2004-06-24 - Peaster, TX - Cigar

Cigar-shaped object with fins left huge smoke trail

I was outside behind our house when I heard a loud noise behind me, like an airliner or F-16 flying by overhead. Our house is under the flight paths for both D/FW Int. Airport and the joint reserve base in Fort Worth, so we often hear and see jets. I was facing northwest when I heard the noise. I looked over my shoulder to the south and saw a very bright white contrail (or smoke trail), very dense and wide, extending from the south heading directly north. Airliners never travel in this path -- they always go east-west or west-east.

I visually followed the contrail north until I spotted what initially looked like an airliner, EXCEPT IT HAD NO WINGS. The object and its contrail were higher than the clouds. The object had little fins at the back end like a missile. The contrail was much wider than the object. After about 20 seconds, the object faded out of view. At this point, I went into the house to get my 30-year-old daughter. She came outside and we both saw the contrail still clearly visible in the sky. The trail was slowly fanning out. However, we could both see that the trail started and ended abruptly. We took digital photos of the contrail, which show that it was above the clouds.

After taking the photos, I called my husband -- an ex-Air Force pilot -- to tell him about the object. He had no idea what it was. That night, he asked me to draw a picture of the object. The next morning, at work, he showed the drawing and photos of the contrail to his ex-fighter pilot buddies. None of them knew what it was, but all of them said it looked like a missile. They had no idea what kind of missile, but it must've been huge based on its altitude. The object was too large to be a missile from an F-16 and there are no nearby launch facilities for other types of missiles.

I know what airliners and fighter jets look like. This was neither. I have photos of the contrail and a drawing of the object.