Government and military
Encounters reported by Navy aviators and ship crews, including the Nimitz and the released videos. 68 events, newest first.
Military22 Jun 1976
Crew of the Spanish Navy corvette Atrevida off Fuerteventura, then a doctor, a taxi driver and residents of Gran Canaria, reported a luminous object. A Spanish military file found no explanation; it was later attributed to a U.S. submarine-launched Poseidon missile test.
Photo: Jose Juan Medina Cobacho, CC BY-SA 3.0
Sightings4 Oct 1967
Fishermen, RCMP officers and others reported a lit object descending into the sea off Shag Harbour, Nova Scotia; boats found only yellow foam and a navy dive team found nothing. RCMP and military messages referred to an unidentified flying object, and no official explanation was ever given.
Photo: SnowyBadger, CC BY-SA 4.0
MilitaryFeb 1960
The Navy's new Dark Fence space-surveillance radar detected an unidentified object in orbit, prompting speculation about a Soviet spy satellite. The Defense Department said it was part of a stray U.S. Discoverer satellite. The episode was later folded into the 'Black Knight' satellite legend.
Photo: Unknown US Air Force member, Public domain
MilitaryFeb 1960
In February 1960 Argentina's navy closed Golfo Nuevo and spent weeks chasing sonar and radar contacts it described as one or two unidentified submarines, with U.S. equipment sent to help. No vessel was ever found or identified; TIME noted sonar can mistake whales or wrecks for submarines.
Photo: Horacio_Fernandez, CC BY 3.0
Military16 Jan 1958
Civilian photographer Almiro Barauna photographed an object over Trindade Island from the Brazilian Navy ship Almirante Saldanha, and Rio papers ran the photos in February 1958. A U.S. Naval Attache report and later Air Force correspondence judged the photos a hoax.
Photo: Project Blue Book, Public domain
Whistleblowers16 Jan 1957
NICAP board chairman Delmer Fahrney, a retired rear admiral who once ran the Navy guided-missile program, told reporters that reliable reports showed fast objects entering the atmosphere under apparent intelligent guidance. The Air Force said most reports had ordinary explanations.
Media1956
After Morris Jessup's 1955 book The Case for UFO's, a writer calling himself Carlos Allende sent him letters claiming the Navy made a ship invisible in 1943, and an annotated copy of the book reached the Office of Naval Research in 1956. ONR says no such experiment was ever conducted.
Photo: U.S. Navy, Public domain
Military20 Sep 1952
During the NATO exercise Mainbrace, a U.S. reporter aboard a carrier in the North Sea photographed a silver sphere that pilots and deck crew were watching. Naval Intelligence found no ship that had launched a balloon, and witnesses split over whether it was one.
Photo: AFC J.J. Swartz, U.S. Navy, Public domain
MilitarySep 1952
During the NATO naval exercise Mainbrace, a Meteor jet was sent after a round, silvery object over RAF Topcliffe but lost it. Ruppelt wrote that an RAF officer told him these sightings led the RAF to recognize UFOs officially.
Photo: P Glenwright, CC BY-SA 2.0
Military2 Jul 1952
Navy photographer Delbert Newhouse filmed a group of bright points milling in the sky north of Tremonton while driving with his family. The Robertson Panel concluded the images were sunlight off seagulls; the Condon study found the film consistent with birds.
Photo: Project Blue Book, 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.
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
Government10 Dec 1948
A Top Secret Air Force and Navy intelligence study reviewed about 210 sighting reports. It found something was being seen but its nature was unknown, and said that if the objects were foreign, a Soviet source would be most logical. Copies survived a 1950 order to destroy it.
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
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
