SUBJECT: MO. INCIDENTS, 3/90                                 FILE: UFO2171

PART 2



Ken Geest #1 @3466
Sun Mar 18 09:58:56 1990

                   White Flash Over St. Louis Likely Meteor

     A "spectacular" white flash in the Southern sky --that some experts said
could be a burning satellite or more likely a meteor--was seen by many St.
Louis area residents shortly after 9:30 PM Saturday MArch 17,1990.
     Police and the National Weather Service at Lambert Field reported many
calls of the sighting, which has been reported as far away as California.
Officals in Randolph County, Ill. and at Scott Air Force Base near Belleville
said they also had gotten several calls.
     "It appeared first as a glowing orange ball for maybe a third of a 
second, due south and moving rapidly across the sky. Then there was a 
spectacular bright flash," said Stan Waxelman of Maplewood, Mo. who saw the
object as he was unloading groceries form his car.
     Byron Clemens of Richmond Heights, Mo. was in Ladue, Mo. when he saw the
fireworks-like phenomenon about the same time in the southern sky. "It was 
incredibly bright -- as if someone was pointing a flashlight at you. I've
seen a lot of meteorites never anything like this," Clemens said.
     John Feldt, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said the
object may have been debris from a satellite burning up as it re-entered the
atmosphere. Two such incidents occurred in 1988 and were seen throughout the 
United States. However, Feldt thought it more likely that it was a meteor.
     Based on the accounts of people who had called the weather service, the
object appeared to be moving faster than a falling satellite, he said. Some
people told Feldt that they heard a sonic boom and felt the ground shake, he 
said. "This was definitely something real," he said, "What it was, I can't tell
you."
     A spokesman for the North American Defense Command, which tracks objects
in space from Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Sprintgs, Colo., said the
lights didn't result from bits of a satellite or other man made debris falling
through the atmosphere.
     "We are quite confident it is not caused by the re-entry of a man made
objects," said Maj. Dick Adams, NORAD spokesman.


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