Silver cylinder 13 kilometers up: two pilots' strange encounter over Ohio
In August, two pilots on a charter flight saw a metallic, shiny, vertical cylinder-shaped object pass their aircraft at an altitude of 12.5 kilometers. Nothing showed up on air traffic control radar. The case was investigated by the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC), which made it public at the end of October.
What happened?
On the evening of August 16, 2026, at around 8 p.m. local time, two pilots of a charter operator were flying over Ohio without passengers. The aircraft had just reached its cruising altitude of 41,000 feet (about 12,500 m). According to the report, they were near the town of Republic, roughly 9 kilometers east of an air route waypoint called REELS.
Ahead of them, thunderclouds towered to a height of about 16–17 kilometers. The pilots decided to fly through a gap between two clouds. That was when one of the pilots, identified in the report only as "J," noticed the object in front of the aircraft.
What did the object look like?
According to the pilot's account:
- Shape: a uniform, pill- or cylinder-like body standing vertically. It had no creases or dents, and it did not taper at either the top or the bottom.
- Surface: silvery and highly reflective, like polished metal. They saw no lights on it. According to the pilot, its brightness came from reflected sunlight, not from a light of its own.
- Altitude: by their estimate slightly above them, at about 13,100 meters.
- Movement: it traveled toward them on a parallel track, then passed along the left side of the aircraft and disappeared in the distance behind them.
The sighting lasted roughly two minutes from first moment to disappearance. According to ForeFlight data the pilot later sent, the aircraft was traveling at 328 knots (about 607 km/h).
Was it a weather balloon?
The pilot initially thought it was a weather balloon himself. As they got closer, however, he saw that the top and bottom of the object were the same size, which in his view does not fit an inflated balloon.
Roughly a minute after the sighting, he asked the Cleveland air traffic control center by radio whether there was a balloon or other aircraft nearby. The aircraft's collision avoidance system (TCAS) showed nothing. Nothing appeared in the ForeFlight app either, which also displays aircraft's automatic position reports (ADS-B). According to the investigator's note, some long-range balloons now broadcast such a signal. Air traffic control replied that neither an identified nor a non-transmitting object was visible on their radar.
The pilots then entered the cloud, where the engines iced up and they encountered moderate turbulence. According to the pilot, a balloon emerging from this cloud would probably have been torn to pieces.
The investigation
The case was investigated by Ben Hansen, a NUFORC investigator. He interviewed the pilot by phone and received from him the photograph, the ForeFlight screenshots, and a photo of the thunderclouds. Hansen indicated that he is filing a data request with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to obtain the radar data and the recording of the radio call.
The pilot took only one photo, with an iPhone, and only after the object had already passed them, about 11 kilometers behind them. He stressed that his description is based on the earlier view, when the object was at most half that distance away.
NUFORC released the details on October 26. According to reports by The Express and Athens News, NUFORC stated that no object appeared on FAA radar and that no record of a scheduled balloon launch was found either.
Differing estimates
The figures differ in two places in the account:
- Distance: the report form lists about 9 kilometers as the closest distance. In the later interview, the pilot felt the object had been closer: when he first saw it, it may have been about 3–5 kilometers ahead of them.
- Size: the report form gives a length of 3–6 meters. In the interview, the pilot estimated it at about three quarters of the length of their aircraft. Compared with the aircraft, which is just over 12 meters long, this means about 9 meters.
The data appears with the permission of the National UFO Reporting Center (nuforc.org): "Data used was provided by the National UFO Reporting Center (nuforc.org) and is used with NUFORC's special permission"
The sober take
The strength of the case is that two experienced pilots saw it in daylight. The report was filed that same evening, a photograph was taken, and the radio call with air traffic control is a recorded event whose recording the investigator has formally requested.
What is not proven: the object's size, distance and own movement. The size of an unknown object can only be estimated if we know how far away it is, so a smaller but closer object could look the same. This is shown by the fact that the pilot's estimates also changed (3–6 m and about 9 m, and 9 km and 3–5 km). That the object emerged from the cloud and moved under its own power is the pilot's conclusion, not an observation. At the aircraft's speed of about 600 km/h, even a nearly stationary object appears to approach quickly.
A possible everyday explanation is some kind of balloon. This could be, for example, a metallic foil (Mylar) balloon, which shines silvery and can also reach high altitudes, or a research balloon. According to the pilot, the uniform, non-tapering shape argues against it, as does the fact that radar did not detect it. The latter, however, is not surprising for small, light objects. The release of the radar data and the radio call could clarify a lot. Until then, the case remains open, and neither a balloon nor any other explanation can be ruled out.