AARO Resolves Eglin UAP as Lighting Balloon

Brief

On 26 January 2023, a military pilot operating in the Eglin AFB training range detected four objects on radar between 16,000–18,000 feet appearing to fly in formation, but visually acquired and imaged only one, describing a gray, paneled, roughly 12-foot-diameter object with an orange-red center and a shape likened to the Apollo spacecraft command module, accompanied by a radar malfunction AARO attributed to a pre-existing circuit-breaker fault. AARO, an Intelligence Community partner, and a Science & Technology partner each independently assessed the object as non-anomalous; the IC and S&T partners reached high confidence, AARO moderate confidence, all three concluding the object was very likely a lighter-than-air balloon. AARO physically tested a commercial helium lighting balloon and found it replicated key features of the pilot's account, including the paneled appearance and the two-hemisphere infrared contrast.

Metadata

Agency

DoD / All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO)

Release

2023-01-01

Type

PDF • .pdf

Length

7 pages

Classification

UNCLASSIFIED

Tags

rounded cone, EO/IR, radar, Eglin AFB, Florida, 2023, lighter-than-air, commercial balloon, circuit-breaker anomaly

Key points

• Pilot detected four objects on radar in apparent formation at 16,000–18,000 feet but only visually acquired and photographed one; video could not be captured because the aircraft's recording equipment was inoperable before and during the flight.p.1
• Object described as gray, paneled, approximately 12 feet in diameter, with a rounded bottom and a three-dimensional cone top, compared in the initial report to the shape of the Apollo spacecraft.p.1
• During a follow-up interview with AARO, the pilot added a detail absent from the initial report: a near-full-height 'vertically oriented engine' on the object's side, which is not visible in any sensor imagery and cannot be corroborated.p.2
• Radar failed via circuit-breaker trip at 4,000 feet closure; that same breaker had tripped three times in prior months, and AARO assessed the malfunction as coincidental and unrelated to the object.p.2
• AARO's primary conclusion: the UAP very likely was a lighter-than-air object, such as a large commercial outdoor helium-filled lighting balloon, a meteorological balloon, or a large Mylar balloon, with no confirmed anomalous flight characteristics.p.2
• AARO conducted laboratory testing with a commercial lighting balloon and found it could replicate the pilot's 'paneling' observation (caused by fabric seams resembling umbrella ribs) and the infrared contrast between hemispheres.p.3
• The IC partner reconstructed sun geometry and viewing angle and assessed with high confidence that sun glint explained the orange-red color; the S&T partner identified the bottom-hemisphere illumination as 'Earth shine' and proposed red tether points as an alternate color explanation.p.4
• Both external partners, the IC component and the S&T partner, independently reached high confidence that the object was non-anomalous and very likely a balloon, contrasting with AARO's stated moderate confidence due to limited data.p.4

Verbatim

• On 26 January 2023, a military pilot reported four potential unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) while operating in the Eglin Air Force Base training range off the coast of Florida.

  p.1

• The pilot reported that upon closing to within 4,000 feet of the object, the radar on the aircraft malfunctioned and remained disabled for the remainder of the training exercise.

  p.2

• the pilot stated that they thought they saw a vertically oriented engine affixed to the side of the object that was nearly the height of the object

  p.2

• AARO assesses the reported UAP very likely was an ordinary object and was not exhibiting anomalous or exceptional characteristics or flight behaviors.

  p.2

• The partner notes that many larger balloons have red-colored tether points around the circumference of the balloon which could account for the orange-red color the pilot reported observing near the center.

  p.4

Most interesting

• The pilot compared the object's shape to the Apollo spacecraft command module, one of the more precise and unusual shape analogies recorded in UAP reporting.
• A detail the pilot added only during the AARO follow-up interview, a near-full-height engine on the object's side, appears in neither the EO/IR imagery nor the initial report, and AARO declined to corroborate it.
• The circuit breaker that caused the radar failure had faulted three separate times in the months before the incident, substantially undermining the inference that proximity to the UAP triggered the malfunction.
• AARO's two external review partners each independently reached high confidence in the balloon identification using different methods, sun-geometry reconstruction and radar-track deconfliction, while AARO itself reached only moderate confidence due to data limitations.
• Commercial helium lighting balloons of the type AARO identified are available for rent or purchase for outdoor events, construction sites, and movie sets, and can be converted from corded AC power to battery operation, a detail AARO confirmed through its own lab testing.
• The 'blurry air' effect the pilot interpreted as a heat signature is assessed as most likely caused by a tether hanging below the balloon or by motion-induced image blur, not by propulsion.