FBI-UAP-PR004, “Northeastern Orb Sighting,” 2025
In July 2025, at approximately 2100 local time in the northeastern United States, an eyewitness observed an intense bright light in their backyard as they parked their car upon returning home from work. The light was hovering approximately 25 feet off the ground, below a tree line near the center of their backyard, at an estimated distance of 90 feet. The eyewitness exited their vehicle briefly before retrieving their phone to record the event. The spouse of the eyewitness came outside to assess the situation. The spouse also witnessed the light, describing it as a “brilliant red sphere” about one meter in diameter. The center of the red sphere appeared to be a white plasma “sun” about the size of a basketball. The orb slowly rose and moved to the left, and both eyewitnesses observed a second, identical orb, hovering above the other orb. The eyewitness then began recording the event using an iPhone 14 Pro Max, capturing the footage depicted in this video. As the eyewitness began recording, the orbs moved westward together above a nearby tree line. The witnesses described the orbs’ motion as silent and smooth, and as moving in tandem as though they were flying in formation or tethered together. As the orbs moved out of sight, both eyewitnesses saw them appear to merge. The eyewitnesses estimated that the orbs moved from their initial position before disappearing from view at an estimated distance of 75 yards. This observation occurred within 25 miles of the “Triangle Orbs,” “Red Orb Rotation,” and “Orbs Over the Pond,” sightings at a location well known to them, which is sparsely populated. The description above is derived from statements provided to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) by eyewitnesses to the event. The FBI assesses the individuals who reported this event as credible. The subject matter described in files FBI-UAP-D009 through FBI-UAP-D010 and depicted in the video footage FBI-UAP-PR004 corresponds to reports originating from the same general area in the northeastern United States.
The summary above is sourced from the released file metadata as published to war.gov. The analysis sections below are original to this tracker.
Where this file fits in the PURSUE archive
This file is one of FBI's 86 files in the Trump PURSUE disclosure. Within the FBI agency block it ranks #4 of 86 by Anomalousness Index. Across the entire 294-file archive it ranks #8 of 294.
That places it tied with 26 other files at 66 - the densest single-score cluster in the archive, anchored by AARO-submitted military infrared captures.
Anomalousness Index: 70/100
Evidentiary weight that this encounter remains unexplained after conventional analysis. Not a probability of extraterrestrial origin - that number is not honestly computable from the released files and this tracker refuses to publish it.
🤖 AI-ASSISTED SCORING · methodology
The six rubric components break down for this file as follows. Each component has a weighted contribution to the final score; the per-component explanation below describes what this file's particular value on that component means in the rubric's framework.
Captured by a single U.S. military sensor platform (typically infrared, occasionally short-wave infrared or dual EO+IR), aboard a mission aircraft or operational platform. Instrumented, time-stamped, and recoverable. Lower than a multi-sensor capture only because cross-modality confirmation is the rubric's higher bar.
Federal agency personnel (FBI investigators or equivalent) recording the report into the federal investigative system. Investigative credentials, but typically operating in a reactive rather than mission-active posture.
Single-witness or single-instrument capture. Every file in the PURSUE archive scores at this corroboration tier on the released metadata - the rubric records the honest limit of the underlying record rather than inferring multi-witness corroboration that the released summaries do not establish.
No kinematic measurements - speed, acceleration, vector - are published in the released file with sufficient precision to score on the kinematic axis. The rubric does not infer kinematic anomaly from narrative observer estimates. Every file in the archive carries this value, which is itself an observation about the disclosure: kinematic-grade telemetry was not part of what was released.
A conventional candidate explanation has been considered but is not dispositive. Every file in the archive scores this way - reflecting that the underlying release metadata systematically caveats strong determinations in either direction. The released summaries warn against reading them as conclusive analytical judgments, and the rubric respects that.
Released as open after formal review by the originating agency. The file passed through a review process and was published in that posture - a stronger disposition signal than 'unresolved with no review,' because review has occurred and the open status is the agency's published conclusion.
Bottom line on the score: the Anomalousness Index of 70/100 reflects evidentiary weight that this specific file's encounter remains structurally unexplained by the rubric's six axes - it is not a claim that the underlying event involved anything non-conventional, and it is not comparable across rubrics that use different weights. For the full per-axis weights and the rubric JSON, see /methodology.
Related files in FBI
Other PURSUE files in the same category, ranked by Anomalousness Index.
FBI-UAP-PR003, “Orbs Over the Pond,” 2024
FBI-UAP-PR001, “Triangle Orbs,” Northeastern United States, 2021
FBI-UAP-PR002, “Red Orb Rotation,” Northeastern United States, 2022
FBI-UAP-PR005, Digital Recreation, Narrative Statement 3-1, Western United States Event, 2…
FBI-UAP-PR006, Digital Recreation, Narrative Statement 3-2, Western United States Event, 2…
FBI-UAP-D014, Digital Rendering, Narrative Statement 1-1, Western United States Event, 202…
Verification
SHA-256:
This hash is the SHA-256 of the file body war.gov served on the verification date above. War.gov has re-processed some file bodies since first release (re-compression + OCR, no content removed - see /changes); we re-verify and record the change rather than silently serve a stale hash. How to check this yourself →
Source (DVIDS): https://www.dvidshub.net/video/1010269/fbi-uap-pr004-northeastern-orb-sighting-2025
Direct video file: https://d34w7g4gy10iej.cloudfront.net/video/2606/DOD_111764177/DOD_111764177.mp4