not birds. It appeared that this object or formation of multiple objects was being illuminated by the lights from the nearby commercial development. This object drifted to NW as if it was caught in a sea current. It did not travel at a constant rate of speed. After less than a minute it faded out of view. After pondering what I had just witnessed, I noticed a commercial jet approaching from the same direction that the object did. From looking at FlightAware, this was FDX1200, a 767 flying from Ft. Lauderdale to Memphis. The object flew much faster that the jet did. The width of the object was about four to five times the width of the 767. It seems that the object was at a fairly low altitude, maybe 1000 to 2500 feet. The FedEx plane was at 36,000 ft. Minutes after the jet passed, a medical helicopter flew from the NW to the SE at about the altitude that the object seemed to travel. What seemed to stand out the most was how this object moved and changed shape along the way, silently like a gray ghostly cloud on clear, cold night.

Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center (record NUFORC #173055). Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.