Sphere over Tortolita, AZ
A witness account on file, unevaluated. Most of the archive rests here, and honestly so.
The report, as filed
This morning, my neighbor and me were on our daily early morning walk, when the neighbor looked up and spotted an object that first appeared to be a conventional satellite in normal flight southwest of our stated location and from 60 to 75 degrees off the horizon, and at approximately 75 degrees, it suddenly stopped. At first we thought we had somehow lost visual contact, because now it appeared we were looking at a distant star. After maybe 15 seconds, it started moving again but in a very erratic manner and in a localized area. Sudden fast starts, sudden stops, sometimes straight, sometimes in arcs. The object made approximately 4 somewhat longer movements over several degrees at super high speeds and in different directions, but seemed to return to about the point of the first stopped. It never proceeded much north of the first stop. During this period, a third early morning walker joined us and watched for awhile. Maybe about the time the third walker left, a conventional satellite of about the same size and altitude and in the same vicinity (6:25?) appeared, moving from South-Southeast to North-Northwest in direction (possible time verification). This may be about the time of the object's second pause in movement, but it is doubtful the pause was in relation to the appearance of the satellite. The object paused long enough that we started walking again while waiting to see more movement. Just prior to out turning on N. Camino Central, an airliner flew generally towards us coming from Southeast to Northwest (likely Tucson to Phoenix and not at full altitude), (possible time verification). Doubtfully because of the approaching airliner, the object suddenly headed east at super speeds far beyond of that of an aircraft or satellite. Once it passed us to the east, it disappeared, possibly because it lost the reflection of the sun. All longer movements were extremely fast and straight followed sudden stops. The shorter movements appeared just as quickly, but were more erratic, and in the shorter movements, there were straight and arc shaped movements and extremely rapid changes in direction and at super speeds equal to those of the longer movements. Several times there appeared to be horizontal movements toward and away from Earth giving it a bouncing effect. When it turned east, it traveled about 10 degrees at speeds faster than a conventional satellite and then apparently lost the reflection of the sun and disappeared. We see conventional satellites on a regular basis, so there is something to compare to this event in terms of the speed of object in space. I am not asking to be contacted by an investigator, but you are certainly welcome to contact me if it will help in any way.
Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center (record NUFORC #179472). Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.
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Routed to: Federal Aviation Administration · records window 2023-11-19 → 2023-12-06