Sphere over McVeytown, PA

The report, as filed

While sitting on the back deck of our cabin, my wife and I noticed a strange object flying in a northeasterly direction. The object appeared to be a white sphere and was in our view for about 30 seconds. It had no wings and did not leave a contrail; it was just a round, white ball. I would estimate the altitude at about 10-12k feet. Our property is apparently in an approach corridor to Washington-Dulles Airport and, as commercial jets pass overhead (usually at about 15-20k feet), we always hear the engines. The object we observed was totally silent for the entirety of the sighting and afterwards. I then checked a smartphone app that shows real-time air traffic, and there was no flight reported to be in the area at the time of the sighting. The speed of the object was difficult to determine. I would estimate it at about the same as a commercial airliner, although that is a complete guess in my part; regardless, it would have been at least several hundred miles per hour. The size of the object was also difficult to determine, and I really don’t have a good guess for it; my best estimation is that it was smaller than a commercial airliner. The object continued in a NE’ly direction until it passed out of our view behind the tree line. There did not appear to be any lights on it.

Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center (record NUFORC #170585). Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.