NUFORC Sighting 166945

Occurred: 2022-01-01 14:25 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2022-03-03 06:55 Pacific
Duration: one minute
No of observers: 1

Location: Roanoke, VA, USA
Location details: Front porch of my house, looking SSE

Shape: Other
Characteristics: Aura or haze around object

Heard unusual noise unlike planes I'm used to. Saw craft in distance looking like an ALCM with a brown haze around it.

I was sitting on my front porch. Weather was clear and warm for January. Was mid-afternoon. Can't remember the exact day. I heard a sound somewhat like a small private prop. plane, but different. I live just a mile from Roanoke-Blacksburg regional airport. I like aircraft, so I was interested to see what this odd-sounding plane was. I looked around, but didn't see anything at first. Then, I looked up and toward the south, and up a few thousand feet. I saw a craft that looked, as best I can describe, like an air launched cruise missile. A long, but not cylindrical fuselage with vertical and horizontal stabs at the rear. No wings. Maybe a bit larger than a private plane. It had a brown haze around it. The haze and no wings is what made me want to report this incident. Aircraft flying by before this at altitude were very clear with no haze. It was flying level in a south-south easterly direction. It's speed was unremarkable at the moment I saw it. My binoculars were just inside my front door, about eight feet from where I was sitting. I reached in and grabbed them to get a better look at the craft, but it had disappeared in those few seconds I had my back turned. I can't swear that the noise I heard was this craft, since I'm so close to the airport, but it did get me looking all around. I have looked at photos of our military drones, but none look like what I saw. The ALCM is the closest thing to what it looked like.

Posted 2022-03-04