2014-06-05 - Rapid City, SD - Sphere

05/06/2014 Lights Over Rapid City, South Dakota

At 2132 hours on 06/05/2014 a group of six adults and one minor child, a group I was membered to for a bar-b-que, witnessed several extraordinary lights in the sky. I have no history of mental illness, do not drink alcohol nor do I used controlled substances. The following events concluded at 2243 hours on the same evening.

The first light showed up at 2132 and appeared to be a meteor entering the atmosphere from the eastern shy from Rapid City, SD. Initially, the light streak seemed to grow into a blue and white ball of light. The altitude of the light was no more than a 1000 feet and probably about 500 feet. It traveled due west at an impressive speed. Then, as it passed over head while I rapidly crossed the car park, with my eyes trained on the light, as to have a longer look, there was a loud pop that echoed off of the adjacent building. The light speed out of sight as I realized I could use my NOAA application to try to view the path on radar.

Using NOAA double Doppler, reflectivity loop, I tract the object as it passed over Idaho and into Oregon. At which point it fall below the radar's minimum ceiling making the landing within 20 miles of John Day, OR.

Within a minute of the meteor disappearing of or the radar another member of our bar-b-que party proclaimed, "What the hell is that?!" All seven of us came to him as he pointed into the sky, saying, "That's a ball of light!" I immediately retrieved my binoculars from my vehicle. Spotting the light with assistance, I observed the light traveling over Rapid City to the ENE in a weaving pattern. The altitude of this light was about 50,000 feet.

When this light vacated my binocular's ability to view, several jets were spotted in the SE sky over Rapid City by another member of our group. As I trained my binoculars on the jet I could see that it was a group of five F-14 fighter jets. Only the lead jet had its lights on. I told the others, "get your binoculars if you have them." Another member of our group did retrieve his binoculars in time to see the rapidly moving jets as they traversed the sky and out of our sight As the evening passed we noticed two other similar weaving light. All three appeared to be only large balls of light. No wings, no tails or noses were seen on the balls of light by the three of us with binoculars. That is in contract to the fighter jets that has clearly distinguishable noses, wings and tails to the point that two of us believed them to be F-14s.

At 2038 hrs., the last lights were seen. These lights were significantly different from the others in that they were groups of dim lights within the boundaries of slightly brighter lights. There were three triangular, formations of brighter lights that traveled slowly from south to north. Within the peripheral boundaries of each triangular pattern were 18 less blight balls of light that seemed to travel freely within the triangular, more brightly lit spheres' boundaries.

Suddenly, as unexpectedly as they appeared, they disappeared, as if a cloak had been engaged. There were no more lights as our party peered into the night's shy well into the morning.


((NUFORC Note: We have corrected the date above, to reflect a sighting on June 5th, 2014. PD))