AARO "Mt. Etna Object": drone video of an object apparently passing through a volcanic plume

In late 2018, Mount Etna was restless. The Italian site Meer describes a "strong intensification" of the volcano's activity, one that "would then result in the great Christmas Eve eruption." On 24 December 2018, a flank eruption sent an ash and gas column to about 9 km and disrupted Catania airport. No source ties the video to that exact day. But sometime that December, an American sensor was watching that sky.

The observer was not a person. It was a forward-looking infrared video sensor aboard an uncrewed U.S. Air Force platform, flying near Naval Air Station Sigonella over the Mediterranean Sea south of Sicily. Meer's captions call the aircraft an MQ-9 Reaper. AARO has never named the type.

The recording runs 12 minutes and 21 seconds. For about four and a half minutes, a small, round object is in view. It seems to move at high speed across the clouds. Then it appears to pass directly through Etna's eruption plume. Nothing changes. In AARO's words, it was "seemingly passing through the volcano's plume with no apparent impact to its performance, altitude and bearing."

19 November 2024. Dr. Jon T. Kosloski, Director of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, sat before an open session of the Senate Armed Services Committee. "An interesting case, which I don't believe the public is familiar with," he told lawmakers. He said "it appears that that object is flying through the plume of superheated gas and ash." The same day, the clip went up on DVIDS as "Mt. Etna Object," shown alongside other cases such as the "Puerto Rico Object" and the Navy "Go Fast" video.

AARO worked with intelligence community and science and technology partners in what DVIDS called an "interagency and international analytical effort." The team used full-motion video analysis software, 3D modeling, pixel examination and novel speed and distance calculation techniques. The decisive test was light. AARO compared the luminosity of the object's pixels with a sample range of pixels immediately around it. That, the office said, disproved the idea that the object flew through the ash plume. Kosloski called it "a rather difficult case to resolve."

AARO's conclusion was "a balloon approximately 170 kilometers from the caldera traveling at wind speed and direction." The formal Case Resolution Report, dated 28 April 2025, puts its drift at about 39 km/h, generally west to east. The apparent speed was motion parallax from the drone's own movement. Heat distortion near the eruption made it seem to cross the plume. A model built on these findings predicted the object's location later in the video. AARO stated moderate confidence that it was a balloon, and high confidence that it showed no anomalous behavior.

One detail remains untidy. In spoken testimony, Kosloski said the object was "170 meters away from the plume, and not flying through it." The written AARO products say about 170 kilometres from the caldera. Meer, which called it "un normalissimo pallone sonda," an ordinary weather balloon, repeated the 170 metres figure. No independent counter-analysis has been published.

The case is young and its footprint is small, with no books or documentaries. Meer noted it does not appear in the Italian Air Force's UFO records. Still, it is one of the rare cases where the public can watch the original footage, read the method, and judge the answer for themselves.