Cigar over El Centro (east of), CA

The report, as filed

I was onboard a commercial flight from San Diego to Newark on July 7, 2021. We flew east from San Diego along the US/Mexico border. I was on the left side of the plane so I could see the US side of the border. I knew from monitoring FlightRadar24 that there was an area east of El Centro, CA., where I typically notice military aircraft flying. So as we were nearing that area, I was looking out the window wondering if I would see any military aircraft. At about 12:45, I saw a strange silvery-white object hovering over the ground below and to the left of our flight path. If I had to guess, it appeared to be about 2500 feet AGL and we were at about 20000 feet AGL at that time. The object appeared to be stationary. I remember thinking that it exhibited the flight characteristics of a tethered balloon. I snapped a photo of the object. I blew the photo up and it almost looks like a short, fat blimp with a weird protrusion on the right rear side. I am thi! nking that this may be some sort of military craft or drone, but I have no idea. I assumed that it was stationary since we were moving quite fast and I lost sight of the object as we passed and my view became obstructed by the wing of our aircraft. I will submit the photo and the blown up version to you via email.

Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center (record NUFORC #164124). Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.