Sphere over Pikeville, NC
A witness account on file, unevaluated. Most of the archive rests here, and honestly so.
The report, as filed
I was first alerted by my wife at 4am who noticed a bright white light that appeared artificial in the shape of a circle or tear drop, it did not twinkle or look anything like a star or planet and was definitely not a plane or helicopter. It stayed in one spot for. Close to an hour and then appeared to gradually slip away. This object was very noticeable and as I said appeared to be artificial light such as from a craft not anything like a star or otherwise.
Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center (record NUFORC #135436). Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.
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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 2017-07-27 → 2017-08-13
From the same sky