immediately after he landed:

As it [the light] approached the city from the east it started a
left turn. I started to intercept. During the first part of the chase
the closest I got to the light was 8 to 10 miles. At this time it
appeared to be as large as an SNJ and had a greenish tail that looked
to be five to six times as long as the light's diameter. This tail
was seen several times in the next 10 minutes in periods of from 5 to
30 seconds each. As I reached 10,000 feet it appeared to be at 15,000
feet and in a left turn. It took 40 degrees of bank to keep the nose
of my plane on the light. At this time I estimated the light to be in
a 10-to-15-mile orbit.

At 12,000 feet I stopped climbing, but the light was still climbing
faster than I was. I then reversed my turn from left to right and the
light also reversed. As I was not gaining distance, I held a steady
course south trying to estimate a perpendicular between the light and
myself. The light was moving north, so I turned north. As I turned,
the light appeared to move west, then south over the base. I again
tried to intercept but the light appeared to climb rapidly at a 60-
degree angle. It climbed to 35,000 feet, then started a rapid descent.

Prior to this, while the light was still at approximately 15,000
feet, I deliberately placed it between the moon and myself three
times to try to identify a solid body. I and my two crewmen all had a
good view of the light as it passed the moon. We could see no solid
body. We considered the fact that it might be an aerologist's
balloon, but we did not see a silhouette. Also, we would have rapidly
caught up with and passed a balloon.