What’s that in the sky? Object spotted over Greenville

GREENVILLE, N.C. (WITN) - Several WITN viewers have mentioned seeing something in the sky in Greenville on Saturday afternoon.

Some people described it as a “white dot,” moving south and west of Greenville.

NWS Morehead City said it could be a balloon, but it’s not one of theirs. They said they heard of the reported balloon floating at around 65,000 to 66,000 feet in the air, drifting around the southwestern portions of Greenville.

Some said the balloon could be a “Loon balloon,” which is a stratospheric balloon that’s part of a project to bring internet connectivity to more areas, according to their website. But Loon on Sunday said this was actually not a Loon balloon and that none have been active in the region as of late. Google started Loon, which was formerly known as “Project Loon,” according to the website.

Ellis Planetarium Director Sarah Bartlett said they took these photos around 7:30 p.m. on Saturday.

“Located to our East, nearing 75° from the horizon, from our deck at the Ellis Planetarium in Kinston we managed to get these photos,” Bartlett said. “One photo was taken with my phone. One is a screen shot indicating the area using my Night Sky App and the other remaining two are using my Cannon Powershot at 200x Zoom.”

On Saturday afternoon, Flightradar24 showed a balloon icon “HBAL536,” of Raven Aerostar, west of Ayden moving south. The registration is listed as “N256TH.”

WITN reached out to Raven Aerostar if its theirs and NASA to find out more information.

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