Pilots Over Ohio Report Silver 'Pill' Aloft Near Thunderstorm; Radar Shows Nothing

OHIO AIRSPACE — A silver, pill-shaped object appeared near a plane flying over Ohio, according to an account posted on October 26 by the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC). The encounter itself, the report states, took place on August 16.

The pilot, identified in the investigator's report only as "J," told NUFORC investigator Ben Hansen that the crew had climbed to 41,000 feet at about 8 p.m. Eastern. They were approaching a large thunderstorm with cloud tops reaching 55,000 feet, and chose to pass through a gap between cells.

There, J says, he saw an object slightly above the plane. He first put it at five miles away, then revised that to two or three. The crew estimated it was at roughly 43,000 feet, moving in the opposite direction and passing to their left. The surface, he said, looked like polished metal, and he believed its brightness was reflected sunlight. Hansen's report records no creases, warps or tapering.

The crew's collision-warning system and flight-tracking app showed no other aircraft, according to the report. Controllers at Cleveland Center reportedly told them nothing was visible on radar. NUFORC says the FAA detected no object and that no planned balloon launches matched. J took one iPhone photograph after the object had passed, when he judged it about seven miles behind them. The whole encounter lasted about two minutes.

The balloon explanation has not been dismissed outright. J first wondered whether it was a weather balloon but doubted that one could survive conditions that gave his own aircraft engine icing and moderate turbulence. Hansen wrote that the witness's estimate of a height of at least 30 feet, with no tapering, "presents some challenges to the balloon theory."

NUFORC also took up the matter of official attitudes. It said it saw no sign the FAA had referred the sighting elsewhere, and noted an audio exchange in which a controller joked about including the alien's color. The organization argues that such humor feeds a stigma that discourages pilots from reporting, and that any unidentified object in controlled airspace, balloon or otherwise, is a safety concern.