FBI 302 Witness Interview: UAP Sighting at a U.S. Test Site, September 2023 (Serial 4)

Source file: fbi-september-2023-sighting-serial-4.pdf (source file: serial-3_redacted.pdf) Originating agency: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Date range: September 2023 (incident); October 2023 (interview drafted) Page count: 2 (both read) High-significance pages: pages 1 and 2 (the complete physical description of the object appears on page 2)

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Official Blurb (from war.gov)

This is an FBI 302 interview conducted with a US citizen regarding their first-hand account of a UAP encounter at a US test site. USPER described an object "metallic/gray in color."

Summary

This document is an FD-302 form (Rev. 5-8-10) of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the agency's standard format for formally recording witness interviews. It documents a conversation held in October 2023 between an FBI Special Agent and a U.S. citizen (USPER) who had worked for approximately fifteen years at an American test site in the western United States. The interview concerns a UAP observation the witness made during the early-morning hours of a day in September 2023 (the precise date within the month is redacted), while she was escorting a contractor crew to a restricted testing area.

According to the testimony, between 7:15 and 7:30 a.m., while passing through a restricted security gate, she observed a cigar-shaped object bearing an intense "diamond white" light at its eastern end. The object appeared southwest of her position, approximately 500 to 3,000 feet above the nearest tree line. Its length was estimated at two to three UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters placed nose to tail, and its width at approximately one and a half Blackhawks. Its color was explicitly described as "metallic bronze." The object moved slowly from east to west, was completely silent, and disappeared instantly after five to ten seconds. The sky was clear, leaving no contrail. The witness observed it a second time when driving to the test site, and a passenger in a second vehicle confirmed he also saw the object.

This document is Serial 4 in the FBI's investigation file on the September 2023 incident, and it serves as a primary evidentiary account underlying the composite front-view sketch produced by the FBI Laboratory on April 30, 2024.

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Research Article

Introduction: A Second Witness to the September 2023 Incident

This document is Serial 4 in the series of FBI 302 interviews conducted following a multi-witness sighting that occurred on a September 2023 morning at an American test site. This interview series forms the evidentiary foundation on which the FBI Laboratory's Composite Sketch rests (see related document: 2024-04-30-composite-sketch). That sketch uses the phrase "ellipsoid bronze metallic object," and the specific testimony recorded in Serial 4 is almost certainly one of the direct sources for that phrasing.

One critical observation regarding the color description: the official summary published by war.gov for this file uses the phrase "metallic/gray in color," but a direct reading of the document itself (page 2, first paragraph of the continuation) reveals different language: "metallic bronze in color," placed in quotation marks within the form itself — indicating the agent directly quoted the witness. There is therefore a discrepancy between the agency's public summary and the authentic language of the file. That discrepancy undermines the assumption that Serial 4 describes a "gray" object while Serial 3 describes a "bronze" one. According to the document itself, this witness also described the same object in precisely those terms: metallic bronze.

Document Structure and Context

This document is an FD-302, the FBI's standard interview form. The specific version is Rev. 5-8-10. Every FBI interview is recorded on this form: a summary header on the first page, followed by a sequence of numbered paragraphs (each carrying a unique classification code in brackets) that record the facts provided by the interviewee.

Document dates:

• Date of entry: 10/[day redacted]/2023
• Investigation on: 09/[day redacted]/2023
• Date drafted: 10/[day redacted]/2023

This means the interview itself was conducted in September 2023, the same month as the incident, but the formal FD-302 writeup was completed only in October 2023 — a gap of several weeks. This suggests the FBI treated the incident seriously enough to open a formal investigation within the same week, while adhering to a methodical drafting process.

The agent's signature and the identities of all parties — including the interviewee's name and the name of the site — are fully redacted. One essential fact remains: the interview took place "in Building [redacted]" at an American facility, conducted "United States (In Person)."

Identity of the Witness: A USPER with 15 Years of Operational Experience

Page 1 presents the interviewee's occupational category. Her name is redacted, but the role description is partially preserved: "had been the [role redacted] / [additional role redacted] at [location redacted] for [number redacted] years." Page 2 is more illuminating: "had seen most of the aircraft and drones used by the US military during her fifteen years working at [redacted]."

Three significant conclusions follow:

1. Length of service: Fifteen years at an American test site — an exceptional tenure.
2. Nature of the work: She had seen "most of the military aircraft and drones" in use. This points to a role requiring aircraft identification, possibly in airspace security, air traffic coordination, or airspace management.
3. Operational authority: "She had restricted the air space in [redacted] for the upcoming tests." The authority to impose an airspace restriction places the witness in a position with direct command or coordination authority over FAA or an equivalent military body — indicating a senior role.

The significance: this is not a lay witness. Her size estimate of "lengths of two or three Blackhawk helicopters lined nose to tail" uses measuring units meaningful to her professional context. A UH-60 Blackhawk is approximately 64.8 feet in length, so two or three in line yields 130 to 195 feet — matching precisely the range cited in the FBI Lab Composite Sketch ("130 to 195 feet in length," or 39.6 to 59.4 meters). This testimony is almost certainly one of the direct sources for the size range that appears in the sketch.

Chronological Sequence of the Morning

The document provides a tight timeline of events:

• Before 7:02 a.m.: The witness and contractors are at the base. She has restricted airspace ahead of the tests.
• 7:02 a.m.: The contractors receive the standard site briefing (type redacted) and board three vehicles.
• Between 7:15 and 7:30 a.m.: The witness is in the lead vehicle. She approaches a fob-controlled security gate. The gate attempts to open, fails, and on the fourth try opens fully and remains open. After [redacted date] in September, there were no further operational issues with the gate. Prior to this event, the gate had functioned normally.
• During the gate approach: The witness looks up and sees the object.

The gate malfunction is a detail that cannot be dismissed. Electronic security gates at federal facilities operate under controlled protocols; a failure across four consecutive attempts suggests a possible electromagnetic or electrical disruption. The agent notes explicitly that the witness "did not notice any interference with her vehicle's engine while the object was visible" — yet the federal gate itself exhibited anomalous behavior precisely at the moment of the sighting. The FBI took care to note that there were no issues before or after, characterizing the malfunction as a temporally isolated anomaly coinciding with the observation.

Description of the Object

Page 2 opens with the full visual description, the most substantive portion of the document:

"cigar shaped object with an extremely bright light southwest of them approximately 500 to 3000 feet above the nearest tree line"

The agent's note adds that the tree line was approximately one mile southwest of the witness's position — placing the object roughly 152 to 914 meters above the ground, at a horizontal distance of approximately 1.6 kilometers.

"The object was already there when she looked up. The object was almost hovering, slowly moving from east to west."

The object was already present when she raised her eyes. Its movement was slow, "almost hovering," from east to west — more like a float than a flight.

"The light was an intense diamond white light with what appeared to be a ring around the light and was located on the eastern end of the object. The light was pointing south east and looking at it (the light) was like looking into the sun."

The light: an intense diamond-white source, with a visible ring around it, positioned at the eastern end of the object. It was directed southeast, and looking directly at it was like looking into the sun. This suggests an extremely bright source — potentially comparable in luminosity to a floodlight or plasma-like phenomenon. The ring may indicate an atmospheric effect surrounding the source (such as air ionization) or a distinct structural feature of the object. In the FBI Lab sketch, the object "materializes out of a bright light," which connects to this description: the light and the object are a single complex phenomenon, not two separate events.

"The object was 'metallic bronze in color' and was the length of two or three Blackhawk helicopters lined up nose to tail. The width of the object was approximately the width of one and a half Blackhawks but was hard to determine due the light on the object's eastern end which may have been obscuring part of the body. The object was completely silent."

Color: "metallic bronze" (in quotation marks — a direct quote from the witness as recorded by the agent).

Size: two or three Blackhawks nose to tail (130 to 195 feet in length), roughly one and a half Blackhawks wide, though width was difficult to judge precisely because the intense eastern light may have obscured part of the fuselage.

Sound: complete silence. The absence of sound is a central marker in modern UAP reports; aircraft of this size produce significant noise. If the object was at 1.6 kilometers horizontal distance and 152 to 914 meters altitude, normal flight noise from a body of that size should have been clearly audible.

Duration of Observation and Disappearance

"They watched the object for five to ten seconds and then the object just disappeared. The sky was clear with no clouds and the object did leave any contrails."

Five to ten seconds, then an instantaneous disappearance — no receding flight path, no contrail, in clear skies. There is no conventional aerodynamic explanation for an instantaneous disappearance of this type. A physical object cannot transition from a hovering attitude to invisibility in a fraction of a second. The instant disappearance is among the most characteristic features of modern UAP reports and recurs across numerous witness accounts.

"The sky was clear with no clouds... [she] searched the sky but did not see the object again."

After the disappearance, the witness and the other occupants scanned the sky but the object did not reappear. A single object, a single event — yet one of considerable evidentiary depth.

Broader Evidentiary Context: A Second Vehicle Confirmed the Sighting

"[She] drove to the test site where [redacted] who was a passenger in the second vehicle said he saw the object too."

A second witness, a passenger in the second vehicle, confirmed the sighting. His name is redacted, but his existence carries important weight: this observation was not individual but was corroborated by at least two people riding in separate vehicles. The FBI Laboratory's Composite Sketch methodology requires multiple witnesses whose accounts overlap; Serial 4 is one of those sources.

Credibility Statement: "Several of her co-workers subsequently made fun of her"

"[She] would not have reported the object if she had seen it by herself. Several of her co-workers subsequently made fun of her due to her report."

This statement is highly significant from a credibility standpoint. The witness acknowledges she would not have filed a report without additional witnesses. She was subsequently mocked by colleagues. This places her report in a context of negative social pressure: she reported despite the risk of professional embarrassment or ridicule, which itself indicates the matter was genuinely serious to her.

"[She] had seen most of the aircraft and drones used by the US military during her fifteen years working at [redacted] and had never seen anything like the object she observed."

A comparative judgment from a professional whose expertise is precisely the identification of aircraft. In fifteen years she had seen most military aircraft and drones. She had never seen anything resembling this object. This is not an outsider's speculation; it is an expert assessment.

Comparison with Serial 3 and Analysis of the "Bronze" vs. "Gray" Semantic Gap

The discrepancy to examine: war.gov's official CSV summary describes the Serial 4 object as "metallic/gray in color," but the FD-302 itself records "metallic bronze in color." How is this explained?

Several possibilities exist and should be presented without prejudging:

Option 1: Inaccurate public summary. The person who prepared the public summary may have inadvertently substituted "gray" for "bronze," or the phrasing may be an imprecise paraphrase. In that case, the witness accounts across Serials are consistent and the object is bronze.

Option 2: Different witnesses described the object differently. If Serial 3 and Serial 4 reflect distinct observers at different vantage points, color perception could vary. A metallic reflecting surface changes apparent color with viewing angle. In the low September morning sun, one angle might produce a warm bronze gleam while another presents a cool gray sheen. Retinal adaptation under intense light (the "diamond white" source) could also suppress warm tones and render the surface as gray.

Option 3: Two separate objects. It is theoretically possible that the September 2023 event involved more than one object and different witnesses described different objects. This scenario is less likely given the witness's statement that "she only observed the one object," but cannot be fully excluded.

Option 4: Recall contamination. The interview was conducted in September but drafted in October. Witnesses interviewed at different times may have drawn on social conversations with colleagues, producing slight inconsistencies in color description.

Most importantly: a direct reading of Serial 4 produces testimony that matches the Composite Sketch almost perfectly — "ellipsoid bronze metallic." Any discrepancy, if real, is between war.gov's public summary and the underlying documents, not between the witness accounts themselves.

Correlation of Serial 4 with the FBI Composite Sketch

Comparing the April 30, 2024 FBI Lab sketch description with Serial 4:

Feature	FBI Composite Sketch	Serial 4
Shape	Ellipsoid	Cigar (a flattened ellipsoid seen from the side)
Color	Metallic bronze	"Metallic bronze" (direct quote)
Size	130 to 195 feet	2 to 3 Blackhawks = 130 to 195 feet
Appearance	Materializes from bright light	Associated with intense diamond-white light
Disappearance	Instantaneous	Instantaneous, after 5 to 10 seconds

The correspondence is nearly exact. This indicates Serial 4 is one of the evidentiary pillars — and likely among the primary ones — underlying the sketch. The size range in the sketch (130 to 195 feet) is the precise mathematical translation of this witness's unit of measurement (2 to 3 Blackhawks).

Significance

Serial 4 matters for three primary reasons:

1. High witness credibility. Fifteen years of aircraft identification experience at a test site, airspace restriction authority, and a senior position. This is a witness type that federal courts and prosecutors treat seriously.

2. Rich, measurable physical description. The use of grounded units (Blackhawks, feet, seconds) allows physical reconstruction of the event — which is precisely what the FBI Laboratory did seven months later.

3. Gate malfunction as a supplementary physical indicator. The anomalous electrical behavior of the security gate concurrent with the sighting, together with the object's instantaneous disappearance and absolute silence, form a cluster of phenomena inconsistent with any known aircraft.

This document is not an isolated record. It is part of an evidentiary corpus assembled by the U.S. federal law enforcement system following the September 2023 incident, and its release under the PURSUE Initiative Release 1 constitutes an official acknowledgment by the Department of War that this UAP encounter received a full FBI investigation.

Key People

No personal names are available; all individual identifiers are redacted. The categories that remain:

• Primary witness (USPER): U.S. citizen, female, fifteen years of experience at an American test site in a role involving aircraft identification and airspace management
• FBI Special Agent: Primary interviewer
• Additional agent(s): Present during the interview
• Supervisor: Present during the interview
• Second male witness: Passenger in the second vehicle, confirmed the sighting; name redacted
• Contractors: Crew traveling to the test area that morning

Locations

• American test site, western United States — precise location redacted; approximate coordinates [40.0, -115.0] (Nevada/Utah region)
• Building [redacted] — location of the interview itself
• fob-controlled security gate — specific point of observation
• Tree line approximately one mile southwest of the observation point

Incidents

Incident	Date	Location	Pages
Observation of cigar-shaped metallic-bronze object with diamond-white light on eastern end, hovering from east to west, instantaneous disappearance after 5 to 10 seconds	Between 7:15 and 7:30 a.m., September 2023 (precise day redacted)	U.S. test site, western United States	Pages 1 and 2
Electronic security gate malfunction: three failed attempts, fourth attempt succeeded; no issues before or after	Between 7:15 and 7:30 a.m., September 2023	Security gate at the test site	Page 1
Formal FD-302 interview with the witness	October 2023	Building [redacted], U.S. test site	Page 1

Notable Quotes

"The object was 'metallic bronze in color' and was the length of two or three Blackhawk helicopters lined up nose to tail." — page 2 (direct quote from the witness as recorded by the agent)

"The light was an intense diamond white light with what appeared to be a ring around the light and was located on the eastern end of the object. The light was pointing south east and looking at it (the light) was like looking into the sun." — page 2

"They watched the object for five to ten seconds and then the object just disappeared. The sky was clear with no clouds and the object did leave any contrails." — page 2

"[She] would not have reported the object if she had seen it by herself. Several of her co-workers subsequently made fun of her due to her report." — page 2

"[She] had seen most of the aircraft and drones used by the US military during her fifteen years working at [redacted] and had never seen anything like the object she observed." — page 2