Appearance / Description of Object(s)

It lloked like a silver ball/oval to me. About the size of a pea held at arms lenghth. It was very shiny and highly reflective of the sun which was above to our left.

Distance to Object(s) & Altitude

5,000 to 10,000 feet above us. Cannot be sure at all.

Description of Area / Surroundings

Over open farmland / dessert.

Full Description & Details

As I said, we were flying northwest at 43,000 feet somewhwere between Abilene, TX and Denver, CO. We had a view of the object for about two minutes. We were traveling at a speed of approx. 430 knots across the ground. The winds at our altitude were from the Southeast at 5 knots. The object came into view above and to the right. I estimated it to be between 45,000 and 50,000 feet. We were approaching it like you would slowly overtake a slower aircraft from behind going the same direction. I asked the controller if he had any traffic above us to our right, and he said "no, we were the only plane around at high altitude. He check to see if any ballons had been launched and said "that they were unaware of any for a large distance today." The other pilot and I thought it was an aircraft originally, but we did not see any wings. It appeared to be more of a silver highly reflective ball to me. We wrote it off as a weather balloon. The weird thing is that the light winds and a temp. of -61 degrees celsius were quite rare at this altitude especially for this time of year. The object as I said stayed with us for several minutes like over taking a slower plane. A weather balloon would not have been able to do this with a ground speed od 430-445 knots. The winds possibly could have been stronger at higher altitude, but it would have been a humongous difference from the winds at our altitude. This can and does happen, but it was smooth and no turbulence that would be usually associated with the wind shearing through the altitudes.

Can sighting be explained as any conventional man-made or natural object?

I thought it was a weather balloon until I got on the net and looked at pictures of them. When I Googled "silver weather balloon pics" it came up with the pics of a video over Venice, CA. That was exactly what I saw.

Witness Background

I am a college grad with a BA degree in Liberal Arts. I am a former and inactive reserve Army Artillery Officer with formal observer training from the military for reconaissance. I am a former airline pilot and now fly for a private company hauling owners around.

Views on UFOs, before and after sighting

I always thought they were a neat subject and believed that there is something out there, But I never thought I would see something like that. I've watched many shows on the subject,but had not thought about it for months. Especially when I thought I saw a balloon. It was erie when I saw that it probably was not a balloon.

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