Light over Salem, MA
A witness account on file, unevaluated. Most of the archive rests here, and honestly so.
The report, as filed
Three orbiting lights visualized in western sky over Salem, MA.
Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center. Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.
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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 2013-10-02 → 2013-10-19
From the same sky
Related entries
August 20, 2021 · 7:58 PM · DISK
Salem, MA
On the night of Friday, 8/20/2021 at 7:58 pm, I was walking toward downtown Salem, after taking pictures of the beautiful sunset and (almost full) moon. I just happened to look up to my left (in the northeast direction; almost subconsciously knowing/sensing something was there, but had no other reason to look up) which is ironically, in the direction of the Salem power plant, I see almost a seemingly small, black disk/saucer type object, slowly moving toward the power plant, (where the first, original report was sighted on 7/16/1952, 69 years ago, almost to the day; I surprisingly had no knowledge of this sighting prior to this current experience, and weirdly enough, a few days days later while watching a show on TV, it happened to mention/discuss and inform me of that 1952 Salem sighting, by US Coastguardsmen) as it seems to be slowly descending down toward that area/shoreline. In my video, you can only hear a few cars passing by, as I’m walking down a main street (Bridge St in Salem, I’m also taking a left turn onto Lathrop St, while passing through the parking lot of the business of Brake and Clutch) there seemed to be almost a eerie silence, as I’m watching this black object passing by in the sky, mesmerized. As mentioned before, it was black in color, which had no lights, and can’t really make out the outline of the object, other than it looked a black disk/saucer/sphere. Also, as earlier mentioned, didn’t seem to be making any noise; it didn’t look like a plane, helicopter, or drone, and didn’t seem to have any recognizable features on it, like you would see and/or hear. The Beverly Airport is in the opposite direction (in the northwest direction), as well as Boston’s Logan Airport (in the southeast direction) and where this object is heading, there is nowhere for anything to land in that area due to the ocean and power plant being there. As this object is descending, right before it reaches the tree line and seemingly goes out of sight and “disappears”, the object seems to be turning onto it’s side, where it looks like it might be rotating in a way. It also left no condensation/“chem” trail or eminence of the object, like a plane would. I stood around in disbelief, trying to f! ind the object after it disappeared (at least from my view), as if it may have just vanished or descend into the water. This experience was less than a minute long, and strangely as if the object noticed me videoing it, seemed to pick up speed a bit, and started to turn/rotate onto its side, and head toward the water/plant, almost looking like it was still rotating, after I lost view of it, behind the tree line. . As mentioned before, I never saw the object again. I stood around for maybe a minute or two, trying to locate it, then continuing to walk down Lathrop St, in the direction where the object seemed to head toward and/or maybe land. A few things that stood out the most during this event was the fact that it seemed to be turning onto its side and continue rotating, that it was completely silent, and the object seemed to be smaller than a regular “craft”, which had no recognizable features that I could make out, other than it looked like a small, black, seemingly rota! ting saucer-type shape, that descended out of sight, either in! to the w ater/somehow “land” by the power plant/or disappearing altogether. I also read in the earlier reports from this site this month, that on 8/1/2021, around 10pm, in Beverly (where I live and the northern neighboring town over, which is connected by a bridge) had a sighting there, a little bit over 2 weeks before my sighting. I love taking pictures, and always take nature/sky gazing shots. Recently, even though I don’t have the photographic evidence, I have been noticing some weird, flashing (and not flashing) bright lights in the sky, both during the day/night. I was always confused and bewildered by them, and just discounting them as something else, assuming that there was some type of explanation for it. Now, this experience has me so blown away by what I saw in my video, and I keep rewatching it to see if I notice anything else I missed, try and make out exactly what the object is or what it could be. Lately, there also has been very unusual weather patterns; spectacular sunrises/sunsets, strange/ominous looking clouds, bad storms, and som! ewhat rare and amazing views of the moon (in all its phases; it was almost a full moon that night, with the actual full moon being a few days later, but otherwise still spectacular), and wondering if it was maybe the reason why the “craft” was there, also sky gazing like I was previously, or if there even is a reason at all. In conclusion, I am basically still in awe of what I witnessed and captured on video, trying to make sense of what exactly I saw. Obviously, I would be super excited and elated if this really was a UFO, like I believe it is.
November 23, 2020 · 4:00 PM · SPHERE
Salem, MA
At 4pm I saw 3 orbs, white in color over the Salem Ma DPW building. Two were flying side by side, the other was swooping around them at sharp angles that do not seem possible for a helicopter to perform. The grouped two, meanwhile were flying as if they were racing, one constantly overtaking the other, and the other responding in kind. After around 5 minutes the two of them disappeared behind the clouds. The third was quick to follow.
September 24, 2019 · 9:22 PM · FORMATION
Salem, MA
I was located on the roof deck bar of the Salem hotel. I arrived there approximately at 21:15 hrs with my wife and a friend. Upon settling in at the bar and waiting for our first order of drinks of the night. I noticed 5 lights off in the distance. They were rounding a telecommunications tower off in the distance. At first I thought it might have been aircraft lining up going towards Logan international airport, but after observing them for sometime the lights were just hanging there not moving, and after several mins they began to move. I asked several people there that night if that was a normal occurrence. The two bar tenders and waiting staff replied no, it was the first time they had ever seen something like that. The lights began to move off in another direction and towards the ground were they were not visible anymore. If this was a flight pattern for landing air craft there should have been more coming in intervals, but have after these lights were g! one there were no more lights that came. From my vantage point I believe the lights were near Swampscott, Ma, and the Salem, Ma. Roughly seven mins after being there I took a picture of these lights, and then they began to move, but they were going very slow, not like an ordinary planes flight path that should have looked quicker even at the distance that I was at. This stuck with me and I wanted to check and see if there were any other reports of these lights and I came across your website. I have seen many things, I am month away from my contract ending with the military and I am Staff Sergeant I’m the Army. I am aware of the way aircraft work and act during observation Wether fixed wing or rotary. I also should mention there were no visible indication lights, the normal red-green blinking lights, nor were there any landing lights. What I am describing can be viewed on any aircraft. These lights did not fit that description. They looked like white balls of lights.
October 28, 2017 · 4:27 AM · TRIANGLE
Salem, MA
I saw 2 unusual bright lights in the sky. As i was studying the lights a 3rd craft flew directly into my direction and over my car at a super low altitude. I did not hear a sound and it had 6 super bright lights however it did not light the ground below it. It was SUPER fast , I repeat, this craft made no sound. At this point i lost sight of the original 2 craft on the horizon. I am an aircraft mechanic. I know of NO type of silent aircraft. I also am located on Logans approach, so I see a lot of traffic but not from the south heading north.
August 14, 2017 · 9:30 PM · LIGHT
Salem, MA
Saw a a light start glowing bright blue then suddenly vanish.
September 27, 2015 · 9:56 PM · TRIANGLE
Salem, MA
I was outside the university watching the blood moon/super moon. There were over 50 students present watching the moon. It was still in the process of being covered since it was only about 10 pm. I am a loner so I went to watch it alone on one of the benches meanwhile everyone else was sitting around 150 feet from me. There were 2 girls sitting on the other bench near mine to my left. Everyone was preoccupied in their chatter and I was cold and bored with nothing much to do so I kept looking around. The moon was to the right and so were the big crowd of students. However when I looked to the left a very large aircraft went by. I couldn't believe what I was seeing since I have lived near the airport for 18 years and am very aware how aircrafts look and could easily identify them at night. This was different though since it was triangular in shape and upon closer inspection it was made of a black metallic object. I thought I may be overexagerating which is why I I spoke up and asked the girl next to me if she thought the plane looked odd. I pointed the plane out to her and she agreed that it was in fact unlike anything she has seen before. I had my IPad in hand since I was taking pictures of the moon and quickly took pictures of the object. At the same time I was focusing on the sound it was sort of whizzing but it made no sense because there was no way you could hear an airplane in Salem. It was a hard sound to make out because of the loud chatter and laughing of the students. It was going too fast my camera couldn't focus so I tried to do the best I could go get one picture that could at least make out the light formation that I was seeing. Although I could see the plane in decent detail my camera only picked up five lights in a triangular formation. The sort of formation that birds use when migrating. I could only get two pictures in poor quality because of how quickly it had happened. I presume no one else saw it since there was no one freaking out like me or the girl next to me. Eve yone was occupied looking the other way towards the moon.