Fireball over Wilmington, NC
A witness account on file, unevaluated. Most of the archive rests here, and honestly so.
The report, as filed
Just before 2am on 8/6/2023 I spotted 9 objects in the sky to the Northeast of Wilmington NC. I first spotted two objects, one trailing the other from West to East. The speed of the objects made me think they may have been some types of Satellites as their speed matched other known Satellites and the ISS track speeds. The appearance seemed to suggest one of two things, either sunlight reflection off of a Satellite solar panel or the emission of thruster gases. The objects were moving too slow to be Meteors. Upon checking my security camera playback, I noticed that there were multiple objects traveling in the same general direction (West to East) that I had not seen before or after the two objects I saw with my own eyes. Some of those objects were traveling across the path of the previous objects (going South to North). They were in the same general location in the sky looking Northeast from my location. I have previously seen multiple similar events over the last year and made an attempt to validate these objects with known Satellites but no data matched the events. The brief flash of light on these objects had a fade-in/out effect and an average duration of 5 to 7 seconds. They never maneuvered, moved only in a straight line. I have also seen these object events towards the North-West direction and some have recorded seeing these types of events off the coast (over the ocean) in broad daylight over the last several months. The objects emitted no sounds or sonic booms. Am unable to upload the event video due to the file size. Here is a link to my video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFEnJToRlBQ [NUFORC annotation: Starlink - Possible]
Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center (record NUFORC #177344). Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.
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Routed to: Federal Aviation Administration · records window 2023-08-03 → 2023-08-20
From the same sky
Related entries
June 13, 2023 · 9:30 PM · RECTANGLE
Wilmington, NC
The object moved positions in the sky and seemed to change shape. We took photos with a cell phone with Space Zoom. It was really bright and seemed to emit an aura.
May 29, 2023 · 4:20 PM · CHANGING
Wilmington, NC
Noticed a darker object by itself in the sky. Looked like a super dark small cloud, it was cloudy here today. We kept watching and it was almost staying in the same place until we noticed it moving slowly, changing shapes, and somewhat moving closer. Definitely moved closer, floating around until we lost sight of it in the woods behind us. At one point a small piece “ broke off” and continued near the larger section. I would appreciate you letting me know what it was if you know.
January 15, 2023 · 5:59 PM · SPHERE
Wilmington, NC
The kids thought it was a rocket ship but it was going sideways and came from nowhere like the air or water and then quickly disappeared. Right afterwards there was a drone and the police helicopter patrolling the area… We have videos and pictures but I could not upload them…
November 16, 2022 · 5:30 PM · CIGAR
Wilmington, NC
While driving home in my truck eastbound on 17th St. approaching its intersection with South College Rd., I looked out my driver's window in a northerly direction. I observed a silvery-white cigar tube (rounded at "front", blunt at "tail") shaped craft that appeared to be lazily flying in a direct East to West direction. It was moving very slowly, perhaps 10-20 mph. The object had no visible stabilizers or wings. It had no visible propulsion system e.g. propeller(s), or exhaust heat plume The craft had no markings, except for what I thought might be part of a tail fin, which was black and white. Thinking about it, however, it probably was not a tail fin because of it's very low profile. The surface of the craft was smooth; there were no visible ribs. No landing gear was visible. In short, it simply looked like a slow moving silver-white cigar tube. The object I observed was, as stated, moving very slowly through the air. The field in the background made it easier to see in profile. It held steady at a very low altitude and I observed no vertical or horizontal drift. I looked at it for as long as I could, perhaps five seconds, then I looked back at the road, as this was rush hour. As soon as I could, perhaps seven seconds later, I looked back at the spot where I first observed the object, and it was gone. I looked to the right and left of the object, but it was gone, like it vanished or something. There was a lone tree in the foreground situated where the object may have passed behind it, but it was moving so slowly, and was appreciably higher in the sky than the tree, that I would have been able to view part of the craft above the tree line. As it was, I looked directly at the tree and no part of the craft was visible. As there was no point of reference to judge its distance from me, I cannot give an approximation of its length. I moved to Wilmington from Akron, OH, which is home to the "Spirit of Akron" blimp. I am very familiar with blimp features: the gondola, tethering cables, propeller engines, superstructure, windows and the "skin" of a blimp. This was no blimp. It more closely resembled a dirigible, but had no gondola, visible propulsion system, or markings of any kind. In short, I don't have any idea of what it was or how it could have disappeared so quickly, almost as if it utilized some kind of "cloaking" technology.
October 4, 2022 · 10:00 PM · LIGHT
Wilmington, NC
Very bright orange light just appeared as if a bright light bulb was turned on us. Lasted about a minute slight pulsating around the light got a bit brighter and stopped suddenly. This was over the water near Swansboro. Didn’t see any aircraft.
September 19, 2022 · 9:00 PM · CIGAR
Wilmington, NC
It was black and long like a stick and had 6 rectangle shaped windows on it of white light coming out and it was moving very fast! I have never seen anything like that before so this is the first time seeing this type of UFO. [I did see a UFO years ago a saucer type that landed in front of us and sat on the ground. It was Gold and lights went around it all purple light when it landed. It toyed with us while drying, and it came from space! that happened in 1975!]