Cigar over Henrico, VA
A witness account on file, unevaluated. Most of the archive rests here, and honestly so.
The report, as filed
Eyewitness lights in the sky that hovered far above a house through my woods I have seen similar events on different days. This one did appear a bit different in shape. I was able to see airplanes going by as well it lasted for about 30 minutes I videotaped several videos and took photos.
Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center (record NUFORC #161860). Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.
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Routed to: Federal Aviation Administration · records window 2021-01-27 → 2021-02-13
From the same sky
Related entries
December 7, 2019 · 6:35 AM · CIGAR
Henrico, VA
Saw a side ways cigar shaped thing hover west of Short Pump Virginia. It stayed in same area and position for about 20 minutes with white lights either blinking or moving around the shape. Then it just disappeared.
June 1, 2018 · 1:00 AM · RECTANGLE
Henrico, VA
Sometime around 12:30-1:30 a.m., I observed a strange lit shape in the sky. I’m not really sure of the time because I was out on the deck after being awaken by a storm brewing and was intent on getting things secured on my back deck. It could have been as late as 2:00 a.m. but I know I had gone back to bed/asleep and then up again at 3:00 a.m. for a bathroom trip. It wouldn’t be before 12:30 as Perry Mason that I watch at 11:30 p.m. EST was off. The day (Thursday) prior had cleared off to sunny clear skies in the late afternoon so I was surprised to be awakened by all the thunder and lightning though it wasn’t raining yet. I could tell there was a fair amount of wind and I wanted to check if I had lowered my umbrella in case it got worse. After making sure all was secure, I was standing at the rail marveling at the cool breeze that felt heavenly after days of sticky humidity. It was then that I looked up and noticed there were still very large bright pat! ches of open dark sky with the imposing clouds all around those clear sections. My deck faces straight out towards southwest with no trees, or structures anywhere to block my view in all directions. I was standing at my deck rail looking out sorta southeast towards the end of the deck - observing the clouds and large open areas and looking for any stars. I was also wondering if the lightening was getting bad enough that maybe I should go in. That was when I saw way up where planes would normally be spotted, a narrow rectangle shape with 3 bright lights single file down the length though there might have been a 4th and the lights appeared to be circular but being so far away couldn’t be sure. I thought it looked a little strange; however, our area’s major airport is located over in the eastern part of Henrico county. At first glance, I figured it was a plane though it didn’t look like other planes or helicopters I had seen at night. They usually have a flashing light(s) ! and you can see the wing lights but nothing like this was seen! - just the single file lights. I did see in lightening flashes a faint maybe triangle outline but really not sure. One flash I would see it, the next not, and again nothing like a plane or helicopter. The sky was pretty bright - maybe the moon had been out but was now under the clouds. Honestly, I didn’t think about looking for the moon and it’s location until I was back inside and the shape was gone. Anyway I kept looking and it didn’t seem to be moving at all but then a few sorta short slow jerky movements upwards/forward but nothing like a plane makes so I started thing of a helicopter again maybe in a holding observation pattern. And the movement was so quick without any discernible distance - not sure if it really moved or shook - there was just some sort of change. I thought about a weather ballon but that didn’t seem to be the case either. I even thought of maybe a plane in a holding pattern but they circle in a wide pattern and you can tell they are moving. This lit s! hape wasn’t moving forwards, backwards or circling. I was keeping watch on the cloud movement along with the object’s position relative to me and the garage next door. I kept watching for a few minutes - it was in a very open part of the sky, and I took my eye off the sky for just a second to smack at a mosquito, when I looked back up it had disappeared - no lights or shape anywhere. There hadn’t been any sounds other than the storm. However, earlier I had heard plane sounds as is normal here day and night. The airport is about 30-40 minutes up the highway. And quite often I watch them at night (while sitting on the deck) flying to and from the airport or circling - I had never seen anything quite like this before in terms of being there and then just as quick gone. It was like they flipped a switch and the lights were turned off. The sky was too clear and open for it to pass behind a cloud. If it had done that, it would have come back into view and it didn’t but ! there weren’t any clouds where it was located. I have seen we! ird ligh ts in the sky before but have always been able to figure that they were probably a plane or helicopter. But this was different and I have never made a report, and in fact, I don’t follow UFO stuff at all. However, like many folks, you wonder if we are here -what keeps other “beings” from being out and about. There is probably a likely explanation, but found this site looking to see if anyone else saw it. Don’t want to be contacted, or any personal information to be used nor to be added to any other mailing lists etc. Just wanted to report it in case someone else saw something similar at the same time and area.
August 17, 2017 · 9:10 PM · SPHERE
Henrico, VA
I was unable to capture with my Nikon, but we have never seen anything like that before.
January 26, 2017 · 6:30 PM · CHEVRON
Henrico, VA
Stepped outside to back porch between 6:30 and 7ish pm on Wed 1/25 (could've been 1/26 but I think it was Wed). It was dark but the porch light was on. I looked up at the sky to see the stars and when I looked to my left (East) I saw a "V" shaped light pattern moving in a due West direction, directly over head. It looked to be very low and very large (I could see it between the roof line of the house and the tree branches which normally, if I see a plane, it's 100 times smaller). I could hear an engine but it wasn't near as loud as when planes go over head at a lower altitude (Richmond airport is about 15 miles from us). It proceeded to my right (West) and then went out of sight over the tree tops. There were five white lights...one in the center at the point of the V and two to each side; and there was one green, small light behind the V shape but further back than the tips of the V. I called my husband out and he got there in time to see it flyin! g away and fading out of sight but he did see it. Since we heard an engine, we thought it was a B-52 Stealth or some kind of very large military plane. But, we have seen a Stealth and they make hardly any sound at all so I don't think that was it. And this was so low that I truly expected to hear on the news that a military plane had crashed in the mountains near Charlottesville, VA (which was the direction it was heading). There is an airport in C-ville but I wouldn't imagine a huge military plane landing there since it's a very small airport. I don't know what we saw but we really don't think it was a plane. What made me start looking on the internet to see if anyone else had reported anything was because a day or so later, up until last week, we had tons of military chopper activity going back and forth. We are close to DC and a couple of military bases so we get training ops flying overhead every once in a while. But not usually this much activity.
January 10, 2017 · 10:17 PM · OTHER
Henrico, VA
me and my ex were outside talking and we were talking about other life that could be out there and i saw something with a red/orange light moving quite fast in the sky to my right and i said to him look what is that its moving pretty fast and he said idk maybe its a helicopter and it stopped in its tracks soon as he said that and it started to decend went behind the trees it wasnt far away but it wasnt super close
April 18, 2014 · 7:45 AM · CIRCLE
Henrico, VA
A yellowish round object caught in photos of jet trails. ((NUFORC Note: Probably a sens flare, we believe. PD)