FAA Radar Didn’t Pick Up the Object Pilots Saw
The pilots described a smooth object with no seams or control surfaces that passed within about two miles of their aircraft.
Two pilots reported a metallic object over Ohio that appeared on neither radar nor the aircraft’s collision-avoidance system. No straightforward explanation has been found.
Two pilots flying a private aircraft over the United States reported seeing a metallic object over Ohio, near a thunderstorm. They said it appeared to emerge from the clouds and move toward them. The object resembled a capsule, was oriented vertically, and had a smooth surface with no seams or control surfaces. It passed to the left of the aircraft, within about two miles (three kilometers), at an altitude of roughly 41,000 feet (12,500 meters).
What Radar Didn’t Pick Up
The pilots reported the incident to the National UFO Reporting Center, a private organization unaffiliated with the U.S. government. According to the center, the object did not appear on Federal Aviation Administration radar or on the aircraft’s collision-avoidance system. The center found no record of a balloon launch in the area. The FAA also received no alert.
Why It Might Not Have Been a Balloon
The center said the object may have been a balloon carried into the storm. But the pilots described an object about 30 feet (nine meters) tall that did not taper toward the top. A writer for the website LADbible argued that those features were inconsistent with a balloon. The investigation found no explanation for what the pilots saw.