A News Helicopter's Traffic Camera Catches a Sphere Gliding Over an LA Freeway
During a FOX 11 traffic report, the camera operator swung away from rush-hour gridlock to follow a small sphere moving in a straight line above the freeway. The clip has millions of views, and the object hasn't been identified.
Location Los Angeles, California
LOS ANGELES (clip posted Sept. 22, 2026) — The FOX 11 helicopter was covering traffic. Its camera was trained on a multi-level freeway packed with evening rush-hour cars and trucks. Then, according to reports, the operator appeared to notice something else: a small sphere moving above the road. The camera zoomed in and followed it for several seconds before swinging back to the traffic.
The clip has since been viewed millions of times.
What we know
On the record: documents, statements, dates and places. Sources below.
- The broadcast. The New York Post reports that the footage came from a FOX 11 news helicopter during a live traffic broadcast, and that the camera reframed its shot to catch the sphere just above one of Los Angeles’ busiest freeway interchanges. The Post describes it as a Tuesday broadcast. The Daily Mail says only that it happened in mid-September.
- Posted Sept. 22. The Daily Mail and IBTimes UK report that the video was shared online on Tuesday, Sept. 22. It has drawn millions of views.
- What’s in the frame. According to the Daily Mail, the operator zoomed in on the object and tracked it for several seconds as it traveled in a straight line away from the highway toward a more wooded neighborhood. It seemed to vanish as it passed in front of a nearby warehouse.
- What isn’t known. IBTimes UK reports that the exact freeway, the object’s altitude, its distance from the helicopter and its speed haven’t been established, and that its size wasn’t measured. The Daily Mail notes the outlet didn’t publish a date or time stamp for the footage.
- No comment, no identification. FOX 11 hasn’t addressed the video, according to the Daily Mail. IBTimes UK reports that no local authority, federal aviation official or aerospace expert has publicly identified the object.
What’s claimed
Accounts, testimony and theories, as told by the people who tell them.
- Its appearance. The Daily Mail describes a strange, metallic sphere about the size of a basketball or slightly larger. IBTimes UK describes a dark, rounded object with no obvious wings or visible engine.
- Its flight path. Much of the online debate centers on the object’s apparently steady, straight course. “I’m skeptical, but it doesn’t move like a balloon in the wind. It’s flying in a straight line,” one viewer wrote, in a post quoted by the Daily Mail and IBTimes UK. X user @LensOfLogicX wrote: “Balloon crowd is going to have a hard time with this one. That path is too straight. Wind doesn’t fly a sphere across LA in a clean line with no wobble. Whatever it is, it isn’t just floating.”
- Why it grabbed attention. “What makes this interesting is that it wasn’t filmed by someone out looking for UFOs — it just showed up during a routine news shot,” another X user wrote, according to the Post.
- The theories. Suggestions quoted in coverage include a foil or mylar balloon, a drone (some commenters pointed to delivery drone networks in Los Angeles), power-line marker balls, and a craft of unknown origin, according to the Daily Mail and IBTimes UK.
- A Colombian comparison. Many viewers compared the object to the so-called Buga Sphere, a metal ball recovered in Colombia in 2025, the Daily Mail reports.
The timing
The clip spread just days after the Pentagon’s sixth release of UFO files on Sept. 18, which included its own share of spheres filmed over the Middle East. IBTimes UK notes that those government records don’t mention the Los Angeles footage.
Unexplained, for now
A camera built to show traffic caught something that wasn’t traffic, and the person behind the lens apparently thought it was worth following. Until FOX 11, aviation officials or anyone else put a name to the sphere over the freeway, it stays what the footage shows: a small, round object crossing the Los Angeles sky in a straight line and slipping out of view behind a warehouse.