Topic
Encounters reported by pilots, radar crews and base personnel, from the 1950s to today. 160 events, newest first.
MilitaryMar 1952
A CIA report translated a Vienna newspaper story that two fiery discs maneuvered over uranium mines near Elisabethville, Belgian Congo, and that a fighter pilot from the local airfield chased them without success. The CIA marked it unevaluated; it was never confirmed.
Photo: CIA, Public domain
Military1952
After the Air Force photo lab failed to identify the Tremonton, Utah film, Navy photo analysts at Anacostia spent about two months on it and told the Robertson Panel the lights were not aircraft or birds. The panel rejected this and concluded the images were sunlight on seagulls.
Military1952
Project Blue Book planned cameras fitted with diffraction gratings to split UFO light into a spectrum and tell meteors, aircraft and balloons apart. Chief Edward Ruppelt later wrote that in tests they could not usefully photograph a bright flare at 450 yards, but were sent out anyway.
Photo: US Air Force, Public domain
Military10 Sep 1951
Army Signal Corps radar at Fort Monmouth tracked fast and high targets over two days, and a T-33 crew reported an object near Sandy Hook. The reports reached Gen. Charles Cabell and led to a revived Project Grudge under Edward Ruppelt; investigators later blamed an airplane and balloons.
Photo: Acroterion, CC BY-SA 4.0
Military10 Feb 1951
Crew of a Navy R5D flying from Keflavik to Argentia, including Lt. Graham Bethune, reported a glow that rose toward them and turned into a large circular object before leaving. Five aboard filed Air Force intelligence reports. The Air Force suggested the aurora or a meteor; Bethune disputed this.
Photo: USAAF, Public domain
MilitaryMar 1950
Cmdr. Robert McLaughlin, who had led the Navy's guided-missile unit at White Sands, wrote in True that tracked objects there were flying saucers, possibly from another planet. The Navy's guided-missile chief and the Defense Department said no service had such craft.
Photo: NASA, Public domain
Military24 Apr 1949
A Navy-led crew readying a Skyhook balloon at White Sands Proving Ground said they followed a whitish, elliptical object through a theodolite for about a minute and later worked out an extreme altitude and speed. Astronomer Donald Menzel argued they saw a refracted image of their own balloon.
Photo: Office of Naval Research, Public domain
MilitaryMar 1949
From March to June 1949, soldiers guarding the nuclear weapons storage site at Killeen Base, Camp Hood, reported unexplained moving lights. Army observers tried to triangulate them on 17 March, and Project Blue Book later listed that case as unidentified.
Military1949
Astronomer J. Allen Hynek reviewed the 237 reports gathered by the Air Force's Project Sign. His final report attributed about a third to astronomical causes such as planets and meteors, about a third more to balloons, rockets, flares or birds, and left about a fifth unidentified.
Photo: US Air Force, Public domain
Military5 Dec 1948
From late 1948, pilots, security staff and others near Albuquerque and Los Alamos reported bright green fireballs. Meteor expert Lincoln LaPaz doubted they were ordinary meteors; the Air Force's Project Twinkle camera effort photographed nothing and faded out.
Military4 Nov 1948
A top secret U.S. Air Forces in Europe intelligence cable reported recurring saucer sightings, including an object over Neubiberg Air Base, and relayed Swedish officers' view that some reflected advanced technology. The Pentagon included it in its May 2026 UFO records release.
Photo: USAAF, United States Air Force Historical Research Agency, Maxwell AFB Alabama., Public domain
Military1 Oct 1948
North Dakota Air National Guard Lt. George Gorman said he chased a small blinking light in his F-51 over Fargo, which outran him and twice seemed to fly at him. Other observers saw a light. Project Sign investigated, and a January 1949 Air Weather Service study concluded it was a lighted balloon.
Photo: USAF, Public domain
Military7 Jan 1948
Kentucky Air National Guard Capt. Thomas Mantell died when his F-51 crashed while climbing after an object reported by the Godman Field tower near Fort Knox. Investigators concluded he likely lost consciousness from lack of oxygen; a Navy Skyhook balloon is widely cited as the object.
Photo: Kentucky National Guard, Public domain
Military1948
Large plastic Skyhook research balloons, about 100 feet across, were flown in secret for the Navy, unknown to most Air Force pilots. Blue Book chief Edward Ruppelt and the Condon report later cited them as the likely cause of many reports, including Capt. Thomas Mantell's fatal 1948 chase.
Photo: US Navy, Public domain
Military16 Jul 1947
A Fourth Air Force intelligence memorandum dated July 16, 1947 recorded a July 12 interview with Kenneth Arnold in Boise. The interviewer judged that Arnold saw what he described and found his distances consistent with aeronautical charts; copies went to the FBI.
Photo: Associated Press, Public domain
Military8 Jul 1947
Roswell Army Air Field announced it had recovered a "flying disc" from a nearby ranch, and the Army said the next day it was a weather balloon. A 1994 Air Force report concluded the debris most likely came from Project Mogul, a then-secret balloon program.
Photo: Roswell Daily Record, Public domain
Military8 Jul 1947
Test pilots, officers and a crew of technicians at Muroc air base in California's Mojave Desert reported round, silvery objects on the morning of July 8, 1947. Edward Ruppelt, later head of Project Blue Book, wrote that this was the first sighting to make the Air Force take a deep interest.
Photo: U.S. Navy, Public domain
Military19 Jul 1946
In summer 1946 Swedes reported hundreds of rocket-like objects; on July 19 witnesses saw one dive into Lake Kolmjarv, but an army search of the lakebed found nothing. A Defence Staff committee attributed many reports to meteors, suspected Soviet tests for the rest, and never found proof.
Photo: Swedish military photo, Public domain
Military5 Dec 1945
Five Navy TBM Avengers with 14 men vanished on a training flight from NAS Fort Lauderdale after the leader reported being lost; a PBM Mariner sent to search was also lost with 13 aboard. The planes likely ran out of fuel at sea. The case later fed Bermuda Triangle and UFO lore.
Photo: U.S. Navy, Public domain
MilitaryJan 1945
An AP story datelined January 1, 1945 reported that U.S. 415th Night Fighter Squadron crews had for weeks seen balls of light pacing their planes over Germany, which they called 'foo-fighters'. TIME followed on January 15; suggested causes ranged from flares to St. Elmo's fire, and none was settled.
Photo: United States Army Air Forces, Public domain
