Far more likely that the observer interpreted it the wrong way, happens all the time.
If they go straight thru the atmosphere and out then yes, that is exactly as they would appear.
Do meteors ever dip into the atmosphere, light up, and skip away? Like a skipping stone?
If the meteor has a shape that could generate lift in some way, I can definitely imagine this happening.
It's very unlikely but definitely possible. If the meteor is fast enough and targets outer earth atmosphere, it an enter outer atmosphere, slow down, light up due to friction, then escape earth atmosphere vertically. The only problem with this scenario is that meteor has to be much faster than Mach 2, unlike what pilots reported. But it's easily possible they saw a Mach 12 meteor and thought it's Mach 2.