A USAF veteran in Ayden, North Carolina, claims, in a testimony filed with the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), to have spotted in a video shot using a camera mounted on a drone, a UFO that traveled about 1.2 miles in one-third of a second, that is, a hypersonic speed of about 13,000 mph per hour or 17 Mach (17 times the speed of sound).
Open Minds TV reports that according to the 59-year-old witness in a report filed as Case 80053 in MUFON’s reporting database, the mysterious object was filmed flying at just about 50 feet off the ground at an estimated speed of 10,000-13,000 mph.
“That is some crazy good footage indeed, thanks for the share uploader!”
The following flight airspeed records help to put the estimate of the speed of the alleged UFO into perspective.
Lockheed SR-71 holds the official airspeed record for a manned air-breathing jet aircraft, with a top speed of about 2,193 mph.
The Inquisitr reported that the fastest airspeed ever attained by any man-made object was a hypersonic speed of 13,000 mph attained during testing of Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 (HTV-2), an unmanned rocket glider developed by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
The witness, a former USAF Veteran, with 20 years of service with the military before he retired, filmed the mysterious object from a drone over Ayden in North Carolina at about 2:12 p.m. on October 26, 2016, using a DJI Phantom 3 Professional 4K aerial camera.
“This UFO video captured with my DJI Phantom 3 Professional 4K aerial camera,” the witness — YouTube user mjlstudios1 — explained in a description of his video uploaded to YouTube. “I filed a UFO report with MUFON and they notified NASA and sent them a copy of the video.”
After the witness filed a report with MUFON, the organization sent a copy of the video to NASA for analysis, the witness claimed on YouTube.
“I filed a UFO report with MUFON and they notified NASA and sent them a copy of the video.”
MUFON only confirmed that it was investigating the video.
“I thought I had seen it all,” the apparently astonished USAF veteran said in the report filed with MUFON. “This footage took me back. I was flying my aerial camera from Ayden District Park. The skies were clear with unlimited visibility.”
He admitted that he did not notice anything unusual while filming with his aerial camera. He noticed the strange anomaly for the first time while reviewing the footage on his 4K TV much later.
“I did not witness this object first hand; it wasn’t until I reviewed the 4K footage on my 4K TV that I first spotted the object on video,” he said.
The video was taken in 10 frames at 30fps, he said. It shows the UFO passing in a blur under the witness’ drone. In the report filed with MUFON, he explained that the object traveled about “three-quarter (3/4) to one mile in one-third (1/3) of a second – a speed of about 10,000 mph.”
“I shoot in 4K/30fps and you can view this object in 10 frames as it flies towards and passes under my drone,” he said. “During these 10 frames of viewing, this object travels three-quarter to one mile in one-third of a second – about 10,000 mph.”
He observed that the object did not appear to be an optical glitch in the video. Rather, it appeared to be a solid metallic object reflecting light as it zoomed over the ground. But he also thought it was possible that the object was emitting its own light.
“The object appears to be solid and emitting its own light, or reflecting light.”
“This anomaly was neither observed nor experienced first-hand,” wrote MUFON’s North Carolina investigator Sanford Davis in his official report. “It was observed as the witness was reviewing aerial drone footage.”
“The whole sighting occurs within a third of a second – a streak arising in the background, streaking across the screen before disappearing in the foreground,” Davis added.
“It appears as a white dot, flattening out somewhat into a ‘light disk’ right before it disappears off screen.”
The investigator was unable to arrive at a definitive conclusion, but considered a number of possibilities.
The first was a drone flying past underneath the witness’ drone. The investigator also suggested it could have been an optical reflection of an object flying overhead.
He also speculated that it could also have been caused by a flare or a glitch in the video equipment.
The sighting sparked a furious debate on YouTube, with some skeptics insisting that the “mysterious object” was only a bug.
“Don’t need NASA or MUFON to realize it’s just a bug,” a YouTube user commented.
“To you UFO nuts UFO 99.9% of the time means alien; that’s why,” another quipped.
“Congrats you caught a bug! Idiot,” a third commented rudely.
[Featured Image by M. Cornelius/Shutterstock]