Formation over Lakewood, OH
A witness account on file, unevaluated. Most of the archive rests here, and honestly so.
The report, as filed
Two sets of flashing lights over lake Erie in Cleveland.
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 2008-04-10 → 2008-04-27
From the same sky
Related entries
June 2, 2023 · 1:21 AM · DIAMOND
Lakewood, OH
The shape of the craft was triangular diamond shaped that had sharp edges. It was white, glowing, and soundless. It stayed the exacted speed with the exact height for the duration of its travel. It wasn’t going fast or slow maybe like 5-10 mph. The motion of it was unusual it was gliding but unnatural. Certainly something I haven’t seen before. We were in the pool swimming when I looked up and it emerge from the house and flew across to the end of garage then disappeared. It was a residential neighborhood near Lake Erie.
September 9, 2019 · 6:45 PM · CIGAR
Lakewood, OH
I would like to preface this account to state that everything happened so quickly that I can not say with complete certainty what I saw. The account below will be on the long side, but I am attempting to be clear in what I know for sure and what is a little hazy. The experience was very surprising and almost surreal. After thinking about the experience for the past week and talking with several people about it, I remain confident that what I saw is not explained by any object that I am aware of (bird, plane, helicopter, drone). In the early evening of Tuesday, September 19, 2019, I was out for a walk with my five-year old son. We were outside in part because there were thousands of dragonflies in our front yard and the yards nearby. I have never seen anything like that. When I got home from work, I had noticed quite a few flying around. Over the next hour or so, they became more and more numerous. Around 6:30pm, I took my son outside to see them. We then went for a walk down to Lake Erie. As we were walking back to our house, I kept looking around at the dragonflies which were everywhere. At 6:45pm (+/- 10 minutes), we were several hundred feet west of our house in a relatively open area. The sky was clear, with very few/no clouds. As I looked up in the sky, I saw a moving object in the south sky. I immediately noticed its very fast pace. I could not associate it with anything such as a plane, helicopter, or bird. My first thought was that it was a drone, based on its apparent size and distance away. We see small drones in the area from time to time, but they usually move somewhat erratically, slowly, and always seem to have blinking lights. As I tried to process what I was seeing, I realized that it was moving as if it was an arrow shot from a bow. There was absolutely no deviation from its course. I noticed no lights. The object appeared to me to be gray and elongated (in the direction of travel). I saw no exhaust or trails. I attempted to listen for a sound, but heard nothing discernible. When I first spotted the object, it was slightly east of due south. It was traveling east/north-east. I would say that it was at an angle of approximately 20 degrees above the horizon. There was no obvious change in its elevation during the time that I saw it. I followed its path until it disappeared from my view just north of due east. There are condo towers east of my neighborhood. They are approximately thirty stories tall. I lost sight of the object when it passed the towers and my sight of it was blocked. After it had passed, I tried to process what I had just seen. I sat down on a bench in our front yard with my son to continue watching the dragonflies. Approximately several minutes later (maybe more), I heard the noise of a large helicopter. Very soon a Chinook helicopter appeared from the east heading almost due west. We see one or often three Chinooks heading east or west out over Lake Erie (1000' north of our house) not infrequently. This one was probably less than 200' north of our house. I haven't seen one so close before. My son and I watched as it passed over, and I rushed to get my phone in camera mode. I was able to snap a photo of it when it was about to disappear behind some trees several hundred feet west of me. Since seeing this, I have tried to figure out what it was that I saw. The speed that it was moving was much greater than anything that I have seen before. I have watched the International Space Station pass over, and this traveled across the sky much, much quicker. My best estimate is that it traveled about two miles during the time that I saw it (5-10 sec...I can't be sure).
December 8, 2017 · 6:40 AM · UNKNOWN
Lakewood, OH
There is no spectacular story here, it's just that I cannot explain this red, pulsing light that I saw on my drive to work this morning. I pulled up to the stoplight to turn onto the highway on ramp, and noticed this red ball of light in the sky. It was high enough that it wasn't coming from a house or a building in the area. It had to be something in the sky. There are no poles nearby that could emit the light. There were no other colors. It was just one red ball of light, that just stayed in one spot. It was not an airplane because it did not travel. It was not a helicopter. It only had one red light, so it was not a pole that warns aircraft of low power lines and it wasn't a cell phone tower. I am familiar with this area in the day light which is why I cannot figure out what it was. As I turned on to the highway the light continued to pulse, in that same spot. I kept looking back over my shoulder to make sure I didn't see other colored lights or additional lights or movement- but I didn't. Witness elects to remain totally anonymous; provides no contact information. PD
August 15, 2015 · 10:42 PM · LIGHT
Lakewood, OH
Ooomfg!!! We were sitting on the front porch at 10:42 PM, Saturday night, 8/15/15, and watched this amber twinkling star like light move straight up from the tree tops (north western sky) up to the stars very quickly! Wow. It went straight up into the night sky into the stars and vanished. It seemed to start off slow then pick up speed as it kept going up to space. Twinkling like an amber star it appeared to have come up from trees in the distance as if it had landed somewhere in the north western part of Lakewood/Rocky River, Ohio, area. Then, it just went straight up, which is unnatural to any plane or helicopter movements. Did not have lights but twinkled like a star.
August 20, 2014 · 7:30 PM · OTHER
Lakewood, OH
While looking into the sky, they saw something weird and it started to move away but just floated. It was almost a bronze color with looked like pipes all over it but was not a drone and it changed shape. I have a couple of pictures with it.
October 10, 2011 · 9:00 PM · FIREBALL
Lakewood, OH
Orange light flies overhead and turns black as it passed silently.