Circle over Lathrop, MO
A witness account on file, unevaluated. Most of the archive rests here, and honestly so.
The report, as filed
Orange/yellow light, at first I thought it was a star, then maybe an airplane, but it appeared as though it was not moving. It then started to look like it was getting smaller, so I assumed it was moving away from me, and then it disappeared. Then, I passed by some trees and saw it again; this time, it looked like a white ball that was on fire; the fire was at the bottom of the object. I thought it might be a lantern-style firecracker, but it was too high to be any kind of firecracker. It disappeared again, and when it reappeared, it was black; then, it seemed to be near the horizon and fell. After I witnessed this, I called my sister to tell her about it and my phone made a static sound it had never made before, then all went quiet, then my call was dropped. When I was trying to call her back, I was going to turn off my phone, and instead just the screen turned off and then came back on and my YouTube app started up without being touched.
Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center (record NUFORC #128394). 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 2016-07-05 → 2016-07-22
From the same sky