The Arizona Learjet and American Airlines Flight 1095 Sighting

Saturday, February 24, 2018. South-central Arizona, in airspace run by Albuquerque Center. Davis-Monthan Air Force Base lies near Tucson.

Flying east at about 37,000 feet was N71PG, a Phoenix Air Learjet 36 on an air-ambulance mission with the U.S. Air Force. Its captain had about 15,000 flight hours. Behind it on the same route came American Airlines Flight 1095, an Airbus A321. Its captain was Blenus Green, a retired USAF B-1 pilot.

About 3:30 in the afternoon, the Learjet called in. "Was anybody, uh, above us that passed us like 30 seconds ago?" "Negative," said the controller. "Somethin' did." Another voice on the frequency said "a UFO." The controller warned American 1095. An aircraft ahead had reported something passing over it, and "we didn't have any targets." The Learjet crew added that "it wasn't an airplane" and "the path was going in the opposite direction."

Then it was the airliner's turn. "It's American 1095. Yeah, something just passed over us." It was "at least two-three thousand feet above us. Yeah it passed right over the top of us." Was it moving or hovering? The captain could not tell. "I couldn't make it out if it was a balloon or whatnot, but it was just really beaming light or had a big reflection and several thousand feet above us going the opposite direction." Someone asked, "was it a Google balloon?" One word came back. "Doubtful."

Phoenix Air vice president Bob Tracey spoke for the Learjet captain. The object passed "at a speed that appeared similar to what a commercial airline would travel." "Whatever it was was so overwhelmingly bright, he could not determine signature or profile." The Learjet's avionics detected nothing. Blenus Green later told the Phoenix New Times: "It didn't look anything like an airplane." The light puzzled him. "Normally, if you have an object and the sun is shining this way, the reflection would be on this side, but this was bright all the way around."

Tyler Rogoway of The War Zone obtained the FAA recording, about six minutes of radio traffic, and published it first. The Washington Post, CNN, ABC News, TIME and Newsweek followed. FAA spokesperson Lynn Lunsford said "the controller was unable to verify that any other aircraft was in the area." The incident had not been formally written up. NORAD said its assets were not involved. X said the object was not a Project Loon balloon.

Joe Nickell asked retired USAF Major James McGaha to examine the case for Skeptical Inquirer. McGaha found the object "fully consistent with… a reflective, slowly drifting object at high altitude, very brightly lit by the sun." It was "very likely some type of balloon." A slow balloon drifting west would seem to race past jets flying east at about 450 to 500 knots.

The pilots were less sure. Rogoway noted they "don't sound that convinced." Green saw light all the way around, not on one side. Rogoway also raised the possibility of clandestine military aircraft in a "hotspot of military aviation." None was reported afterward.

Two professional crews. Two aircraft. One light that radar never saw. The case sits in the long file of airline crews reporting bright objects in daylight.