NUFORC Sighting 165897

Occurred: 2020-08-02 14:45 Local
Reported: 2021-12-17 13:22 Pacific
Duration: 60-90 seconds
No of observers: 1

Location: Baltimore, MD, USA
Location details: Flying over Baltimore's Waverly neighborhood, roughly

Shape: Oval
Characteristics: Lights on object

Daylight sighting of highly-reflective/shiny silver ellipsoid (interpreted as disc seen from the side) glinting irregularly

On the afternoon of Sunday, August 2nd 2020, I was in my 2nd floor living room watching the live stream of the Space X Crew Dragon splashdown. Moments before the splashdown occurred (which was at exactly 2:48pm Eastern) I saw an object outside in the sky, through the southernmost of my three 2nd floor row home windows, which are facing East, and provide a very good view of the sky over Eastern Baltimore.

Note: I see a tremendous amount of air traffic through these windows on a daily basis, including police and MEDEVAC helicopters, BWI air traffic (mostly making landing approaches), various private and commercial aircraft, and occasional military overflights (cargo, A-10s, etc.) I have had a lifelong interest in aircraft, have flown a Robinson R-22 helicopter, and can generally identify every aircraft I see.

I first noticed this object, I would estimate, about 45-60 seconds before the splashdown at 2:48pm -- the four parachutes on the capsule were deployed, they had switched from the airborne to the the surface/ship-based camera view of the capsule coming down, and I was really trying to pay attention to what was going on on my TV, as I had been watching the stream for a good 45+ minutes, waiting for the safe return. But something about this object out of the corner of my eye, going by in the sky outside, absolutely demanded my attention -- something about it struck me as "off" and worthy of more attention, even though I was distracted by the Space X capsule return going on on my TV. The television was literally saying things like "the spacecraft is about to return," and similar statements.

I got up and walked several feet to my window, and looked out at the object. I was completely blown away by what I saw -- it was a highly-reflective/super-shiny ellipsoid, with a clearly-defined surface that looked shiny like a finely-polished steel. I interpreted it as seeing a traditional disc-shaped UFO, seen from the side, but from my point of view it was a longer oval, or ellipsoid.

Toward the upper-right corner of this aircraft-sized object, there was an ongoing, irregular flashing or glinting of yellowish light. At first I thought it might be a reflection of the Sun, but for the whole (estimated) 60-90 seconds I saw this thing flying North/Northeast (I would say generally toward Towson/Parkville), there was this irregular glinting, visually evident even when the object was a speck out in the distance in the Northeastern sky near the horizon.

As I said, it was clearly the size of an aircraft -- not a balloon. It traveled at a consistent speed and in a consistent direction, perhaps roughly the speed a helicopter would fly at. It did not bob around or make any sudden movements, or apparent changes to altitude or heading.

I did not think to photograph the object, because frankly I was utterly stunned by what I was seeing, and the odd synchronicity of seeing a UFO (my only sighting in my ~44 years) at the exact moment of a spacecraft returning to Earth on TV, with the TV issuing a fairly relevant narration for what I was seeing out of my living room window. It was very, very odd. I have had a lifelong interest in UAP, and this is the only thing I have seen that I would remotely describe as a UFO -- and it was not a speck, not a dot, not a light, not something vague -- it was a super-shiny silver disc thing flying by in the middle of the afternoon, totally casually.

My estimation is that it was flying relatively low, definitely under a few thousand feet. My sense is it was traveling between my location in Baltimore's Abell neighborhood, and Lake Montebello. I think it was probably near Loch Raven Blvd. I would estimate it was maybe 30-50 feet in diameter? The size of an aircraft, but I think closer to a smaller plane or a helicopter, versus an airliner. No obvious features, just a very shiny/reflective metallic surface, making that weird glinting flash.

About a week later I had the idea to see if aircraft flight data is available online, and learned that ADS-B was at that point fully in service (I'd heard about it years earlier, but didn't know it had been fully rolled out). Because I knew the precise several-minute window of my sighting, due to its overlap with the Space X splashdown, I was able to "rewind" to the airspace at the time using Flightradar 24. I saw absolutely nothing, at all, flying over the entire Baltimore 495 area, for a few minutes on either side of the 2:48pm Eastern splashdown. I checked the time many times, to make sure I wasn't making an error in an Eastern to UTC conversion (Flightradar24 historical data is recorded in UTC). Nothing, within the entire circumference of the 495 beltway.

I reported this sighting to MUFON about a week after it occurred, but decided recently I would also submit the report to NUFORC in the spirit of completeness.

Posted 2021-12-19