Circle over Derby, NY
A witness account on file, unevaluated. Most of the archive rests here, and honestly so.
The report, as filed
I noticed a white light in the dark but clear sky. At first I thought it was a plane until I noticed the strange moving patterns. It was moving in a straight line when it suddenly appeared to drop down lower in the sky very quickly. Then it suddenly and quickly rose up higher than where it started. It even moved backward very quickly at one point and then assumed it’s original direction. These odd movements continued until it was out of my range of vision. I have never seen movement like this before. I am sorry I didn’t have my phone with me to record it. I am a retired high school science teacher who never expected to see something I cannot explain. I was outside with my dog when I saw this object.
Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center (record NUFORC #166259). 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 2021-12-18 → 2022-01-04
From the same sky