2021-03-02 - Payette, ID - Flash

strobing red light moving slow then fast, witnessed by a police officer.

I am a police officer in the county listed in the form. On 03/02/21 at approx 0200 hours I was parked in my patrol car facing north. I noticed a blinking bright red light, it initially appeared to be the light of a cell phone tower, I then noticed the light was moving West to East towards Boise (approx. 45 miles away) at a steady slow speed initially speeding up as it went. The light was red only, there was no green or white that is typical on Helicopters. It was at the level close to what the medical helicopters fly, however it was not on the normal flight path and was flying from a rural area that does not have regular flights. The red light flashed at irregular patterns. It flashed slow and would be completely dark between flashes, then would blink faster till it looked as if it was a strobe, then slow again. I recorded the light from inside and outside my patrol car. There was no sound with it. It appeared to be only 1 to 1.5 miles away. from west to eas! t it took the light approx. 3 min to cover my full field of view. I then attempted to follow its path however in the time it took me to drive approx. 1 mile to an open view area, the light had traveled a significant distance and I had trouble following it. There are no regular flights of any aircraft in the area. There was not emergencies that required a medical helicopter in the area. It did not have the FAA lights.