For approximately 15 seconds, two cold orbs remained stationary above the water. Then the gunner aboard a U.S. Special Operations AC-130 pulled the trigger.
The aircraft was conducting live-fire training over the Gulf of Oman during darkness on 8 September 2021. It had dropped a water-activated flare as a mock target and entered an orbit around it. When the crew returned the electro-optical and infrared sensor to the flare, two objects were waiting there.
During the slight delay before the cannon recoiled, the pair rapidly flew away from the flare and out of the sensor feed.U.S. intelligence report · witness account
Four feet wide, just above the water
The report describes the objects as approximately four feet in diameter, hovering between zero and 20 feet above the surface. They departed without changing altitude.
They were not the only objects encountered that night. The AC-130 crew reported approximately 25 UAP observations during the sortie. Some appeared in coordinated formations, moving around, over and under one another in a wave-like pattern compared in the report to dolphins swimming together. Others maneuvered erratically and aggressively.
Between 250 and 1,300 miles per hour
Using the aircraft’s tactical tools, the crew calculated observed speeds ranging from 250 to 1,300 miles per hour. No means of propulsion was observed.
The crew attempted to preserve the complete EO/IR record. According to the report, the aircraft’s digital video recorder “inexplicably failed,” leaving the full data corrupted. What remains are cellphone recordings of the aircraft’s sensor displays.
What made them move?
Two objects waited above a military flare. They remained still for 15 seconds. Then, in the interval between a trigger pull and the recoil of a 105mm cannon, both left the frame.
The official record preserves the sequence. It does not explain it.