Location

[32.87, -117.24]

Duration

5m

Shape

OTHER

Date: March 29, 2021 06:30 PST Location: La Jolla, Calif (Lat: 32° 52' 11.1'' N Long: 117° 14' 19.788'' W) Object: Black inverted tear-drop shaped object. Description of the location of the sighting: I live on the leeward side of a ridgeline about one to two miles from the ocean, and about ten miles west of MCAS Miramar. The prevailing winds are onshore, from west to east. [Redacted] has a large bay window that looks to the east. The altitude from atmospheric pressure is about 316 feet asl. From [redacted], the side of the ridge drops down another 100 feet or so to the next street. At the time of the sighting, it was pre-sunrise, with just the gleam of the approaching sunrise showing over the horizon. This report is reconstructed from a contemporaneous post I put on Facebook shortly after the sighting. At approximately 0630 that morning, I was placing a cup of coffee on my end table, preparing to read the newspaper on a sofa that abuts the large bay window. As I looked up from the end table, I spotted an object fly over my house about 50 to 100 feet above my roof. It flew on an easterly course of approximately 082 degrees magnetic, according to my cell phone compass. It was silhouetted against the sunrise and appeared black and shaped like an inverted teardrop. There was no obvious means of propulsion and no visible flight surfaces. The sliding glass door next to the bay window was open and there was no noise coming from the object. I studied aeronautics in a two-year high school college pre-course, and I’ve done a little flying. I served in three branches of the reserves for more than 20 years and been around a lot of aircraft and I couldn't figure out what this thing was. It appeared to be a good size because I could see it very clearly from my house, even when it was a good distance away. I tried to photograph it, but it didn't come out. Shortly after the sighting, I checked the recent flight traffic history on an online ADS-B service. There were no flights in my immediate area at 0630, though there was some air traffic south of my location. After I made my Facebook post, some of my friends suggested it was a hot air balloon, a helium-filled party balloon, or a drone. We do have hot air balloon rides in the county, but well to the north of us in less developed areas. It couldn’t be a party balloon; if it was, it would have landed and tumbled in our townhouse complex. The prevailing winds from the west tumble over the top of the ridgeline. When neighbors on streets above ours have fires going in their fireplaces, the smoke is drawn down and into our homes. Drones are loud and have obvious flight surfaces. After the sighting, I skimmed the internet to see if there were any other reports of a strange object that morning. I again came across the "tic-tac" Navy gun camera footage the Pentagon released in 2019 and realized it had a somewhat similar shape to what I saw, and that footage was taken just off the San Diego coast.