Cases and themes
Photographs, films and videos, from the 1950s to the Navy infrared footage. 185 events, newest first.
GovernmentSep 2022
Answering a FOIA request from The Black Vault, the Navy's FOIA office withheld all UAP-designated videos in full, saying release would give adversaries information on Navy operations and capabilities. It said three earlier videos were released only because they had already leaked.
Photo: United States Navy, Public domain
Close encounters23 Aug 2022
Three researchers at the Main Astronomical Observatory of Ukraine's National Academy of Sciences posted a preprint describing daytime-sky video of fast bright and dark objects. They estimated sizes of 3 to 12 meters and very high speeds; the paper was not peer reviewed when posted.
Photo: Alexey laa, CC BY 4.0
Media22 Jul 2022
Universal released Jordan Peele's 'Nope', in which a brother and sister try to film a hostile object hiding in the clouds over their California horse ranch. The AP described it as a flying saucer horror about spectacle. It grossed about $171 million worldwide.
Photo: Capital FM Kenya, CC BY 3.0
Sightings19 Jun 2022
People across the South Island photographed a glowing spiral in the evening sky. The New Plymouth Astronomical Society said it was most likely a fuel dump from the Falcon 9 upper stage that had launched a Globalstar satellite that day.
Photo: NASA Headquarters / NASA/Aubrey Gemignani, Public domain
Government17 May 2022
A House Intelligence subcommittee held an open hearing on UAP with Under Secretary of Defense Ronald Moultrie and Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence Scott Bray, who showed newly declassified video. It was described as the first open congressional hearing on the subject in about 50 years.
Photo: U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Public domain
Government17 May 2022
At the House Intelligence subcommittee's UAP hearing, Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence Scott Bray said triangle-shaped objects filmed by Navy crews were likely small drones, their shape an effect of light passing through night-vision goggles onto an SLR camera.
Photo: U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Public domain
Media8 Aug 2021
Showtime debuted 'UFO', a four-part documentary series from J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot and Zipper Bros. Films directed by Mark Monroe and Paul Crowder. It covered cases such as the Phoenix Lights and O'Hare, the Pentagon's AATIP study and the leaked Navy videos.
Photo: Montclair Film Festival, CC BY 2.0
SightingsJul 2021
In July 2021 the group UAPx and University at Albany physicists ran a week of camera and radiation monitoring at Avalon on Catalina Island. Their later paper said several early candidates were explained, leaving one unresolved dark spot recorded on 16 July.
Photo: Don Ramey Logan, CC BY-SA 4.0
MilitaryMay 2021
Filmmaker Jeremy Corbell released footage he said was filmed in the USS Omaha's combat information center in July 2019, showing a round object over water that appears to drop into the sea. A Pentagon spokesperson confirmed Navy personnel took the video and said the UAP Task Force was reviewing it.
Photo: US Navy, Public domain
MediaMay 2021
In May 2021, former President Barack Obama said officials could not explain how some objects seen in the sky moved or what their trajectories were. The remarks drew wide attention weeks before the ODNI preliminary UAP assessment.
Photo: Official White House Photo by Pete Souza, Public domain
MediaApr 2021
Filmmaker Jeremy Corbell released night-vision video of blinking 'pyramid' shapes he said was filmed from USS Russell off San Diego in July 2019. A Pentagon spokesperson confirmed Navy personnel took the imagery and that the UAP Task Force was examining it, without saying what it showed.
Photo: U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Michael K. McNabb, Public domain
Sightings28 Feb 2021
A fireball seen across the UK at about 9:54 pm was recorded by fireball networks and residents' dashboard and doorbell cameras. The tracked path led to fragments on a Winchcombe driveway, the first carbonaceous chondrite found in the UK and the first UK meteorite fall recovered in 30 years.
Photo: Matt Brown, CC BY 2.0
Media5 Jan 2021
History launched The Proof Is Out There, hosted by journalist Tony Harris, in which a team of experts examines viral videos, photos and audio of UFOs and other claimed phenomena. The network said each item is analyzed to judge whether it is authentic or fabricated.
Government16 Dec 2020
On the Conversations with Tyler podcast, former CIA director John Brennan called the Navy pilot videos eyebrow-raising and said some phenomena might reflect something not yet understood, possibly another form of life. He framed it as keeping an open mind, not as a conclusion.
Photo: CIA photo, Public domain
Media6 Oct 2020
James Fox's documentary, narrated by Peter Coyote, surveyed UFO cases since the 1940s alongside the newly released Navy videos. It featured former Senate leader Harry Reid, ex-New Mexico governor Bill Richardson and researcher Jacques Vallee. It was released for digital download.
Photo: OldDominionVA89, CC BY-SA 4.0
WhistleblowersOct 2020
Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Christopher Mellon said in the documentary The Phenomenon that he received the three Navy videos from a Defense Department contact and gave them to the Times for its 2017 story. The Times said DoD was its on-record source.
Photo: Max Moszkowicz, CC BY 3.0
Government14 Sep 2020
Defense Minister Taro Kono issued standing orders telling Japan's Self-Defense Forces to record and photograph unidentified aerial objects and analyze sightings, including public reports. The ministry said it knew of no SDF encounters, and Kono had said he did not believe in UFOs.
Photo: Japanese Ministry of Defense, CC BY 4.0
Media29 May 2020
Andrew Patterson's debut The Vast of Night went to Amazon Prime Video instead of theaters. Set in a late-1950s New Mexico town, it follows a switchboard operator and a radio DJ who trace a strange audio signal. It had won an audience award at Slamdance.
Military28 Apr 2020
Asked about the Pentagon release of Navy UFO videos, Japanese Defense Minister Taro Kono said no SDF pilot had met a UFO and that he did not really believe in them, but that encounter procedures would be set and Japan would seek the US analysis.
Photo: Prime Minister's Official Residence, CC BY 4.0
Government27 Apr 2020
The Defense Department authorized the release of three Navy infrared videos, FLIR1, Gimbal and GoFast, that had already circulated publicly. It said the objects in them remain unidentified.
Photo: United States Navy, Public domain
Military19 Dec 2019
Chad Underwood, the Navy F/A-18 pilot who recorded the 2004 FLIR1 'Tic Tac' video off southern California, gave his first public interview to New York Magazine. He described locking the object on radar and infrared after a warning from David Fravor and said it did not behave like known aircraft.
Photo: United States Navy, Public domain
Media26 May 2019
The Black Vault posted Dave Beaty's documentary The Nimitz Encounters in full on YouTube with his permission. The film retells the November 2004 Tic Tac events off southern California through CGI re-creations based on accounts from sailors and naval aviators.
Photo: United States Navy, Public domain
Sightings24 May 2019
A day after SpaceX launched its first 60 Starlink satellites, a Dutch satellite tracker filmed them crossing the sky as a line of lights. The Dutch reporting site UFOmeldpunt got more than 150 reports, an early case of satellite trains being mistaken for UFOs.
Sightings23 Apr 2019
A fireball at about 9:07 pm, recorded by Costa Rican seismological cameras, dropped stones on Aguas Zarcas. One piece punched a grapefruit-sized hole in a house roof and another hit a dog house; the stones were classified as a CM2 carbonaceous chondrite.
Photo: Csavil, CC BY-SA 4.0
MediaSep 2018
Ryan Eslinger's film UFO, with Alex Sharp and Gillian Anderson, follows a math student trying to explain a saucer-like object seen hovering over an airport runway. One review said the story was based on an unexplained sighting at a Chicago airport.
