FBI September 2023 test site sighting
September 2023 · U.S. military test site
Summary
The FBI released four items on a September 2023 sighting at a U.S. military test site: three FD-302 interview reports (Serials 003, 004 and 005) and a composite image. Each report was drafted in October 2023 and has the witnesses' names, the site and the exact date redacted. Serial 003 records an interview by FaceTime video with a witness who was driving east at about 9:00 am to a test site to gather data for LiDAR testing.
That witness saw a bright white light over the horizon that was stationary, moved to the right and disappeared. The report says it was visible for ten seconds, stayed the same size and was thought to be ten to twenty miles away. A continuation page says the witness thought it might have been a meteor coming straight toward them and burning up in the atmosphere.
Serial 004 records an in-person interview with a woman who had restricted the airspace for the tests. She said the vehicles left at 7:02 am and that a gate failed to open fully on three tries between 7:15 and 7:30 am. She described a cigar-shaped object with an extremely bright light, "metallic bronze in color", the length of two or three Blackhawk helicopters, almost hovering and moving slowly east to west. She watched it for five to ten seconds. She said she concluded it was not an aircraft or drone, that it made no sound and left no contrails, and that no photos or video were taken.
Serial 005 records a FaceTime interview with a contractor who had ten to fifteen hours as a drone pilot. He described a linear, metallic or gray object with a bright white light on its east side, one to two Blackhawks in length, at about 5,000 feet above ground level. He said it moved east to west and vanished after five to ten seconds. He also said a colleague in the second vehicle tried to get another person to see it without success, and that he had weird dreams and trouble sleeping for two nights.
The composite image in the release is a single page that the catalogue says the FBI Laboratory made from a site photograph and a digital graphic. Each 302 states that it contains neither recommendations nor conclusions of the FBI.
Where the files disagree
Two documents give different accounts of the same detail. Both are quoted as written; we don't say which is right.
Height of the object
What the files say
“The light was bright white and was visible for ten seconds before it disappeared.”
Page 1 →“[REDACTED] thought the light might have been a meteor coming straight toward them and burning up in the atmosphere.”
Page 2 →“The object was "metallic bronze in color" and was the length of two or three Blackhawk helicopters lined up nose to tail.”
Page 2 →“The object was completely silent.”
Page 2 →“The object was approximately 5000 feet above ground level, and moved east to west parallel to the ground.”
Page 1 →“The object was metallic / gray in color.”
Page 1 →
Also discussed in
Explanations in the record
What the documents themselves say the event was, as recorded. Not our assessment.
- The Serial 003 witness thought the light might have been a meteor coming straight toward them and burning up in the atmosphere. — FBI witness interview: bright light over horizon (2023), page 2
- The Serial 004 witness said she concluded the object was not an aircraft or drone. — FBI witness interview on metallic object at US test site (2023), page 2