Sphere over Portsmouth, VA
A witness account on file, unevaluated. Most of the archive rests here, and honestly so.
The report, as filed
UFO Sighting: A friend and I visited another friend on the 8th floor balcony of his apartment in Portsmouth, Virginia. The apartment complex is called The Heights at Old Towne. The balcony faces to the northeast and overlooks the Elizabeth River, which was host to the Harbor Fest Celebration on the night of June 7, 2014. The fireworks were due to start at 21:00, so we decided to get the best view from the balcony. The barges which sat in the river that launched the fireworks were in our clear sight. The fireworks would only come from the barges in the Elizabeth River. At approximately 21:45, I spotted an object slowly crossing the Elizabeth River in the sky above us. The object moved at a cruising speed along a deliberate flight path. The object composed of a burning flame in what we considered its ‘front’, given that it traveled in the direction of the burning flame. The flame itself was large, and similar to that of a burning candle wick in that the flame burned strongest at the bottom, and flickered as it trailed vertically upward. Directly behind the flame was a translucent white orb, which kept a fixed shape as it traveled intact with the flame. My two friends also noticed the object, and we deliberated as to what it could be. The object flew overhead approximately 200-300 feet above us, making it difficult to gauge the object’s dimensions. That said, I would estimate the object to be of similar size to that of a small hot air balloon. A hot air balloon this was not. There was no basket, there were no wires or visible passengers. The flame at one point appeared to be under the translucent orb, but only because the object passed overhead. Even so, there was no mechanism that could be seen connecting the two. The object moved soundlessly as well. It continued west toward Effingham Street. When it passed over the balcony of the loft, we lost sight. The fireworks started some 20 minutes later. This was no rogue firework that malfunctioned in flight, this was no hot-air balloon, this was not an aerial unmanned drone. This was not a meteorite. I will not disclose our branches of service, but I will come forward with the fact that all three witnesses are active members of the U.S. military. After much deliberation amongst ourselves, we all agree that the flying object was not manmade. In the interest of our own security and the integrity of our military obligations, we wish to remain anonymous. However, I am willing to give an interview. ((first name of witness deleted)) We believe that the report probably was submitted by a gentleman, who telephoned us over the Hotline. He sounded to us to be quite eloquent, serious-minded, and reliable. We suspect that his report is quite accurate. PD
Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center (record NUFORC #110200). Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.
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Routed to: Federal Aviation Administration · records window 2014-06-04 → 2014-06-21
From the same sky
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May 10, 2019 · 9:30 PM · FORMATION
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My friend and I were sitting outside on the front porch when I noticed a blinking light. At first I thought it was just a twinkling star but as I was looking closer I realized it was actually multi colored blinking lights, in a sort of tight diamond shape.(white, blue green) Then all of a sudden we felt like there were spider webs on us- same sensation but we couldn't see it and couldn't wipe anything off. This prompted us to get up and move, and then I looked up at sky again. The thing I saw before was still in the same place but another showed up that was moving. It started in a circular flying pattern and then started flying straight, then in a wavy/zigzag pattern, and back to straight. At that point we looked around for others. We found another that looked like the first, holding still in the sky, across from the first. Distance is hard to judge, but they seemed fairly far apart. While watching the second still light group, another one that blinked red appeared near it out of nowhere. It also flew in a circle and then went past the second still one. It was slow moving but as it passed the still light, the white lights of the still light group got brighter and the red light got brighter on the traveling one- as if they were signaling one another. We later noticed 2 others holding still in just the same way as the first 2 and the four of them were clearly holding a square formation as the others flew around. Several more traveling red light formations appeared and did the same circular motions before going straight. Most moved very slowly but some went unusually fast. After about 15 minutes, all of the moving lights had disappeared as quickly as they had appeared, but the four still diamond ones held their formation. I noted 8 crafts seen, but it could have been more. It was hard to keep track because they kept disappearing. Halfway through this experience, a commercial airliner flew through the formation seemingly unfazed.