By Tim Binnall
The mystery surrounding a UFO video that went viral this week has been solved and it turns out that the 'flying saucer' was actually a rather iconic denizen of the skies: the Goodyear Blimp. The strange footage, which was captured near North Carolina's Lake Norman, spawned headlines over the course of the last few days. Fortunately, it would seem that all of the attention afforded to the months-old video caught the attention of Goodyear, which stepped forward to lay claim to the craft.
"We don't want to get in the way of a good story, but that's definitely us," the company stated via the blimp's official Twitter account. Pressed for more details, they went on to explain that their Wingfoot One craft had been in the vicinity at the time that the video was filmed and "so we have every reason to believe" that they were inadvertently behind the flying saucer sighting. Goodyear went on to assure the world that "we're not aliens, but we do come in peace."
While the resolution to the mystery may be deflating to some UFO enthusiasts, it's not altogether surprising. In fact, as we noted earlier this week, "a blimp that was in the area for a nearby NASCAR race" was skeptics' prime suspect for the identity of the craft nearly as soon as the video began making the rounds online. And, considering that we now know that there was a blimp in the area at the time and the video does not show two flying objects, it's a safe bet that Goodyear got it right and that they were the 'flying saucer.' So it seems that all that's left to ponder is why the video was so shaky in the first place.