January 10, 2026 • 13 mins
Guest host Connie Willis and an open lines caller recount his sighting of a UFO at close range while flying a hot air balloon.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now here's a highlight from coast to coast AM on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
So let's go to walkart line number two and talk
to Kevin out of the Montana Hi Kevin.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Hi Connie, how you doing.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
I'm good, I'm good.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Let's sing it in street tonight. TI on a UFO
siding that I'm pretty sure was in the top ten
of history. I'll get to the details real quick here.
I drove chase rig for a hot air balloon company
here in Tealispell, Montana, and we would always set up
(00:38):
in the early morning just as the sun was coming out,
because the wind would be the west amount for a
safe hot air balloon flight for our passengers. So we
set up it was the morning where it was the earliest,
like six am in the morning that the sun would
come up, and we had no wind. So we did
what's called an out of the bag INFLA and we
(01:00):
took up the basket to the hot air balloon and
then would pull a bag backwards to where then we
could as the inflation fan was blowing in the front
end of the balloon, we could button in the top
of the balloon. There's velcrow strips that you attached to
the parachute of the balloon. So we were set up
from the mouth end of the balloon to the north
(01:23):
and the sat end of the balloon, which was one
hundred and twenty cubic foot balloon one hundred and twenty
thousand typically carried five passengers and one pilot. And so
the pilot and I, he and I were buttoning in
the top with our backs to the south, and his
(01:45):
wife was at the front where the fan was on
the balloon while it was inflating. Then the passengers off
to the side. Five passengers, so eight witnesses total. Okay,
here goes So you get that feeling that something's kind
of behind you. So I turned back as we were
buttoning in and looked up and I went, holy cow,
(02:05):
cigar shaped, smooth, no seams could see our reflection on
the ground of us standing on the ground. Wow. The
pilot looks up and he goes, what the heck is that, keV,
And I said, it's what I've been telling you about
from exciting I had ten years prior, and this was
about fifteen years ago that this happened. And so his
(02:28):
wife comes around from the mouth of the balloon. She goes,
what do you guys, do we've got to get going here.
This is how low it was. If you think of
the fat end of the balloon being sixty foot inflated high,
and then when the balloon stood up, it was about
eighty five ninety feet high, but it wasn't yet to
the stand up stage. So she comes around the side
(02:49):
of the balloon and says, you guys got to speed
it up. We've got to get going here before the
wind picks up. And she looks up and she goes,
what the herck is up? And so I'm going to
describe it now, cigar shaped, kind of like school bus
windows all down the side of it. No scenes, because
I was looking for details as smooth as if you
blew up one of those elongated balloons for a birthday party.
(03:14):
Zero noise, low enough that we could literally all agreed
to throw a rock underhanded and hit the bottom of it,
oh and watch it in awe. And of course five
other passengers, which are on the other side of the
balloon where the fan is, you're looking up at it too.
And so it approached us that I would say, two
(03:36):
to three miles an hour a slow walking speed turns
over the top of the balloon and we're all just
watching it quietly, just watching it turns ninety degrees to
the left, and this is taking about two minutes. We
had two minutes to watch this thing. And then ninety
degrees to the left, departs at about two to three
(03:57):
miles an hour, and then boom, like a bullet from
a gun. Gone that quick. I'm going to fast forward
to about three months from now, because this was fifteen
years ago. I worked at one of the largest grocery
store chains in the USA. The Blue pilot and his wife,
who we've been good friends that occasionally out of contact,
(04:18):
walked in the front door and I'm in my uniform
and I said, I gotta just straight forward to this
question to you guys. I said, I didn't dream any
of this, did I? And his wife goes, oh no,
she goes. Paul talks about this almost every night about
holy cow, how lucky we were to get that close
a sighting for that long. So yeah, this is this
(04:39):
is going to go down As in my opinion, I
know a lot of the UFO sidings out there, this
wasn't one of those saw light in the distance and
this and that right we could see our reflection, and
it was mirror like Connie. It was just like looking
at the smooth mirror. No rivet, no schemes, no market
lights like on aviation of dreaming on the left and right.
(05:02):
It was just there and close snuck up behind us
as we buttoned in the top of the balloon. Then
we finally, after it lessened, let's keep going with the
balloon flight, stood the balloon up, did our usual pictures
that we do just before the balloon takes off, and
then we trim them for the passengers so that when
we pick them up they have pictures to remember the
balloon flight by. So yeah, and we're about just to
(05:24):
put a geographical want at about thirty miles from Glacier
National Park. So yeah, I wanted to share that with you. Wow,
Like I said, this is a validated known eight witnesses,
very low down siding. My personal impression at the time
because it was a very peaceful thing. It didn't scare
(05:45):
any of us. My dad had passed away not too
long ago, and they had lost their daughter in an
automobile accident. So my personal immediate thought that hit was,
I guess they're looking out one of those school bes
like lengthy windows looking to see what mom and dad
are up to you because she used to help on
the hot air balloon flights before I helped him out
(06:07):
as a friend of that. So yep, you were the
first to hear it.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Oh wow, and that's interesting your thought there. Let me
let me ask this thank you. First of all. That's
that's amazing. You know, these types of things happen all
over the place. I even kid Jim Penson. I'm like,
you know, you're you're you're in the military. This is
a big deal. It all came out, you know, but
but we know that these things happen all over You
can attest to that as well a couple of times.
(06:34):
So were you able to look through the windows?
Speaker 3 (06:38):
No, it was it was it. It was, like I said,
kind of above us. So I could only see that
there were windows, and they were like smooth. They weren't
like a school bus window per se. I'm defining that
for a person to realize that there was like one
after the other after the other after the other. It
wasn't like they had a slider up and down like
old fashioned school windows. That it was cigar shaped and
(07:02):
it didn't have like anything like a vertical or horizontal
stabilizer as I would think of in my private pilot
training years and stuff. So I mean it was just smooth.
It didn't have any glow out of the bottom of it,
didn't make any noises or anything like that, and the
balloon pilot and his life were complete zero believers in UFOs.
(07:23):
Now we're like, oh, yeah, that's right, because, like I said,
I wanted to hook up with and you know, a
little further down the road, and they walked right in
the grocery store I worked at. And I said, first question,
before we even talk about my daughter that used to
fly the KSE ten in the Air Force recently, I said,
did we all see that? And they're like, oh, yeah, sure, yeah,
(07:47):
so that's that's the first releasing of this kiddo.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Well, I appreciate that. How long was it? How wide
was it? How high was I I would.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Say, approximately the length of the balloon or hot air
balloon laying down that was on its side inflating, so
about ninety foot in length, probably thirty five foot in heights.
It was good size, and probably thirty five foot across
(08:17):
to a in a very cigar shape, just like if
you blew up with your mouth one of those long
party balloons like for a birthday, like the clown, and
like very mirror like we could see the three of
us on the ground looking up at it, just like
in a smooth glass mirror. We could look up and
(08:38):
see ourselves on the ground in the in the mirror
part of the UFO.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
So when it left, how did it leave again?
Speaker 3 (08:47):
So it was coming from the south as we were
buttoning in the velcrove. It's called the parachute and the
hot air balloon. It then slowly turned ninety degrees so
we could see the tail end of it is it
left too, and then left for the first city block.
It probably two to three miles an hour, the same
speed it snuck up on us from behind us. So
(09:11):
it left at about two to three miles an hour
for the distance of a city block. And then after
that we kept watching it just boom like a bullet
from a gun gone. So in other words, we got
a very close, very slow over at two minute time period.
I mean, this wasn't like five seconds or anything. This
was two minutes to watching it. And I remember thinking,
(09:32):
you know, I got my phone in my pocket and stuff,
and I thought Nope, Casi, this is a one or
two second siding. Waste that time. I'm gonna go for
detailed so I can describe it. And I did, and
we did.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Yeah, I'm glad you did that. It's you know, when
you fumble around to get your phone forget it, you've
lost sight of it. You know, you got to enjoy
that moment yourself.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Yeah, and that was my thought. I thought, you know,
if others don't see it, that's one thing. There's eight
of us that do get us see it. And I'm
going to try attention to details. So yet, no rivets,
no steams, as smooth and glass like as you could
ask for.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
And when it took off, did it go did it
go in a straight manner like the cigar shape it was,
or it lifts straight up?
Speaker 3 (10:17):
No, was in a straight manner, just very like a
bullet out of a gun. Like I said, came from
the back, pivoted over top of us, very slow, approached
at two to three miles an hour walking speed, made
the ninety degree turn perpendicular to the left of the
fat end of the hot air balloon, and then departed
(10:39):
at two to three miles an hour for about a
city block and then just shot like a bullet from
a gun after that, and we just sat there with
our jaws down, and then we were like, okay, inflation
fan is still running. Let's get this thing going right.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Yeah. Yeah, you got to keep on going right. You
just got to keep a living life. So did you
get vibe at all? Were they Did you get any vibe?
I guess that they were looking at you.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
My vibe was definitely like I said that possibly my
dad was on it looking down to see what his
son was up to, and that their daughter was possibly
on it looking down. It was very peaceful. There was
no fear at all. I definitely didn't get a feel
like we were going to get beamed on board or
anything like that. It was like it definitely knew we
(11:27):
were there, came to see us, approached slow and calmly
and peacefully. I mean there was no weird noise like
yin y or anything. It was just very peaceful, and
then made sure that we thought very good with the
ninety degree, turned to the left two and then like
I said, slowly departed for a city block distance and
(11:47):
then too just like a bullet from a gun gone.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Thank you so much for sharing that. That's excellent. Thank you, Kevin,
have a good twenty twenty six. Wow, that's a great story.
Those that stuff happens a lot and a lot of
times the story never gets to you, the encounter, the
witness the witnesses may never even tell it to anybody
(12:15):
else again, because that happens a lot too. There's a
lot of people that see things and they never ever
tell it or it's never reported, and it just happens
all the time. And you know, a lot of a
lot of you you just got to look up to sometimes.
I mean, they're not always a light in the sky
far far away. I'm I'm I'm definitely with Kevin on
(12:39):
that one. It's like, okay, another light in the sky,
I got you. But when it's close down and it's
right there with you and they said they could like
throw a rock underhanded and could hit it, Oh man,
that's excellent, and that many people that got to enjoy
seeing that. It's just a rare thing. But always look up,
you know, always look up and look around and kind
(13:03):
of feel the vibe that's around you, because if you're looking,
if you're literally looking, it seems to happen more. It's
that communication of i'm open to it, I'm okay, and
that happens especially out in the woods, so keep that
in mind.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Listen to more Coast to Coast AM every weeknight at
one am Eastern, and go to Coast to coastam dot
com for more
Now here's a highlight from coast to coast AM on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
So let's go to walkart line number two and talk
to Kevin out of the Montana Hi Kevin.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Hi Connie, how you doing.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
I'm good, I'm good.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Let's sing it in street tonight. TI on a UFO
siding that I'm pretty sure was in the top ten
of history. I'll get to the details real quick here.
I drove chase rig for a hot air balloon company
here in Tealispell, Montana, and we would always set up
(00:38):
in the early morning just as the sun was coming out,
because the wind would be the west amount for a
safe hot air balloon flight for our passengers. So we
set up it was the morning where it was the earliest,
like six am in the morning that the sun would
come up, and we had no wind. So we did
what's called an out of the bag INFLA and we
(01:00):
took up the basket to the hot air balloon and
then would pull a bag backwards to where then we
could as the inflation fan was blowing in the front
end of the balloon, we could button in the top
of the balloon. There's velcrow strips that you attached to
the parachute of the balloon. So we were set up
from the mouth end of the balloon to the north
(01:23):
and the sat end of the balloon, which was one
hundred and twenty cubic foot balloon one hundred and twenty
thousand typically carried five passengers and one pilot. And so
the pilot and I, he and I were buttoning in
the top with our backs to the south, and his
(01:45):
wife was at the front where the fan was on
the balloon while it was inflating. Then the passengers off
to the side. Five passengers, so eight witnesses total. Okay,
here goes So you get that feeling that something's kind
of behind you. So I turned back as we were
buttoning in and looked up and I went, holy cow,
(02:05):
cigar shaped, smooth, no seams could see our reflection on
the ground of us standing on the ground. Wow. The
pilot looks up and he goes, what the heck is that, keV,
And I said, it's what I've been telling you about
from exciting I had ten years prior, and this was
about fifteen years ago that this happened. And so his
(02:28):
wife comes around from the mouth of the balloon. She goes,
what do you guys, do we've got to get going here.
This is how low it was. If you think of
the fat end of the balloon being sixty foot inflated high,
and then when the balloon stood up, it was about
eighty five ninety feet high, but it wasn't yet to
the stand up stage. So she comes around the side
(02:49):
of the balloon and says, you guys got to speed
it up. We've got to get going here before the
wind picks up. And she looks up and she goes,
what the herck is up? And so I'm going to
describe it now, cigar shaped, kind of like school bus
windows all down the side of it. No scenes, because
I was looking for details as smooth as if you
blew up one of those elongated balloons for a birthday party.
(03:14):
Zero noise, low enough that we could literally all agreed
to throw a rock underhanded and hit the bottom of it,
oh and watch it in awe. And of course five
other passengers, which are on the other side of the
balloon where the fan is, you're looking up at it too.
And so it approached us that I would say, two
(03:36):
to three miles an hour a slow walking speed turns
over the top of the balloon and we're all just
watching it quietly, just watching it turns ninety degrees to
the left, and this is taking about two minutes. We
had two minutes to watch this thing. And then ninety
degrees to the left, departs at about two to three
(03:57):
miles an hour, and then boom, like a bullet from
a gun. Gone that quick. I'm going to fast forward
to about three months from now, because this was fifteen
years ago. I worked at one of the largest grocery
store chains in the USA. The Blue pilot and his wife,
who we've been good friends that occasionally out of contact,
(04:18):
walked in the front door and I'm in my uniform
and I said, I gotta just straight forward to this
question to you guys. I said, I didn't dream any
of this, did I? And his wife goes, oh no,
she goes. Paul talks about this almost every night about
holy cow, how lucky we were to get that close
a sighting for that long. So yeah, this is this
(04:39):
is going to go down As in my opinion, I
know a lot of the UFO sidings out there, this
wasn't one of those saw light in the distance and
this and that right we could see our reflection, and
it was mirror like Connie. It was just like looking
at the smooth mirror. No rivet, no schemes, no market
lights like on aviation of dreaming on the left and right.
(05:02):
It was just there and close snuck up behind us
as we buttoned in the top of the balloon. Then
we finally, after it lessened, let's keep going with the
balloon flight, stood the balloon up, did our usual pictures
that we do just before the balloon takes off, and
then we trim them for the passengers so that when
we pick them up they have pictures to remember the
balloon flight by. So yeah, and we're about just to
(05:24):
put a geographical want at about thirty miles from Glacier
National Park. So yeah, I wanted to share that with you. Wow,
Like I said, this is a validated known eight witnesses,
very low down siding. My personal impression at the time
because it was a very peaceful thing. It didn't scare
(05:45):
any of us. My dad had passed away not too
long ago, and they had lost their daughter in an
automobile accident. So my personal immediate thought that hit was,
I guess they're looking out one of those school bes
like lengthy windows looking to see what mom and dad
are up to you because she used to help on
the hot air balloon flights before I helped him out
(06:07):
as a friend of that. So yep, you were the
first to hear it.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Oh wow, and that's interesting your thought there. Let me
let me ask this thank you. First of all. That's
that's amazing. You know, these types of things happen all
over the place. I even kid Jim Penson. I'm like,
you know, you're you're you're in the military. This is
a big deal. It all came out, you know, but
but we know that these things happen all over You
can attest to that as well a couple of times.
(06:34):
So were you able to look through the windows?
Speaker 3 (06:38):
No, it was it was it. It was, like I said,
kind of above us. So I could only see that
there were windows, and they were like smooth. They weren't
like a school bus window per se. I'm defining that
for a person to realize that there was like one
after the other after the other after the other. It
wasn't like they had a slider up and down like
old fashioned school windows. That it was cigar shaped and
(07:02):
it didn't have like anything like a vertical or horizontal
stabilizer as I would think of in my private pilot
training years and stuff. So I mean it was just smooth.
It didn't have any glow out of the bottom of it,
didn't make any noises or anything like that, and the
balloon pilot and his life were complete zero believers in UFOs.
(07:23):
Now we're like, oh, yeah, that's right, because, like I said,
I wanted to hook up with and you know, a
little further down the road, and they walked right in
the grocery store I worked at. And I said, first question,
before we even talk about my daughter that used to
fly the KSE ten in the Air Force recently, I said,
did we all see that? And they're like, oh, yeah, sure, yeah,
(07:47):
so that's that's the first releasing of this kiddo.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Well, I appreciate that. How long was it? How wide
was it? How high was I I would.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Say, approximately the length of the balloon or hot air
balloon laying down that was on its side inflating, so
about ninety foot in length, probably thirty five foot in heights.
It was good size, and probably thirty five foot across
(08:17):
to a in a very cigar shape, just like if
you blew up with your mouth one of those long
party balloons like for a birthday, like the clown, and
like very mirror like we could see the three of
us on the ground looking up at it, just like
in a smooth glass mirror. We could look up and
(08:38):
see ourselves on the ground in the in the mirror
part of the UFO.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
So when it left, how did it leave again?
Speaker 3 (08:47):
So it was coming from the south as we were
buttoning in the velcrove. It's called the parachute and the
hot air balloon. It then slowly turned ninety degrees so
we could see the tail end of it is it
left too, and then left for the first city block.
It probably two to three miles an hour, the same
speed it snuck up on us from behind us. So
(09:11):
it left at about two to three miles an hour
for the distance of a city block. And then after
that we kept watching it just boom like a bullet
from a gun gone. So in other words, we got
a very close, very slow over at two minute time period.
I mean, this wasn't like five seconds or anything. This
was two minutes to watching it. And I remember thinking,
(09:32):
you know, I got my phone in my pocket and stuff,
and I thought Nope, Casi, this is a one or
two second siding. Waste that time. I'm gonna go for
detailed so I can describe it. And I did, and
we did.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Yeah, I'm glad you did that. It's you know, when
you fumble around to get your phone forget it, you've
lost sight of it. You know, you got to enjoy
that moment yourself.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Yeah, and that was my thought. I thought, you know,
if others don't see it, that's one thing. There's eight
of us that do get us see it. And I'm
going to try attention to details. So yet, no rivets,
no steams, as smooth and glass like as you could
ask for.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
And when it took off, did it go did it
go in a straight manner like the cigar shape it was,
or it lifts straight up?
Speaker 3 (10:17):
No, was in a straight manner, just very like a
bullet out of a gun. Like I said, came from
the back, pivoted over top of us, very slow, approached
at two to three miles an hour walking speed, made
the ninety degree turn perpendicular to the left of the
fat end of the hot air balloon, and then departed
(10:39):
at two to three miles an hour for about a
city block and then just shot like a bullet from
a gun after that, and we just sat there with
our jaws down, and then we were like, okay, inflation
fan is still running. Let's get this thing going right.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Yeah. Yeah, you got to keep on going right. You
just got to keep a living life. So did you
get vibe at all? Were they Did you get any vibe?
I guess that they were looking at you.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
My vibe was definitely like I said that possibly my
dad was on it looking down to see what his
son was up to, and that their daughter was possibly
on it looking down. It was very peaceful. There was
no fear at all. I definitely didn't get a feel
like we were going to get beamed on board or
anything like that. It was like it definitely knew we
(11:27):
were there, came to see us, approached slow and calmly
and peacefully. I mean there was no weird noise like
yin y or anything. It was just very peaceful, and
then made sure that we thought very good with the
ninety degree, turned to the left two and then like
I said, slowly departed for a city block distance and
(11:47):
then too just like a bullet from a gun gone.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Thank you so much for sharing that. That's excellent. Thank you, Kevin,
have a good twenty twenty six. Wow, that's a great story.
Those that stuff happens a lot and a lot of
times the story never gets to you, the encounter, the
witness the witnesses may never even tell it to anybody
(12:15):
else again, because that happens a lot too. There's a
lot of people that see things and they never ever
tell it or it's never reported, and it just happens
all the time. And you know, a lot of a
lot of you you just got to look up to sometimes.
I mean, they're not always a light in the sky
far far away. I'm I'm I'm definitely with Kevin on
(12:39):
that one. It's like, okay, another light in the sky,
I got you. But when it's close down and it's
right there with you and they said they could like
throw a rock underhanded and could hit it, Oh man,
that's excellent, and that many people that got to enjoy
seeing that. It's just a rare thing. But always look up,
you know, always look up and look around and kind
(13:03):
of feel the vibe that's around you, because if you're looking,
if you're literally looking, it seems to happen more. It's
that communication of i'm open to it, I'm okay, and
that happens especially out in the woods, so keep that
in mind.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Listen to more Coast to Coast AM every weeknight at
one am Eastern, and go to Coast to coastam dot
com for more
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