What happened
On January 5, 2000, at around four in the morning, a Highland resident reported a large, lighted object over his house to the police. The police passed the report on, and over the next several dozen minutes the object was seen by officers from Lebanon, Summerfield, Shiloh, Millstadt, and Dupo. They described a large, triangular or elongated object with bright white and red lights, flying very low and slowly and then suddenly accelerating. Its flight path passed near Scott Air Force Base. The case was investigated by ufologists from NIDS and by the media.
Witnesses
Five police officers from several towns in St. Clair and Madison Counties and the Highland resident who first reported the object.
Explanations and hypotheses
Scott Air Force Base denied conducting any unusual flights that night. Skeptics pointed out that the officers may have seen an ordinary airplane or bright stars through a frosted windshield and that the accounts reinforced each other through radio conversations. NIDS researchers, however, considered the accounts of the independent officers to be consistent. In the end, the case was never resolved.
Unexplained There is no convincing explanation.