Cigar over Mentor, OH
A witness account on file, unevaluated. Most of the archive rests here, and honestly so.
The report, as filed
7 cigar shapes over lake Erie
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 2010-10-25 → 2010-11-11
From the same sky
Related entries
February 3, 2023 · 5:25 PM · CIRCLE
Mentor, OH
A bright light was observed for a second and go directly up into a cloud. There was no noise or lights. Hard to discern the shape since it was a light going upward.
May 14, 2022 · 4:10 PM · RECTANGLE
Mentor, OH
Noticed a rectangle over the lake. Took a picture to zoom in and see what it was. The picture became blurred with a light. Took another picture and it appeared to have a shadow under it and appeared to be elevated over the water. As we were looking at the pictures and trying to figure out what it was, we looked up and it was gone. Took another picture and it appears there is a disturbance in the water and a fresh break in the clouds.
August 8, 2020 · 10:00 PM · CIRCLE
Mentor, OH
No processor! Circle of faint reddish glow traveling from south to north in the dark. It stopped then moved and stopped again and moved north bound. There was no noise or fast turns. It looked weird amongst the stars. I live near Lost Nation airport and know what planes look like at night and this was no plane. Just wanted you to check for satellites or air force doing tests? Please check as it was unusual and I can’t believe it.
January 2, 2020 · 7:00 PM · CIGAR
Mentor, OH
Approximately two weeks ago (today is 1/16/2020) my wife and I were traveling East on Route 2 in Mentor, Ohio (Northeast Ohio near Lake Erie) after dark approximately 7 PM. As we passed by the 615 exit, we both noticed that on the south side of the highway, our right, there looked like what we both thought was a low flying blimp just above the tree line. I kept my eye on it for about 10 seconds, then said to her, “hey look at that blimp, I wonder why that’s in town there are no sporting events or reasons to be around.” What we saw appeared to be a wide bank of lights that was white in the middle and Green on one end, and Red on the other end like normal aircraft markings. If I had to estimate size, I would say 20 feet wide or larger. I thought it was a blimp because the whole light panel was quite bright, and the object was slow moving or stationary. I can’t say if it was moving, or if it looked like it was moving because we were, but it was clearly very wel! l lit and low visible through the top of the trees. As we got near the Heisley Road exit, right when we would’ve been under it, the lights just turned off and we couldn’t see it anymore. The windows were up so I don’t know if there was sound, but when the lights went off, it was just gone, not flying around with the lights off. I thought it was strange because in my mind if it was a blimp, or low flying known craft, there is no way it’d be legal to be flying with lights off. There are a few local airports but this was not a plane that was on its way to land with extra lights on. I was going to just write this off as weird, but I’ve been hearing about similar “drone” sightings going on around the country so I decided this was now worth reporting. One detail I remember is that when the lights turned off, it was similar to when you turn off football stadium lights off. You could see them dim out over a few seconds rather than just immediately disappearing like an LED.
September 26, 2019 · 10:15 PM · LIGHT
Mentor, OH
4 small solid white lights, equidistant apart in a straight line, initially appeared to look like stars due to their high altitude but did not change shape or intensity. Skies were clear, no clouds in the vicinity. Lights appeared stationary at first with surrounding blue hue then began to move silently from east to southwest across the sky. As the lights began to move, the blue hue disappeared. Their speed increased rapidly and they disappeared in the distance within 4-5 seconds. Lights did not leave any kind of heat signature, smoke or vapor trail visible to the naked eye .
July 8, 2017 · 9:00 PM · SPHERE
Mentor, OH
I was on an evening walk not far from my house, when I turned in a westerly direction on a residential street. The time was around 21:00 hours EDT on the date of 7/08/2017. As I walked generally towards the west, I saw a dark, round object silhouetted against the still bright western sky. It appeared to be about 50 feet above the tree line at a heading of WNW from my location. It was motionless and emitted no lights or sound. It also appeared to be slightly wider than it was tall but was generally spherical in shape. It seemed to be about the size of one of my fingernails, held at arm’s length, from my perspective. The first thought that came to mind was that I was observing a large tethered balloon some unknown distance away. I also considered a kite but quickly dismissed that idea as there was barely a breeze and certainly not enough wind to keep a kite aloft. I continued to walk westerly as I observed the object for about 10-20 seconds before the tree line obscured my view. In that time, the object did not appear to move at all, but remained completely stationary. I continued to walk to the end of the street and turned northerly at an intersection. As I walked farther I tried to again observe the object through breaks in the tree line towards the west but to no avail. The object was now gone. This is the first time in my life I have ever seen an object in the sky that I could not identify. It did not appear to be a helicopter, plane or drone and (to reiterate) was completely silent. It appeared to be much too small to be a hot-air balloon, and I have never seen hot-air balloons floating over my neighborhood in the past 4-1/2 years I have lived here. Therefore, I am mystified as to what it was.