2013-12-10 - Belton, MO - Sphere

Bright orange, steadily-glowing ball of light (Sphere) moving across the sky with sudden disappear/reappear before moving on.

My daughter took the dog out to the side yard for a walk and came back in stating she had seen a bright orange, steadily-glowing ball of light moving slowly across the sky from approximately SSE (well above roof-level of houses across the street) and moving to Due East. She said this movement took approximately 60 seconds. She said it then stopped and suddenly disappeared and reappeared several (roughly 20) degrees North and continued to move in a northerly direction at the same pace as before (she came in after another 60 seconds of watching it). My estimation of the time is different than hers as I thought she had been out there for nearly twice the amount of time she claimed, so you can decide between the two or average it to 3 minutes total. As soon as she came in and rattled off what she had seen I ran outside and could see nothing past the trees right behind the north side of our yard, but did see what was obviously a helicopter or small plane with cle! arly-defined length and individual blinking lights on the eastern horizon facing north (the last direction my daughter had spotted the craft), then turning and moving towards me (due west). I know that she knows what these common craft look like, as they are constantly flying around here and she points them out with proper identification nearly every night we are out and about. We have a hospital and helipad not 2 miles from our house (a few blocks east of MO-71/I-49 and a few blocks south of MO-58)and several small airports within 15 miles, so they are truly common.

Seeing strange craft here is not uncommon if you look up in the evening and after dark. Strange black triangles (that are clearly not the Stealth Fighters and Bombers I saw growing up a few miles from their home at Whiteman AFB) and a large craft that sounded like a heavy helicopter but had no defined shape flying dangerously low and making repeated sharp, banking turns above my house with absolutely NO lights have been seen in just the last three months by my entire family and the entire neighborhood with no explanation (we were all standing outside staring up at it and were confused/frightened). We are less than 5 miles from what used to be an AFB, but is supposedly now closed except for military barracks and some large warehouse/shipping buildings. Despite its status there are still many military vehicles there at all times and Chinook helicopters fly over from that direction (very low) at all times of day and night, and we can easily identify several military fighters/ h! elicopters that are frequently seen in the area. That being said, we have no idea what some of these things are that we are seeing, but some of them shake the house but make no discernible noise.