Formation over College city, CA
A conventional explanation is favored by the record but was never formally confirmed.
The report, as filed
Cont from sight summary…we were in awe..just watching them..thought it could be a blimp or something so I put my flashlight up at them…immediately right when I did that they faded slowly but in progression from first light to the last..and they were gone..they did t fade due to horizon or charge of light or sky it was all the same. They faded right when I put flashlight up at them. No noise..no plane..no blimp..no marker lights..NOTHING..and these were not up in space.they were lower than planes we saw later flying over. [NUFORC annotation: Starlink - Probable]
Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center (record NUFORC #175785). 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 2023-05-11 → 2023-05-28