The Gate C17 Disc
The account
A dark disc hovered over an airport gate and shot upward, punching a hole in the clouds.
What investigators found
The FAA attributed the report to a weather phenomenon and did not open an investigation.
The story
Late in the afternoon of November 7, 2006, United Airlines employees at O'Hare Airport in Chicago reported a dark, disc-shaped object hovering over Gate C17. Pilots, mechanics and supervisors said they watched the object for several minutes until it suddenly shot upward, leaving a sharply defined hole in the cloud layer.
The story became public two months later through the Chicago Tribune. The FAA recorded nothing on radar and attributed the report to a weather phenomenon, without investigating. The airline did not comment either. No conclusive photo ever surfaced, and the case stands as one of the few with multiple professional witnesses at a major airport.