NUFORC Sighting 34306

Occurred: 2004-01-04 14:30 Local
Reported: 2004-01-05 07:39 Pacific
Duration: 1 minute
No of observers: 2

Location: Fort Myers, FL, USA

Shape: Disk

A silver disk with a bulge on one face, maybe 30 feet across, reflected sunlight and bobbed around at 3-5000 feet.

We saw an airborne silvery disk-shaped object, maybe about 30 feet across, highly reflective, at about several thousand feet in the sky (just below some clouds in a clear blue sky, 80 degrees F., easterly breeze, I believe) It appeared almost the size of the full moon to our relative view.

It was very clear, razor sharp in our view.

When it turned sideways it was very thin, and as it turned, it's "bottom" surface appeared shaded, and it's highly reflective upper surface showed a wide, low bulge nearly filling the diameter.

It was definitely a disk, and definitely nearly flat on it's "upper" and "lower" surfaces.

It was seen above McGregor and Summerlin Avenues, Fort Myers Florida, at about 2:30 PM, and we watched it for about a minute.

It behaved like a balloon, drifting and turning, climbing and dipping, bobbing weightlessly, in a more or less easterly direction, for several hundred feet problably, and did not appear to be under "control" or "doing" anything.

It was big.

It was absolutely a disk.

Our view of it was very clear, and it was definitely "hardware," not a cloud, etc.

It was not a round weather balloon or a party balloon.

I was not alone. I did not notice any other motorists watching it, and traffic moved on, and we lost our view of it.

Nearby air fields are: Paige Field, and SW Florida International Airport. This occurred in or near the landing path for some of the air traffic.

UPGRADE TO PRIOR FORT MYERS FLORIDA REPORT - Peter D., Please see e-mail of today

The object appeared to be of rigid construction, and did not flex or otherwise deform as it gyrated through pitch, roll, yaw, etc..

There was no visible "weather balloon" radiosonde package or parachute attached. It did not rise up to a higher altitude or disappear from sight.

A subsequent lightly conducted search of internet sites selling professional weather balloons, and large advertising balloons (national and international) and other possibly related items, found nothing similar, so far.

Actually, it appeared during this lightly conducted search that weather balloons might not even come in "hard" silver, or at least I have not yet found any.

Weather balloons Do come with telemetry packages and parachutes which are strund below the balloon on longish cable. This object has none visible.

NUFORC Note:

We regard the person who submitted this report to be exceptionally capable, and we suspect he is an excellent observer and reporter of fact. He has served as an expert witness in courts of law, and he has an exceptionally strong technical background. We believe this report is quite reliable in the information it presents. PD

Posted 2004-01-17