NUFORC Sighting 180277

Occurred: 2019-01-02 11:33 Local
Reported: 2024-02-04 00:42 Pacific
Duration: A few seconds
No of observers: 2

Location: Courmayeur, Aosta Valley, Italy
Location details: Just over Dente del Gigante

Shape: Circle
Color: Metallic grey
Estimated Size: The size of a plane, more or less
Viewed From: Land
Direction from Viewer: East
Angle of Elevation: 70
Closest Distance: 1.5 km
Estimated Speed: I couldn't say
Explanation: Camera Anomaly - Probable

We didn't notice anything on the spot

My companion and I spend the day at the Sky Way Mont Blanc ski lift. That evening, looking back at the photos taken in the morning, we notice within a panoramic image captured by my smartphone model Oneplus 6, a strange flat and circular shaped object near the Giant's Tooth gel. At the time of the shot, I heard no sound and did not notice anything (metadata time 11:33:03).

We immediately think of a windblown ice particle-as several are seen in the backlit portion of the photo-but something doesn't add up. The "object" is larger in size and has a well-defined outline. Also, no other airborne features appear in that area, indicating that the ice particles-surely present at 3500 m altitude-are not visible from that angle.

At some point I notice a detail in the left section of the image: among other things, I have apparently captured a person intent on taking a photo in the same direction with their phone at about the same time (as you can easily verify through a simple web search, on the Oneplus 6 panoramic images can only be captured from right to left, which means that the other person must have taken a few seconds after me). As chance would have it, this person was indeed my partner.

We immediately search for the photo on her Huawei P Smart Plus device (standard photo, not panoramic) and to our enormous amazement we find out that she also managed to shoot the exact same object (comparison of enlargements leaves no doubt about it), 3 seconds later (metadata time 11:33:06), in a significantly different position (in perspective, much higher and much further away). Note in this photo, the reflection of the sun on the aircraft - suggesting a metal structure - as well as the peculiar inclination of the latter, a detail that together with many others (singular profile / absence of propellers, thrusters or other visible protruding elements / high sustained speed and large distance covered in the short time frame indicated / unusual ascending course / absence of noise during flight) leaves one extremely puzzled about the nature of this phenomenon.

A clarification: it is evident that the lower part of the object in the panoramic photo of the Oneplus 6, is nothing but digital noise generated by the software in the photographic stacking process that leads to the creation of the image itself (zooming in on the mountains it is indeed possible to notice other digital artifacts). Therefore, in order to define the real shape, only the top part of the object, i.e., the flat, circular disk - also visible in the shot of the Huawei P Smart Plus - and the related shading, which in both images emphasizes the three-dimensionality of the aircraft, must be taken into account. However, digital noise remains a very important element as it is indicative of the object's upward motion, as witnessed in the second shot.

Please darken the faces of people in photos in case of publication

Translated online

Posted 2024-02-15