Background

The following case was submitted by witness John to The Black Vault / TBV Investigations on 07/03/2018 at 1:42 am and was assigned to TBV Investigations’ researcher Jim Kerr for investigation and analysis.

Witness Testimony

The following testimony was submitted by the witness:

“It was a cloudy Monday; I was going to take a break outside, when I spotted a light in the sky that moved, I took the opportunity to film it and take photos on the object. It moved before disappearing, disproving that it’s a meteor or asteroids. It had to be a UFO.

The photo and the video was taken in Ronneby, Blekinge County, Sweden.”

Witness Interview Conducted by Email on 08/15/2018 @ 11:52 pm

Q: What make, and model of camera or cell phone camera did you record the video and still photo?

A: I filmed the sighting with my Huawei Honor 8 lite, which had a built-in star track.

Q: Do you have additional still photos you can forward?

A: I didn’t have time to change the camera mode, because if I changed it, the object would’ve disappeared.
     I took a video so that It wouldn’t look like any star.

Q: What was the approx compass direction you were facing while filming?

A: I was facing southeast at 140°.

Q:  In your video, it appears you are inside a building behind a glass window, possibly inside a restaurant or store with the ambient sounds of conversations. The window is visible in front of the camera lens. Please set the stage as to what you were doing just before filming the UFO?

A: I was in my apartment, watching television, I wanted to take a look at the night sky, which is often. So I went to my window and noticed the object up there (it was shaped like a flying saucer, but for some reason, it was bright for my camera), but the camera didn’t capture the object in good quality, it was too bright for my camera.

Q: What drew your attention to this object?

A: The fact that it was moving, and that it didn’t resemble any known aircraft in Sweden, drew me into it.

Q:  Approx how long did you observe the object before filming?

A: I observed it for a full minute.

Q: Before your sighting did you have an interest in the UFO topic?

A: Yes, I had (and still have) an interest in the topic of UFOs.

Q: Is this the first UFO sighting you ever had?

A: Yes, this is my first UFO sighting.

Q:  Have you seen any UFO’s since this incident?

A: Yes mate, I did encounter another UFO at the same location before this incident.

Q: Were there other people in your presence that also observed this UFO? If so, describe their reactions or any statements they made. I don’t need their names.

A: There weren’t any people outside during that time.

Q: Just before or even days before seeing this UFO were you engaged in conversation with anyone about the topic of UFO’s? Note; (In many sightings witnesses were engaged in conversation about UFO’s before their sighting).

A: Check the above answer.

Q: If you were in a restaurant or business, please provide the name of the establishment or the cross streets of this location. Note; (this is important to eliminate any air traffic of flight patterns from local airports).

A: I wasn’t in a restaurant during that time, I was in my home.

The Evidence

The witness submitted two forms of visual evidence. A seven-second video clip with audio and a still photograph. Both were recorded using a Huawei Honor 8 lite cell phone.

The Analysis

by Jim Kerr, TBV Investigations

My Background as a UFO investigator began in 1973 after witnessing two illuminated disk-like objects that hovered, made right angle turns at high speed then ascended into the atmosphere at unbelievable speeds. In one sighting three USAF F-4 fighter jets arrived on the scene after the UFO shot up into the atmosphere. Since that time I became an amateur photographer, videographer and astronomer. Over the years I have archived many hours of video footage of jet aircraft during daylight and night in different weather and lighting conditions. Based on my experience I am aware of how aircraft in different lighting conditions can appear as a UFO, flying saucer, etc. Even in my photos and video, I captured objects that I initially believed were UFO’s, but after carefully analyzing the images with video editing software I determined them to be aircraft, birds, balloons, bugs, etc. Always keep in mind that even with the human eye can deceive us.

On 12/11/2017 at approx 2:00 pm Witness John related he went outside to take a break and observed a light in the sky that was moving. Using his cell phone, he took photos and video of the illuminated object before it disappeared. The witness believed it was not a meteor or asteroid and must have been a UFO.

On 08/15/2018, I conducted an email interview with the witness; There are minor inconsistencies from his original statement but nothing that affects the visual evidence presented in the photo and video submitted. Due to the passage of time, it is understandable that statement inconsistencies will occur. Refer to the witness’ statements under “Witness Testimony.”

Below is one witness statement that I will elaborate on later in my conclusions.

“I was in my apartment, watching television, I wanted to take a look at the night sky, which is often. So I went to my window and noticed the object up there (it was shaped like a flying saucer, but for some reason, it was bright for my camera), but the camera didn’t capture the object in good quality, it was too bright for my camera.”

I don’t know the witness’ exact location while filming within the city of Ronneby as he seemed reluctant to provide this information. Due to this, I am unable to determine his exact location while filming and his distance from the Ronneby Airport. Again, with the witness submitting photo and video, his location is not necessary to identify the object he filmed. Here is my analysis of that evidence:

Weather Information

Weather history searched on the weather website wunderground. The weather station is located at the Ronneby Air Base, Sweden.

Weather conditions at the time of the witness’ sighting; 34 deg, humidity 93%, wind 9 mph out of the NE, and mostly cloudy.

High temp 37 deg, low temp 29 deg, precipitation 0.24 inches, dew point 31 deg, average wind speed 12 mph, visibility 19 miles.

Surrounding Airports

Ronneby Airport is located approx 2.5 miles from Ronneby, Sweden. It is the 6th largest airport in Sweden and considered a Minor International Airport that handles approx 226,995 passengers per year. On the average, there are approx 16 incoming and outgoing flights per day.

Surrounding Military Installations

Blekinge Flygflottilj F17 Swedish Air Force Base, simply known as “F 17”, is located approx 0.62 miles from the Ronneby Airport. The base currently houses two squadrons of the multirole aircraft. A wing of the Swedish helicopter forces is also stationed at F17.

Additional information about Blekinge Flygflottilj F17:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F_17_Kallinge

Astronomical Data

Searching the archives of Stellarium, (a planetarium software that shows exactly what you see when you look up at the stars), I found no celestial objects that could remotely account for what the witness observed. Below is historical astronomical data from Weather-Underground.

Summary and Conclusion

Based on the following I determined the illuminated object in the witness’ photo and video to be landing lights of an aircraft on approach to the Roddeby Airport. I used Sony Vegas video editing software to enlarge the object and adjusted the lighting and contrast in both the photo and video footage. The speed of the object along with it’s straight, steady flight path is consistent with aircraft on approach to an airport. The Ronneby Airport is located 2.5 miles from the town of Ronneby.

In my video analysis of the witness’ video, (see video analysis above), the aircraft’s white strobe light can be seen flashing intermittently within the brilliant landing lights. This is evident in the witness’ video footage. As an example, I videoed an aircraft at night with it’s landing light turned on. My footage also shows the intermittent flashing of the aircraft’s white strobe light that can be seen within the brilliant landing light. Both the witness’s video and my video are similar enough to conclude aircraft landing lights were what the witness observed, videoed and photographed.  

The witness made the statement;  “It was shaped like a flying saucer, but for some reason, it was bright for my camera, but the camera didn’t capture the object in good quality, it was too bright for my camera.” Based on my video analysis, adjusting the lighting and contrast, I observed no flying saucer associated with the aircraft landing lights. I have personally observed and videoed aircraft landing lights and as I stated earlier, they can be deceiving and can appear saucer-like in shape. Keep in mind that aircraft in the different light setting are often mistaken for Flying Saucers. Watch the analyzed video below for further details.

I want to thank the witness for sending TBV Investigations his UFO report and visual evidence. I hope this investigation will provide answers to those who witness lights in the sky and help identify UFO’s, Unidentified Flying Objects.

The post UFO over Ronneby, Blekinge County, Sweden – December 11, 2017 first appeared on The Black Vault Case Files.

The post UFO over Ronneby, Blekinge County, Sweden – December 11, 2017 appeared first on The Black Vault Case Files.

Background

On October 26, 2018, this case was submitted to The Black Vault. It was assigned to TBV Investigations’ research Jeremy Enfinger for analysis.

Witness Testimony

The witness/photographer submitted the following information:

I was picking my grandchildren up from elementary school when I noticed everybody looking up in the sky I too looked up there and saw what I saw on the photos. The sighting date listed above (in the initial report) is wrong it was in 2014 I believe it was April. I couldn’t change sighting date on your program.

The sighting was reported to have occurred near the intersection of Thornton Rd. and Estate Dr. in Stockton, California around (or near) April of 2014. Four photos were submitted of an anomaly in the sky witnessed by multiple people (appearing in some of the photos).

The Evidence

The Analysis

Metadata analysis indicates the images are the original files, and EXIF metadata was able to be extracted. The image was taken from a Samsung SGH-T599N (5 MP) at a resolution of 1920 x 2560 pixels, using automatic exposure control with ISO 50, an exposure time of 1/2915 sec and an F-stop of 2.7. With the jpeg quality being 97%, there is no indication that the image file has been compressed. The flash was not utilized.

The time stamp on the metadata indicates it was taken May 9, 2014 at 14:14 hours. Due to initial research, no photo manipulation techniques were employed.

Initial impressions indicated the photo was not manipulated, and no evidence of motion was present when comparing images. There were, however, subtle changes in appearance around the periphery of the anomaly which caused me to consider some sort of meteorological or atmospheric disturbance.

After retrieving the metadata, multiple Google searches for “UFO Stockton, California, 2014” and “Clouds in Stockton, California, 2014” for the months of April and May of that year yielded several results. Image results were found that matched the appearance in these images and multiple news article links varied in headlines from May 9 to include “UFO sightings” to descriptions of cloud formations that can cause this kind of appearance.

Conclusion

After consulting the numerous articles citing this phenomenon, it can be summarized as a “Hole Punch Cloud”, which appears as a large, circular gap that usually appears in cirrocumulus or altocumulus clouds. Also called a “fallstreak hole”, it can happen when moisture in a cloud is at a temperature that’s below freezing, but the moisture itself is isn’t actually frozen. According to the Huffington Post, these formations can also be caused by aircraft passing through certain types of clouds.

References

Here was a FOX 40 submitted photograph from the same timeframe:

The Huffington Post also ran a story about it:

Also CBS Sacramento was another resource that covered it:

YouTube user MrPhath posted a video of it as well:

Original Metadata Information

Each photo was submitted to Fotoforensics, but for the purpose of this report, I will only include the link to one as the JPEG quality and metadata are corroborated in comparison.

Photo #1 Metadata (from FotoForensics): http://fotoforensics.com/analysis.php?id=d6040af2eb054b5764d749de34163b5000b459b0.1704869

JPEG last saved at 97% quality (estimated).

Quality determined from the quantization tables that encoded the JPEG:

JPEG Q0: Luminance

JPEG Q1: Chrominance

The post UFO Photographed in the Clouds over Stockton, California first appeared on The Black Vault Case Files.

The post UFO Photographed in the Clouds over Stockton, California appeared first on The Black Vault Case Files.

Background

The following case was submitted to The Black Vault / TBV Investigations on May 19, 2018. It was assigned to TBV Investigations’ researcher Michael Glenn for analysis.

Witness Testimony

The witness submitted the following report:

“At approximately 19:30 on May 17, 2018 I saw something extremely bright horizontal to the setting sun. I’ve seen sundogs before and have many photographs of them. This was no sundog. It hung in the air. It was huge. It had a shape. I ran inside and grabbed my phone and snapped a few shots. I also manipulated a couple of them and brought out what looks like a glowing cigar shape object of some kind. I took a few close ups and a couple of wide angles. I have to say I was amazed. I also caught a secondary object that looks geometrical with antennae protruding from the corners when you zoom in on one of the frames. Look at the photographs and you tell me what that is in the sky. Feel free to download and examine them for yourselves.”

The Evidence

The witness also submitted many photographs of the event in question. This took place over Jacksonville, NC. 

The Analysis

The image was examined using several filters, settings, and adjustments in Photoshop. The object appears to be part of the sky, and has its own brightness, equal to the sunlight. To the left of the large shape is a small, geometric object hanging in the sky. The pixelated nature of the image makes it impossible to tell for sure what we are looking at. The witness stated that the object was not noticed until examining the images later. The witness further states that the cloud shape hung there as the ones around it moved, dissipated. Some swirling can be seen in the image, but again, not definitive shapes. The event lasted ten minutes.

Image Analysis

Conclusion

It is impossible to draw a conclusion for the geometric shape hanging in the air to the left of the elliptical shape as the image is not clear enough. The elliptical shape could be described on first look as a Fallstreak hole (hole punch cloud), but the cloud type is not right for this phenomenon since Fallstreak holes occur in cirro and alto cumulus clouds. A search of images on Google turned up this example of a similar sky effect. This cloud feature is the only conclusion that can be drawn at this time as there is no discernible anomaly in the image.

The post UFO over Jacksonville, North Carolina – May 17, 2018 first appeared on The Black Vault Case Files.

The post UFO over Jacksonville, North Carolina – May 17, 2018 appeared first on The Black Vault Case Files.

Background

The following case was submitted to TBV Investigations on April 15, 2018, just three days after the sighting. It was assigned to TBV Investigations’ researcher Michael Glenn for investigation.

Witness Testimony

The witness only submitted the following description in their report:

“White orb flying around then disappears”

The Evidence

The Analysis

The video was run through Adobe Premiere, wherein I checked for verification of a solid, real object in inverted mode, and with levels and contrast adjustments.

The object can be seen coming across the sky, touching the edge of the Flying J sign, and then reappearing moments later on the other side.

The witness was contacted, but no further reply was received. There is a regional airport in the exact direction of the sighting, however, no flight records could be cross reference at the time of this report.  The map of this location, with the approximate witness location, is marked:

I matched the Google Street View location, where the witness was approximately standing:

The same directional orientation is maintained with the following image, displaying the location of the nearby airport. Although the object does not appear from be going to the airport, it could be an indicator of the source of where this craft came from, or will eventually end up. 

It is also possible that the object is a satellite, however, an EXACT match was not possible to match up, since the witness supplied very little information. 

The object goes in and out of focus several times, and seems to disappear at the end of the video after going well out of focus by the camera.  

One concern is that the object seems to disappear all at once, rather than by degrees, before it goes behind the gas station sign.  This could be due to a frame rate issue of the cell phone camera or compression artifact when the video was exported, and the frames indicating the gradual disappearance behind the sign were dropped, therefore displaying as an immediate disappearance rather than a gradual one. 

Conclusion

The sighting is most likely air traffic, with the aircraft going out of focus or behind clouds at the end of the video. Without more testimony from the eyewitness the case must remain unknown. The aircraft shows no other signs of aberrant behavior while it is observed.

The post UFO over Cotulla, Texas – April 12, 2018 first appeared on The Black Vault Case Files.

The post UFO over Cotulla, Texas – April 12, 2018 appeared first on The Black Vault Case Files.

Background

The following case was submitted to The Black Vault / TBV Investigations on March 13, 2018. It was assigned to TBV Investigations’ researcher Michael Glenn for analysis.

Witness Testimony

The following was submitted by the witness. The description was very minimal. It is here unedited:

“This thing or object makes a U-Turn in the Sky, then descents thru the clouds!”

The Evidence

The Analysis

by Michael Glenn, TBV Investigations

A video was submitted showing several objects swirling around an exterior security camera.

The witness stated in their original submission, “This thing or object makes a U-Turn in the Sky, then descents thru the clouds!”

This can be inferred from the video, but is more speculation than what the video shows. The object appears to rise, than come back down. Not enough contrast in the video makes it impossible to discern the nature of the object. The witness was contacted and asked for additional footage of the same camera views during daylight to determine what structures are in that direction.

To date, there has been no response or communication from the witness, and the object remains unidentified, but lacks sufficient evidence or any follow up from the witness.

Conclusion

As seen in the video, the object is little more than a white dot that rises, and makes a turn in the sky.

In still 6 the object seems to appear again at the bottom of the frame, at the very end of the video.

The quality of the video has been enhanced as much as possible, but the terrain, the object, and the sky cannot be discerned definitively. At this time the object is not identifiable, but likely not anything out of the ordinary, until further evidence (or testimony) is presented.

The post UFO Caught Doing U-Turn over Buffalo, New York – September 13, 2017 first appeared on The Black Vault Case Files.

The post UFO Caught Doing U-Turn over Buffalo, New York – September 13, 2017 appeared first on The Black Vault Case Files.

Background

by John Greenewald, Jr. – The Black Vault – TBV Investigations

This photograph appears on the Facebook / Edge of Wonder Page, as posted on February 14, 2018. Although there may be an earlier post “source” — this post alone has nearly 15,000 shares and more than 1,500 likes at the time of this writing, it constitutes as “viral” and deserves a mention here.

Reason being, the photograph is a fairly provable fake. But, don’t let that stop the masses from “sharing” it with the world. Why? Well, it has to be real despite evidence to the contrary.  Why? Well, the post says it’s real. So, if you read it on the internet, it HAS to be true!

Here is the text of the original post:

It happened in Russia. 
They said this is not fake, what do you think？

cr. web

The Evidence

The Analysis

Doing a slight crop on the image, then conducting a reverse image search, multiple matches to an identical “apparition” are discovered.

First discovered, believed to be the source, is a graphite sketch appearing on moziru, and on a large list of artistic work using “Graphite” as the medium.

Second, is information about a music album in Spanish, entitled “Accidents – El Fantasma en mi” which has the following cover art:

Although there are slight variations between the two examples found on Google, the image in question above, of an apparition in Russia, is clearly an exact copy of the first example. Here is an overlay showing the image in question, vs. the first graphite drawing.

Both layers are on top of each other, which different color balances to differentiate between the two.

The hoaxer did skew the original artwork (they changed the aspect ratio) but it took only seconds to do the same thing in Photoshop, and see that the finger placement, body, etc. are a perfect/identical match.

Conclusion

With the evidence given above, this case is comfortably labeled a hoax.

The post Mysterious “Ghostly Apparition” appears in Russia (Viral Photo) first appeared on The Black Vault Case Files.

The post Mysterious “Ghostly Apparition” appears in Russia (Viral Photo) appeared first on The Black Vault Case Files.

Background

On December 6, 2017, the witness submitting the following information to The Black Vault:

Hello John

About myself:

I am sound mind and body. I am 63, and just retired. Moved to Las Vegas in February of 2016. Goal was to go to Area 51, photograph mountains, and UFOs. Yea right!

I am ex Navy 15 years, and X Military Police for 3 years of those 15. I been shooting photography my entire life. I used a Sony A350. It’s 14 years old or so. But in good working condition. I just bought a Nikon D750 2 days ago. Lord knows how that thing works.

This report was shot with the Sony A350 a first generation DSLR. 

I am a good photographer, who likes to take pictures of weather and jets. So as you can guess I am always looking in the air. But not every day, to much of one thing is never good.

I have 2 separate incidents where I capture a UFO on digital film. But could you clarify what I saw??

The first time I saw a bright white ball of light leave the clouds at 230 in the afternoon,, while shooting airplanes at Nellis AFB.

I shot a series of 10 images until I no longer could see the object.

It came from behind a clouds, jetted down at a 45 degree decent and vanish, time elapse was probably 10 seconds… time enough for the card to write.

About 18 aircraft had landed, and there was a pause in the recovery. I think it thought recovery was done, but I knew there were more aircraft to be recovery, just because I was there for 4 hours.

Then it jetted out of the clouds… I just kept shooting until it was no longer… so I have 10 images of white spot. When I blew it up to 200x, it just looks like nothing, a cloud shifter.. but when I saw it, it had direction and speed.

The case was assigned to TBV Investigations team member Christopher Connelly.

The Analysis

by Christopher Connelly, TBV Investigations

From a subjective perspective, it is hard to determine the shape of the object in the photographs due to the distance and the possible changes in position of the object. I am able to see in one photograph, that the object appears to be disc shaped but in the others, it becomes hard to discern. The color appears to be silver or metallic, as it seems to be reflective of natural light. The witness described the object as “being of an irregular shape and a bright white ball of light,” which is fairly accurate of what I see within his photographs. I see no color changes within the photographs given to me, nor do I see any signs of other light sources on the object.

From the objective perspective, the witness stated that incident occurred around 1430 while he was viewing the return on aircraft to the Nellis Air Force Base, located in Nevada. Witness states that there were about 22 aircraft in total that were returning from a possible exercise and around when the 18th aircraft touched down, he turned to face North, when he spotted the said “object.” He stated that a white ball of light came out from behind the clouds and sped through the sky at a speed that did not match any of the active aircraft. He was able to get the pictures but eventually he lost sight of the object. He states that the object did not appear to be metallic but due to the distance of the object, he states that “it was hard to tell.” No return of object.

I contacted Nellis AFB in regards to getting their flight logs or past exercises in hopes of seeing what aircraft were in the air at that time, just in case they were visiting squadrons.  Note: This portion of the investigation is still pending as no response from Nellis has yet been given. 

Visiting squadrons may be different aircraft. Nellis is home to many different aircraft including the Thunderbirds, who are known to perform death defying maneuvers, F-22 Raptors, A-10 Thunderbolt II, F-16 Fighting Falcons and F-15 Strike Eagles. It is impossible to determine if the object that is seen in the first encounter, is one of these due to the quality of the photographs.

This is not due to the photographers skills as it may be due to the crafts speed or maneuvering.

It does appear to be metallic, but like the witness stated, due to the distance, it is too difficult to judge.

Possible Explanations

The witnesses descriptions were helpful but they don’t give any leads to the source of this object, unfortunately. I went over the photographs of the first encounter that he provided but I am unable to match them to any aircraft that I know of or that I could find. The witness states that this could have been a lens flare, but I am unable to determine that. 

Another possibility was that it was a UFO, which I cannot conclude due to the lack of evidence.

Michael Andrew McLimans, a fellow TBV Investigations team member, offered another possible theory for consideration.

Party City, Balloon Planet and other party supply stores offer a large balloon in the shape of a “6”. The shape could definitely match the object in the photos, and the question now, would be the size.

It is very hard to tell exactly how far the object is away from the camera. The largest “6” balloon found was about 3′ tall.  The question would be, how far would a 3′ tall balloon in this shape be discernible? 

Photo Gallery

The post UFO Appears Over Las Vegas, Nevada, May 15, 2017 first appeared on The Black Vault Case Files.

The post UFO Appears Over Las Vegas, Nevada, May 15, 2017 appeared first on The Black Vault Case Files.