Eastern United States: Navy aircrew tracks small fast object later judged rectangular
In 2019, between mission sorties over the eastern United States, a U.S. Navy aircrew member with 28 years of flying experience noticed a small object below the aircraft travelling in a straight line opposite their direction at high speed, tracked it for 10 to 15 seconds before the recorder was started, and lost it when zooming in; post-flight analysis suggested a rectangular shape, and the crew filed a Range Fouler debrief with video.
Background
The record is a two-page U.S. Navy Range Fouler reporting form used to document unauthorized intrusions into controlled airspace during operations or training; the Navy sanitizes such reports of identifying information for aircrew and squadron. The form fields for date, time, side number, bureau number, working area, position, altitude and the shape checklist are blank or illegible in the released text. In the free-text field the reporting aviator writes that, in between mission sorties, he noticed an object with flight characteristics unlike anything he had seen in 28 years of flying for the USAF and Navy: a small object below the aircraft, apparently travelling in a straight line opposite their direction at high speed. He tracked it for about 10 to 15 seconds before the crew turned on the recorder to produce the attached video; when he zoomed in for more resolution, the object's speed took it out of the field of view and he could not reacquire it even at lower zoom. Upon post-flight analysis the object appeared rectangular, and others with equal or more experience were also unsure what it might be. The DoW title places the report in the eastern United States in 2019; the released text gives no date or position. The details are taken from the records released by the U.S. Department of War (record code DOW-UAP-D090) and do not represent an independent determination by From Beyond Space.