Narrative Statement 4, Western United States Event, 2023

Witness 4’s statement is the one in the 2023 western United States set that ranges furthest in time. The federal special agent describes the first evenings in October 2023 and then further sightings a few days later and again months afterward, partly viewed through night-vision goggles (NVGs).

What the agent describes

Just after sunset on the first evening, a ball of light like a shooting star streaked toward a hillside, changing from amber to white. About ten minutes later came many orange lights, some in evenly spaced lines of three, and then bright orange lights that seemed to “hatch” smaller ones, which fell “like a falling flare”; the agent lost count after five. Nine lights then hung motionless in a line above a ridgeline for more than 30 seconds.

The next evening the agent watched white trails rising and saw, at the same time, a plane in that direction and a string of lights that resembled a Starlink deployment. Later, a light appeared to dart between the top and bottom of a mountain within seconds, raising no dust. A few days on, the agent saw a dark object with a faint red light holding still between two ridges despite heavy winds, and months later a yellow light that moved quickly from north to south.

Ordinary candidates in the account

The statement itself notes a plane in the same direction as some of the lights, a string resembling a Starlink deployment and lights falling “like a falling flare” — comparisons that touch on the explanations AARO weighed in its analysis, which attributes about 60 percent of the case to military flares and leaves the rest unresolved.