CaseFireball1997

Iola, IL, USA

((HOAX??)) A massive flaming/glowing eyeball floats by then min later a streak of light from space making a 60* angle above us.

Report quality: Low21/100

This score reflects report-quality signals on file — how complete, corroborated, and precisely located the report is — not a claim about whether the sighting was a real craft.

  • Duration parsed: 900s, a plausible sighting length
  • Moderate witness text (116 characters)
  • Location geocoded exactly
  • No other reports from this city within 3 days
  • Summary contains a HOAX marker
When
1997-12-15
Where
Iola, IL, USA
Shape
Fireball
Duration
10to20min
Geo
38.834, -88.628 · exact
Slug
fireball-over-iola-il-1997-5630de
Wave

Part of a wave

  • Historical wave1997

    The Phoenix Lights

    Arizona, USA (Phoenix–Prescott–Tucson corridor)

    The largest mass sighting in modern U.S. history — actually two events: an enormous silent V of lights (many insisted one solid craft blotting out stars) crossing the state around 8pm, and a string of stationary lights…

In context

  • This is one of 2 reports logged in Iola, IL.
  • This case is one of 55 Illinois reports filed in 1997.
  • Fireball craft made up 6.8% of 1990s reports, vs 6.9% across the whole archive.

Report

Full narrative lands with dossier import for famous cases, or the NUFORC free-text summary above for standard reports. This shell is SSR-ready: one D1 row (including connections_json) per page.