Disk over Danville, VA
A witness account on file, unevaluated. Most of the archive rests here, and honestly so.
The report, as filed
Beautiful gold colored disk up close
Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center. Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.
Ask for the records
What would the paper say?
For a dated, located U.S. sighting, FAA radar data and ATC communications are the records most likely to exist. Through Aletheca, the house instrument, anyone can commission the request — filed, chased, and published in the open, refusals included. The draft goes over already written: the records sought, and the date window they would live in.
Routed to: Federal Aviation Administration · records window 1996-02-06 → 1996-02-23
From the same sky
Related entries
September 13, 2018 · 8:03 PM · DISK
Danville, VA
Could only see after photo was taken. Craft was disc shaped, gren/gray color, no sound, light from one end
June 17, 2017 · 11:30 PM · LIGHT
Danville, VA
2 lights in sky were flashing and rotating in counterclockwise direction. Lights seemed to be above clouds. No sound lights were greenish in color, they would blink about every quarter of the rotation. This went on for about 10 minutes. Then lights just vanished
March 23, 2017 · 2:00 PM · CIRCLE
Danville, VA
A large formation between 25 or 30 round or disc shaped silver objects flying at high speed.
January 13, 2016 · 6:20 AM · DIAMOND
Danville, VA
When I got back into town I called the police station. They said that the night shift, whom I talked with DID NOT leave any messages about a strange light. I thought, "that's crazy"! I then called the radio station and they gave me the same message. I thought if any one was outside! this morning, they would have seen this thing. As I watched it, I had the unusual feeling that it wanted to contact me. It scared me as I did not know what it's intentions were. Was it friendly, were they violent, etc.
May 31, 2015 · 8:00 PM · UNKNOWN
Danville, VA
This evening, my family and I went to Danville, Va, to watch a movie. Upon exiting the theater, my sister pointed out an extremely strange shadow beyond the clouds of a thunderstorm. The enclosed photos show details of an object with extremely sharp edges with protrusions. Judging by the shadow that was visible, I estimate the object to be the size of a Mountain if not larger. Several other patrons were exiting the theater at the same time and noticed the shadow cast on the sky. Once we got in our vehicles, we went to another location in the city to enjoy the afternoon sunset before the thunderstorm got to Danville. Again we observed the shadow. Once home while using Google earth, the direct line of distance to the second sighting location of the shadow is 2.66 miles. Using the Dan River as a sight tool and observing the radar display of the storm cell on the Weather Channel app, I was able to determine the cloud base to be between 10 to 15 miles west of our location. I have lived in extremely mountainous terrain and also visited nearly all major metropolitan cities in the US. With that being said, I have never observed such a shadow being cast in the sky during sunset by either of the two. There are no jagged mountain peaks such as you would think that would cast such a shadow in Virginia, only gently rolling hills. The highest point in Virginia is Mount Rogers at 5,729 feet above sea level. Mount Rogers is approximately 120 miles due west of the location of the second sighting. Again using Google earth, the direction of the shadow, the location of the storm cell, and using the river as a sight tool does no add up to any known land based objects being able to cast a shadow this high into the sky. Therefore, I concluded the object to be airborne and stationary. I also am able to rule out cloud formations as a cause due to not ever being able to recall a cloud produce such a pinpoint and exact shape across the sky. There were a total of 6 persons in my party who witnessed this anomaly. Their ages range from 13 to 55. The photos were taken by an Iphone 5s with HDR in the off, auto and on positions. The photos were taken just outside the theater. The time stamp indicated 20:04 on the first photo and 20:05 on the last. There were 8 photos of this on my phone when I downloaded them at home. I was unable to obtain photos from the second viewing site because I left my phone in the car to charge. Whatever it was, It was enormous.
October 24, 2014 · 7:15 PM · LIGHT
Danville, VA
I am a student pilot who, on the 24th, just after sunset, took off from KDAN (Danville Regional Airport) in Danville. VA, with my instructor, and flew southeast, possibly towards the town of Milton, for ten or so minutes. Aircraft flown was a PA28-181 Archer III under VFR. We continued flight for about a minute after leveling off at around 3500 feet MSL. Off the front of the aircraft, possibly around ten or so miles out, both my instructor and I saw what appeared to be a white light descending quickly (~1000' per second) for a period of about two seconds. It appeared to be transitioning through the same altitude as our aircraft. After two seconds had passed, it flared out as would ash from a cigarette falling to the floor. The skies were dark at the time so it was easy to see. It was not clear if it had flared out before making contact with the ground, or if it had disappeared into the trees. It may have either fallen somewhere in North Carolina, or on the NC/VA border. As for the light itself, it appeared to be a pure white color, nonchanging. From what I could tell, it didn't appear to be completely circular - I have vision corrected to 20/20 with glasses, but my eyes could have been playing tricks on me when it came to the shape of the object, due to flaws in observation or due to the fact that it was a ways out. My instructor called it "round."