Reddit Thread - UFO sighting at Uniontown Mall, PA

[jarlrmai]

This was posted to Reddit (twice, initially posted without enough info and was deleted by mods)


Source: https://old.reddit.com/r/UFOs/comments/1no5w5o/ufo_sighting_at_uniontown_mall_pa/


The location is here: https://maps.app.goo.gl/qftbGpyWcQ2yM3aHA

It looked like a building on a distant hill to me and also to @flarkey

@flarkey did some geolocation and posted a DM to me here (based on my interest with a reply to the now deleted Reddit thread) with his solution (the Oak Hill Estate) which looked correct on initial look, but I tried to verify it and it looked less likely as the building did not seem to be in commercial use (less likely to be lit) and the angle was not quite right.

I found a Reddit post suggesting the Historic Summit Inn Resort

https://maps.app.goo.gl/qftbGpyWcQ2yM3aHA

And I put it into Google Earth and it seemed a much better fit to me

But another Redditor is very insistent it's a Hilton


Source: https://old.reddit.com/r/UFOs/comments/1no5w5o/ufo_sighting_at_uniontown_mall_pa/nfwsfni/?context=3

But it just looks like it can't be to me, but maybe I am wrong?

For some more information in case it helps I found this Youtube video of someone driving past the spot

Source: https://youtu.be/wNnGtvk75-M?t=29

 

[flarkey]

I dont think the Hilton Garden Inn has enough elevation to be the right spot. Also it isnt isolated enough to cause a 'ufo' illusion. We'd see the llights of other buildings if it was the object.

But hey - dont listen to me. I've already been wrong once on this case.

 

[jarlrmai]

I dont think the Hilton Garden Inn has enough elevation to be the right spot. Also it isnt isolated enough to cause a 'ufo' illusion. We'd see the llights of other buildings if it was the object.

But hey - dont listen to me. I've already been wrong once on this case.

My main issue with it as a suggestion is it's behind a huge embankment and not in the direction the guy is looking at, I'm only really posting this because they are so insistent and also we've been wrong before on things so more eyes is better.

 

[Mick West]

I found a Reddit post suggesting the Historic Summit Inn Resort

It seems very much like that's it. You can see it in the Street View.

And the camera is just at a bit of different position/angle. More to the right. Note the near exact match with distant treeline

When you step to the right, the position of the sign will move left relative to the background, but the relative positions of the treelines and the hills will be less (as they are far away). The trees will still move left.

 

[Ann K]

Summit inn is on I-40. I can't find night photos of it from that position from which the OP is taken, but found these:

 

[deirdre]

It seems very much like that's it. You can see it in the Street View.

and lines up with the red blinking tower. (on left )

another video..cant see much though (alot of videos of people driving this stretch maybe there is one in the dark)
9:45

Source: https://youtu.be/dVLkfSCnMko?t=585

 

[Trailblazer]

When you step to the right, the position of the sign will move left relative to the background, but the relative positions of the treelines and the hills will be less (as they are far away). The trees will still move left.

And the person who took the photos said they pulled over to the side of the road to do so, so that makes sense.

I added a Street View image of the hotel from roughly the same direction to make a handy explainer...

 

[Ravi]

Aaand.. for the first time in a long while we have no video. We all know why.

 

[Trailblazer]

I noticed there is an additional light in the third photo, below the others.

The person who posted it on Reddit mentioned this:

Was there for about 5 minutes just watching and you can see in one of the pictures the second small light come from the main object and begin to descend

The reason it is descending is that it is a car coming down the road away from the hotel - the road points almost directly towards the camera viewpoint. (Notice it also appears whiter than the hotel lighting, consistent with LED headlamps.)

Red pin is the camera location, circled is the stretch of road coming down the hill.

 

[jarlrmai]

Some how I missed this image in the Reddit thread

It shows that the camera was the telephoto lens on an iPhone 16 Pro Max which is listed at 120mm (FF equiv) and the photo is at 562mm (FF equiv) so very "zoomed in" so the photo was probably taken from further up the road that we think.

I tried to match the location in the GPS screen to Apple maps but from that location the sign is not visible so it must be not quite right, but it does indicate the actual location was likely/possibly further back than it seems from the photo, which places the viewpoint higher up and makes the gap between the 2 ridge lines more apparent because of the perspective difference from being further from the sign and the near tree line

 

[Trailblazer]

It shows that the camera was the telephoto lens on an iPhone 16 Pro Max which is listed at 120mm (FF equiv) and the photo is at 562mm (FF equiv) so very "zoomed in" so the photo was probably taken from further up the road that we think.

You can line up the marker poles - two reflective posts and the tip of the green distance marker just visible. This is closer to the right angle but again you need to be further right, on the side of the road (and a bit lower down than the Street View camera on top of the car).

I'd say they probably pulled in about here. I thought they might have stood on the grassy bank, on the safer side of the barrier, but the angle doesn't look quite as far over as that.