Various witnesses, including a police officer, the postmaster of Montoya, and the newspaper editor of the Tucumcari Daily News, saw a contrail-like yellow-amber-orange object, length/width ratio 5:1,1/6 moon's diameter, slowly moving from south to west at about 45°-60° elevation, wiggling slightly, at first in a vertical orientation, dived steeply-leveled-climbed two to three times, reversed course once at top of a climb, a bright glitter of white light at a leveling off. No sound or trail.

AFOSI Summary:

Time: 1800 1805; Number of Observers: 1; Reliability: unknown; Area: Tucumcari, New Mexico; Direction: East to west; Altitude: high in sky - app 30° above horizon; Color: amber; Train: none; Duration: 25 minutes; Sound: none; Shape: long and narrow; Disappearance: faded out in distance.

Timeline: 18:00 - a contrail-like yellow-amber-orange object; 18:00-18:05 - amber colored, long and narrow object faded out in distance; 10:15 - bright orange, long and narrow object faded in distance; 18:00 - orange object about the size of C-47 at 10,000 feet.

Google map of this location.