An interesting sighting indeed.
But in the air, as you describe, it's a meteor. It's only a meteorite once its landed and recovered.
ie. You can't hold a meteor in your hand, but you can a meteorite
The bigger ones like you describe normally travel a lot slower due to more drag, and leave trails visible for a few minutes afterwards.
The real fast meteors are generally no bigger than a grain of sand, and come in at anything upwards of 15km/sec, and make no sound audible to the observer at all.
Regards,
Rob.