File 42685 · December 2018
Mt. Etna Object
Mediterranean Sea near Mt. Etna, Italy
Opened 9/12/2026
Sighting photograph. Image pulled from the public post. — AARO / DVIDS
Standing
Unidentified
On the public record, and still open. A claim, paper, or film — not a finding that it was ours, and not a finding that it was not.
AARO Released Mt. Etna Object Video
AARO / DVIDS
Original tape · original language kept
English writing · original voice kept
English writing of the original tape. Mt. Etna Object — AARO / DVIDS. The voice on the recording is left as it was spoken.
AARO official UAP imagery page describing the case and resolution as a balloon.
What was claimed
Forward-looking infrared video from an uncrewed U.S. Air Force platform showing an object near the volcanic plume of Mt. Etna.
What is on the record
This file is a working record — a report, not a verdict. Official paper, if any, is linked where we have it.
In December 2018, an uncrewed U.S. Air Force platform operating over the Mediterranean Sea captured forward-looking infrared footage of an object appearing to transit a plume of superheated gas and ash from the erupting Mt. Etna volcano in Sicily. The video was catalogued and released by the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) as part of official UAP imagery. Detailed analysis by AARO, involving interagency and international partners, determined that optical distortion from atmospheric conditions near the volcano made a distant balloon appear to pass through the plume. The object was assessed as traveling at wind speed with no anomalous performance.
Could this have been ours?
The known sky, that night.
The station was flying. Starlink was not. A string of orbs in this year is usually not a train.
1998 —
International Space Station
A bright, steady moving star. A few minutes to cross. No strobe. Occupied since 2000. NASA publishes the pass times. Not unidentified.
Always
Venus and the bright planets
A fixed brilliant point. Does not streak. Does not hover over a street then leave. Often the first misread light in a rural report.
Always
Aircraft, balloons, meteors
Landing lights, flares, lanterns, reentries, fireballs. They are on the known sky. They do not close a file by themselves — they are what a serious look has to hold the claim against.
Orbit · Space — the desks for lights that are already named.
Sources
Related files
Same craft, same place, same years. A neighbor in the catalogue — not a conclusion.
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