Falling star like light object making erratic maneuvers
On Saturday, January 10th 2009 at approximately 6:10pm in the early dark evening, I witnessed the following account.
About a mile north before the city of Bountiful, Utah traveling south on I-15, I saw above me through the front windshield a bright white/yellow falling star traveling north to south my same direction. The “star” traveled quickly across the sky then “stopped in mid-air” over what appeared to be the ensign peak area between Bountiful and SLC. This startled me and I said, “What the heck is that?”. No falling star here as the light then moved back north east over North Salt Lake and made a slow wide circling pattern as if it were going to land. At this point my wife said, “Maybe it’s a helicopter going to land”. The light then traveled west quickly across the interstate and suddenly maneuvered straight up for about 300-500 feet over I-215 just south of the Legacy interchange. After that it traveled south towards the 7th north exit in west SLC desending at a high rate and disappeared from our site.
I am a private pilot and aware of natural speeds and maneuvers a “normal” plane or helicopter would make, but this to me seemed to fast and erratic in behavior. My wife thought she could see blinking lights around the main light. I could not see position lights only the white/yellow light it emitted from all angles. Besides, this is controlled airspace, would Salt Lake Center allow this kind of evasive maneuvering? I was curious to hear if anyone else saw what we witnessed so I called an FAA flight briefer and he gave me the number to this reporting site.
On Saturday, January 10th 2009 at approximately 6:10pm in the early dark evening, I witnessed the following account.
About a mile north before the city of Bountiful, Utah traveling south on I-15, I saw above me through the front windshield a bright white/yellow falling star traveling north to south my same direction. The “star” traveled quickly across the sky then “stopped in mid-air” over what appeared to be the ensign peak area between Bountiful and SLC. This startled me and I said, “What the heck is that?”. No falling star here as the light then moved back north east over North Salt Lake and made a slow wide circling pattern as if it were going to land. At this point my wife said, “Maybe it’s a helicopter going to land”. The light then traveled west quickly across the interstate and suddenly maneuvered straight up for about 300-500 feet over I-215 just south of the Legacy interchange. After that it traveled south towards the 7th north exit in west SLC desending at a high rate and disappeared from our site.
I am a private pilot and aware of natural speeds and maneuvers a “normal” plane or helicopter would make, but this to me seemed to fast and erratic in behavior. My wife thought she could see blinking lights around the main light. I could not see position lights only the white/yellow light it emitted from all angles. Besides, this is controlled airspace, would Salt Lake Center allow this kind of evasive maneuvering? I was curious to hear if anyone else saw what we witnessed so I called an FAA flight briefer and he gave me the number to this reporting site.
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
Off
No
No
Yes
No
No
No
No
Bountiful
USA
several minutes
several minutes
40.88
-111.87
light
UT
Occurred : 1/10/2009 18:10 (Entered as : 01/10/09 18:10) Reported: 1/14/2009 12:14:07 PM 12:14 Posted: 3/19/2009 Location: Bountiful, UT Shape: Light Duration: several minutes Characteristics: There were lights on the object
Falling star like light object making erratic maneuvers