The witness was flying on American Airlines flight 3996 Houston to Chicago at 2:30 p.m. on June 1, 2018.

“About halfway through the flight (over Missouri) I was photographing storm anvils for use as desktop wallpaper,” the witness stated. “Our flight was at about 36 to 38,000 feet. Immediately after taking three pictures in about 10 seconds, the craft appeared suddenly to the east of flight path at about 50,000 feet from nowhere as if some Star Trek ‘de-cloaking’ scene.”

The witness immediately took another photo of the craft.

“Three seconds later the craft went ballistic to the south and ascending. So fast that the track was almost imperceptible. From stationary to like light speed disappearance up and reverse of our flight path which would be south. Sun was west of our airplane and so was not causing a reflection or spot on window or lens of camera phone. Craft had a triangular shape to it and must have been very large as I had been watching out the window and observing airliners crossing our flight path for about an hour so was used to what winged planes looked like and how fast they would become visible and then pass out of view. Got used to the shape and look of normal airliners and this one that suddenly appeared in an area I had just been watching and photographing for the last few minutes. It had no time to have made its way into my field of view at normal speeds of 300 to 500 mph. Just appeared and after shooting it, I lowered the camera phone to observe with just my eyes and it suddenly went light speed ballistic at an angle which could only be up and reverse of our path. Was there for about three seconds and then shot out of the scene in less than a second.”

The witness has an aircraft background.

“I was a small craft pilot in my youth and worked at NASA for many years at JSC in Houston so have a fairly good experience base with things that fly and what looks materially manifest versus what is ghost imaging or reflective anomalies. Never seen or heard of anything like this in shape or performance. And, I knew many astronauts and test pilots during my tenure at NASA. As with many of these occurrences it happened so fast that I was lucky to capture anything at all and the picture is too blurry for me to accentuate it with Photoshop, so I am including the raw shot off of my camera unadulterated by me in any way. All of this happened in blue clear sky above cumulus clouds far below both craft.”

Missouri MUFON State Director Debbie Ziegelmeyer closed this case as an Unknown Aerial Vehicle.

Source: MUFON