NUFORC Sighting 118803

Occurred: 2013-07-15 18:00 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2015-05-05 09:10 Pacific
Duration: ~3 minutes
No of observers: 4

Location: Roanoke, VA, USA

Shape: Fireball
Characteristics: Lights on object, Aircraft nearby

Orange Orb seen dancing over Roanoke Valley from Poor Mountain view; ~3 minutes

Myself and four of my friends decided to go "off-roading" in my Jeep on some trails up Bent Mountain/Poor Mountain. After driving down a few trails we got to a point where the trail goes along an overlook of the Roanoke Valley. It was a clear day and a really nice view, so we decided to stop and hangout for a little bit. We tossed some rocks around and chatted for a bit as we looked out over the valley. We could see the Roanoke Airport and observed several planes taking off and landing during our time. The Carilion Hospital was also in the distance and we watched as an emergency helicopter took off, and landed. In short, we had a great view and a pretty good perspective of the area.

As we watched, I suddenly noticed a bright orange orb hovering over the valley, near the airport. I watched for a second trying to figure out what it was. The orb started to "dance" in the sky. It shot left, then back right, up a bit, back to the left. It was moving incredibly fast compared to the planes we saw in the area. I noticed two of my friends had stopped talking. I asked the group if they were seeing what I was seeing. The two who had stopped talking acknowledged that they were watching the same thing. We began pointing it out to our other two friends and soon 4 out of 5 of us were watching this dancing orange orb in the sky. We tried to reason that maybe it was a fighter jet doing aerial tricks, but the speed was so great compared to the other planes and it seemed to stop on a dime and change direction. The orb stayed the same size during its maneuvers, so it wasn't getting any closer or farther from our position. Just bobbing and dancing, shooting back a! nd forth.

We watched as another plane landed at the airport, and had a good comparison on size and speed. This object did not have the outline of a plane, just an orange orb that never changed shape. The whole object glowed orange.

As we were pointing it out to our fifth friend (he wasn't wearing his glasses), the object was now the furthest to the left of our view as it had been during our observation. It then began slowly (more slowly than its previous speed) moving to the right in a straight line, going toward the only other mountain in our view of the valley (Roanoke Star Mountain). Our fifth friend finally was able to see it (or so he said) as it went straight behind the mountain. We waiting a few minutes, expecting it to come out from the other side of the mountain due to its trajectory, but it never did. We waited and didn't see it again.

It was starting to get dark, so we decided to head off the mountain. As we talked about it, we all got chills reliving the experience. We all also agreed that when we first started watching the orb, we got goose bumps and immediately knew what it was. None of us had had any previous UFO experiences, yet we all felt we knew instantly what we were looking at without speaking to each other.

This experience happened a while back, but I still remember it vividly and wanted to make record of it due to all the activity in the Roanoke area. I plan to go back to Bent Mountain this summer sit and look out over the valley again. Maybe I'll see the object again. If nothing else, it is a spectacular view.

NUFORC Note:

Witness indicates that the date of the sighting is approximate. PD

Posted 2015-05-08