1999-03-17 - Iowa City, IA - Triangle

dark triangle moves slowly and appears to hover in night sky.

I was driving at 4:30 AM near a cemetary in Iowa City when I saw a bright light in the south, far away. I drove a few blocks and parked across from the mostly dark cemetary. The light grew brighter as I attempted to determine if it was a large jet coming in from the south. Then the light appeared to stop and grow brighter and a heat ripple was visible around the light. I watched closely for any side movement to indicate a plane was coming at me on a direct heading with a landing light on. I saw none. Then the object moved sideways or at a slight angle away from me as the light dimmed after 3 minutes. I could now see small red lights at the tips of a triangle and hear a slight air whooshing sound. No tail assembly was visible. I thought it might be a B-2 bomber but then for a second I could see it was complete triangle with the red lights at the tips and a large stubby silo shaped front ahead of the triangle. The bright white light was now clearly positioned on the bottom middle of the triangle and quite large. The craft then proceeded straight north at about 100 mph. and maybe 600 feet off the ground. A few years ago I visited the control tower of the C.R. airport and was given a short lesson of a half hour in the radar room and know what the flight paths are. This object did not seem to be on the normal approaches to that airport which is 21 miles away to the northwest.