NUFORC Sighting 43499

Occurred: 2005-04-14 16:30 Local
Reported: 2005-04-16 05:30 Pacific
Duration: 10 Seconds
No of observers: 0

Location: Sunbury (inflight; location unknown, PA, USA

Shape: Egg

Egg shaped object sighted from civilain commuter flight

I was flying on a USAirways commuter flight from White Plains, New York to Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. The aircraft was a Dehaviland Dash-8 and I was sitting on the left side of the aircraft in a window seat. The weather was clear and visibility was excellent. I fly and drive a great deal for work and am very familiar with landmarks in Pennsylvania. Based on our aircraft crossing a prominent river bend a few minutes after the incident, I estimate we were somewhere east of Sunbury, Pennsylvania. The terrain was very hilly and wooded.

Despite the fact that I fly a great deal, I never get tired of looking out the window. As we were flying west, an object caught my eye to the south. The pilot said we were cruising at 17,000 feet. I would estimate it was 2,000 feet below us. What caught my eye was that it appeared to be stationary. Normally, when you see other air traffic it appears to move quickly through your field of vision or remains in your field of vision as you fly the same direction. This object appeared to be fixed in position. I only had a quick glance at it but it appeared to be a light blue colored, oval shape with silver appendages or protrusions. My first thought was that it was a balloon but I don't know what one would be doing 15,000 feet over rural Pennsylvania.

I am very familiar with aircraft recognition both from flying so much and serving in the Army as an intelligence analyst in the 1980's. This object did not look like any civilain or military aircraft that I could identify.

Posted 2005-04-16