Cases and themes
Reports from airline, military and private pilots, air traffic controllers and aviation agencies. 136 events, newest first.
Military2014
Former Navy pilot Ryan Graves testified that two VFA-11 F/A-18Fs took evasive action when a pilot saw a dark gray cube inside a clear sphere hovering at the entry point to training area W-72 off Virginia Beach. He said the squadron filed a safety report but got no official response.
Photo: U.S. Navy photo by Lt. Cmdr. Josh Hammond, Public domain
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
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.
Sightings13 Oct 2010
Crowds and TV cameras watched shiny objects over Chelsea in Manhattan on October 13, 2010, prompting calls to police and the FAA. A Mount Vernon school said they were balloons that blew away from a teacher's engagement party about an hour before.
Sightings11 Sep 2010
Chinese media reported that airline flights bound for Baotou in Inner Mongolia were diverted on September 11, 2010, after an unidentified object was reported over the airport. No official cause was given, and the story drew wider notice abroad weeks later.
Media10 Aug 2010
Journalist Leslie Kean's book, published by Harmony Books with a foreword by John Podesta, collected first-person chapters by military pilots, generals and former officials from several countries, including France's Jean-Jacques Velasco and Belgium's Wilfried De Brouwer.
Sightings15 Feb 2009
A daylight fireball with a sonic boom was seen across central Texas days after the Iridium-Cosmos satellite collision. The FAA first suggested space debris, then said it was a natural object, and U.S. Strategic Command said it was unrelated to the collision.
Photo: Jon Taylor, CC BY-SA 2.0
Sightings7 Oct 2008
Asteroid 2008 TC3 was found on Oct. 6, 2008 and predicted to hit within hours; it exploded over northern Sudan as forecast. A KLM crew over Chad saw the flash, satellites recorded it, and meteorites were later recovered from the desert, the first impact predicted in advance.
Photo: Peter Jenniskens, Public domain
GovernmentOct 2008
The UK National Archives released a batch of Ministry of Defence UFO files that included the MoD record of a 1991 near miss reported by an Alitalia crew over Kent, which officials said had no clear explanation. The captain spoke publicly about it after the release.
Photo: G B_NZ, CC BY-SA 2.0
SightingsJul 2008
MUFON released a 76-page analysis of FAA radar data obtained under FOIA for the Jan. 8, 2008 Stephenville sightings, saying it showed objects flying without transponders. Skeptics said it picked 187 points out of millions of noise returns and that F-16s dropping flares explain the lights.
Photo: CletusDitto, CC BY-SA 3.0
Sightings8 Jun 2008
A South Wales Police helicopter crew waiting to land at St Athan reported an unusual object that vanished over the Bristol Channel. Police denied tabloid claims of a chase, and a couple later said lanterns released at their nearby wedding were the likely cause.
Photo: Mick Lobb, CC BY-SA 2.0
Whistleblowers12 Nov 2007
A panel of former pilots and officials from seven countries, moderated by former Arizona Gov. Fife Symington, described encounters with unidentified objects at the National Press Club and urged the U.S. to reopen official UFO investigations through the Air Force or NASA.
Photo: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0
Sightings23 Apr 2007
Aurigny captain Ray Bowyer, flying a Trislander from Southampton to Alderney, reported two long, bright yellow objects hovering over the Channel Islands; a Blue Islands pilot reported a similar object. Bowyer filed an incident report, and no official explanation was published.
Photo: G B_NZ, CC BY-SA 2.0
Sightings7 Nov 2006
United Airlines employees reported a dark, disc-shaped object hovering over gate C17 at O'Hare before shooting up through the clouds. The FAA said radar showed nothing unusual and suggested a weather phenomenon. The Chicago Tribune broke the story in January 2007.
Photo: Payton Chung from Chicago, CC BY 2.0
Media24 Feb 2005
ABC broadcast a two-hour prime-time special in which anchor Peter Jennings examined UFO reports from 1947 onward, interviewing pilots, police and military witnesses as well as skeptics. A syndicated preview called it measured and noted it offered no proof of a visiting spacecraft.
Photo: Sgt. John Queen, Public domain
Media2005
In a 2005 Science Channel documentary, Aldrin described a light that seemed to travel alongside Apollo 11. He later told the AP the interview was edited to omit his explanation: most likely sunlight off a panel shed by the spacecraft. The 1969 crew debrief records the sighting.
Photo: Neil A. Armstrong, Public domain
MilitaryNov 2004
Navy F/A-18F crews from the USS Nimitz strike group, cued by the cruiser USS Princeton's radar, reported intercepting a smooth white object they could not identify. Another crew recorded the infrared video the Pentagon later released as FLIR1.
Photo: United States Navy, Public domain
Sightings5 Apr 2001
Richard Haines and Dominique Weinstein of the civilian group NARCAP reviewed about 1,300 pilot reports and found 57 alleging electromagnetic effects, mostly radio and compass trouble, when UAP were nearby. They framed the reports as a possible flight-safety issue deserving study.
Sightings2001
NARCAP issued French researcher Dominique Weinstein's catalog of UAP sightings by military, airline and private pilots from 1916 to 2000 as its Technical Report 4. It compiles pilot reports from many countries into a single reference list.
WhistleblowersAug 2000
Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper's memoir Leap of Faith, written with Bruce Henderson, says that in 1957 at Edwards AFB camera crew filmed a saucer-shaped craft landing, and that the film was sent to the Pentagon on orders and never heard of again. No official record of it has been confirmed.
Photo: NASA, Public domain
Sightings5 Jan 2000
Before dawn, a Highland business owner and police officers in Lebanon, Shiloh, Millstadt and Dupo, Illinois, reported a large, low, slow object with bright lights, which some described as triangular. The FAA suggested an advertising blimp; witnesses and some researchers dispute that.
Photo: Xing979 at English Wikipedia, Public domain
Sightings2000
Former NASA research scientist Richard Haines wrote NARCAP's first technical report, 'Aviation Safety in America: A Previously Neglected Factor', arguing that pilot encounters with unidentified aerial phenomena are under-reported and can affect flight safety.
Sightings1999
The National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena began collecting pilot and aircrew UAP reports as an aviation-safety matter. Its first technical report, by former NASA Ames scientist Richard Haines in 2000, argued pilots under-report sightings for fear of ridicule.
Media13 Aug 1997
Comedy Central premiered South Park with 'Cartman Gets an Anal Probe,' in which aliens probe Cartman and abduct a younger child. The crude pilot lampooned familiar abduction tropes and launched a long-running series.
Photo: Comedy Central, Public domain
Government1997
Chile set up CEFAA, a committee within its civil aviation directorate (DGAC, part of the Air Force structure), to study anomalous aerial phenomena reported at airports and by aircrews. It became one of the longest-running official UAP study bodies in the world.
Photo: Direccion General de Aeronautica Civil, Public domain
