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The latest events on the record: hearings, official reports, releases and reported encounters. Each one links to its sources.
Whistleblowers2014
Former USAF security policemen Jim Penniston and John Burroughs, central witnesses to the December 1980 Rendlesham Forest events, published Encounter in Rendlesham Forest with former UK MoD official Nick Pope. It sets out their first-person accounts plus memos and interview transcripts.
Photo: Simon Leatherdale, CC BY-SA 2.0
SightingsJan 2014
Robert Theriault, Friedemann Freund and colleagues reviewed historical reports of lights seen before or during earthquakes and found most came from rift settings, proposing an electrical mechanism. Freund noted that such lights have at times been taken for UFOs.
Photo: Friedrich Konzelmann, Public domain
GovernmentOct 2013
Peru's air force said it was reviving DIFAA, an office set up in 2001 to study anomalous aerial phenomena that had been dormant for about five years, citing a rise in reported sightings. Col. Julio Vucetich said it would pair air force staff with scientists and take public reports.
Photo: Lizet Morales Zaragoza, CC BY-SA 4.0
Government15 Aug 2013
A CIA history of the U-2 and OXCART programs, released under FOIA to the National Security Archive, openly named Area 51. It says high-altitude U-2 flights sparked many 1950s UFO reports and that U-2 and OXCART flights accounted for over half of reports in the late 1950s and most of the 1960s.
Photo: CIA, Public domain
Media9 Aug 2013
The first Contact in the Desert conference ran Aug. 9-11, 2013, at the Joshua Tree Retreat Center, with dozens of speakers including Steven Greer and George Noory. Local press counted more than 500 attendees on opening day; it later became an annual event.
Photo: Niranjan Arminius, CC BY-SA 4.0
Government21 Jun 2013
The National Archives released the final 25 MoD UFO files, about 4,400 pages covering late 2007 to the desk's closure in November 2009. They include a 2009 briefing saying no reported sighting had shown an extraterrestrial presence or military threat.
Photo: Christopher Hilton, CC BY-SA 2.0
MediaJun 2013
Mirage Men, a documentary based on Mark Pilkington's book of the same name, premiered at Sheffield Doc/Fest. The book argues that U.S. intelligence agencies promoted UFO stories for disinformation and cover purposes rather than simply hiding them.
Photo: Sheffdocfest, CC BY-SA 4.0
Whistleblowers29 Apr 2013
Activist Stephen Bassett's Paradigm Research Group staged a five-day mock hearing at the National Press Club, with six former members of Congress, reportedly paid $20,000 each, hearing witnesses on UFOs. It was not an official proceeding; one panelist called it a pseudo-hearing.
Photo: ajay_suresh, CC BY 4.0
Sightings25 Apr 2013
An infrared camera on a U.S. Customs and Border Protection aircraft over Rafael Hernandez Airport filmed objects that seemed to race and enter the sea. Private analysts argued it was anomalous; in 2025 AARO said the objects likely were two sky lanterns drifting with the wind over land.
Photo: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Erniefr&action=edit, Public domain
Media22 Apr 2013
Sirius, a film built around ufologist Steven Greer's claims, premiered in Hollywood. It promoted a six-inch specimen found in Chile's Atacama Desert as a possible non-human being and argued UFO secrecy protects energy interests. Its origin was unresolved when the film came out.
Media15 Apr 2013
Syfy premiered Defiance, set on a changed Earth after humans and alien races called the Votans ended a war, centered on a town built on the ruins of St. Louis. A companion video game was set in the San Francisco area.
Photo: Ronald Woan, CC BY-SA 2.0
Sightings4 Mar 2013
An Alitalia pilot approaching JFK radioed that he had seen a drone about 1,500 feet up, a few miles from the airport. The FBI described a small black four-rotor craft and asked the public for tips; the FBI and FAA investigated, and no operator was publicly identified.
Photo: formulanone, CC BY-SA 2.0
Media22 Feb 2013
Dimension Films released Dark Skies, written and directed by Scott Stewart, in which a suburban family comes to believe aliens are targeting them for abduction. Reviewers called it a familiar riff on earlier abduction stories such as Communion.
Photo: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0
Skinwalker Ranch16 Jan 2013
NASA announced a $17.8 million contract for Robert Bigelow's company to supply an inflatable test module for the International Space Station. Bigelow, a longtime funder of UFO research, had earlier won the Pentagon's AAWSAP study contract.
Photo: Bill Ingalls, Public domain
Whistleblowers2013
In the 2013 documentary Mirage Men, former Air Force Office of Special Investigations agent Richard Doty admitted infiltrating UFO circles. The film says Doty and colleagues fed false material to researchers, notably New Mexico businessman Paul Bennewitz.
Photo: The Evening Times, Public domain
Sightings2 Dec 2012
An Airbus A320 crew on final approach to Glasgow reported an object passing about 300 feet below them and rated the collision risk high. The UK Airprox Board could not identify it, judging aircraft or a balloon unlikely.
Sightings25 Oct 2012
A Televisa camera clip showing a long luminous object dropping toward the Popocatepetl crater went viral as a UFO. Mexico's disaster agency CENAPRED said it was most likely a bolide from the Taurid meteor shower, noting no impact or tremor was recorded at the volcano.
Photo: Luisalvaz, CC BY-SA 4.0
GovernmentSep 2012
Newly declassified 1956 Air Force records released through the National Archives described Project 1794, a disc-shaped vertical take-off aircraft that contractor Avro Canada projected could reach Mach 4 and 100,000 feet. The project never produced a working saucer.
Photo: Bzuk at English Wikipedia, Public domain
Media27 Jul 2012
Twentieth Century Fox released The Watch, a comedy with Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Jonah Hill and Richard Ayoade as suburban Ohio neighborhood-watch volunteers who discover aliens. Fox had renamed it from Neighborhood Watch after the Trayvon Martin shooting.
Photo: Georges Biard, CC BY-SA 3.0
Government12 Jul 2012
The UK National Archives released the ninth batch of Ministry of Defence UFO files. Papers showed defence intelligence staff weighing possible explanations in the 1990s, and a 2008 note from the UFO desk officer saying the MoD knew of no evidence of alien visits.
Photo: Eirian Evans, CC BY-SA 2.0
