Government and military
Records made public through FOIA, declassification, the National Archives and the PURSUE releases. 76 events, newest first.
Sightings29 Sep 2019
Security officers at Arizona's Palo Verde nuclear plant reported five or six drones over the site on Sept. 29, 2019, and more the next night. NRC records released under FOIA show the reports went to the NRC, FBI and others; operators were never found and the reports were closed unresolved.
Photo: Cuhlik, Public domain
Military14 Jul 2019
Deck logs obtained under FOIA show USS Kidd, Rafael Peralta and other destroyers recording unidentified drones around them near San Clemente Island over several nights from July 14, 2019. In 2021 the Chief of Naval Operations said the aircraft had not been identified.
Photo: San Diego Webcam, CC BY-SA 4.0
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
Government17 Jan 2017
The CIA posted about 930,000 declassified documents, more than 12 million pages, to its online reading room. The CREST collection, which includes the Star Gate remote viewing files, had until then been viewable only on a standalone system at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland.
Photo: Carol M. Highsmith, Public domain
GovernmentOct 2016
Spain's Ministry of Defence published 80 Air Force UFO case files, about 1,900 pages covering 1962 to 1995, in its online Biblioteca Virtual de Defensa. The files had been declassified from 1991 and earlier could only be read in person at the Air Force library in Madrid.
Photo: Bartomeu Caldentey Vives, CC BY-SA 3.0
Government21 Jan 2016
The CIA published two web features pointing readers to declassified UFO documents in its FOIA collection: one sorted files for X-Files characters Mulder and Scully, the other drew lessons from how agencies investigated sightings such as the Socorro, New Mexico case.
Photo: Carol M. Highsmith, Public domain
Media20 Jan 2015
John Greenewald's site The Black Vault posted about 129,500 pages of Air Force Project Sign, Grudge and Blue Book records as searchable PDFs. The files had long been viewable on microfilm at the National Archives but had not been fully online.
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
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
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
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
GovernmentApr 2011
The FBI launched The Vault, an online reading room for released records, including its UFO file and a 1950 memo by agent Guy Hottel relaying a secondhand saucer-crash story. Some outlets called it Roswell proof; the FBI later said it never investigated the claim and saw no Roswell link.
Photo: Guy Hottel, Public domain
Government3 Mar 2011
A National Archives release of MoD UFO files showed that Defence Intelligence UFO files for 1980-82, which would have covered the Rendlesham Forest case, had been found destroyed in a 2000 search. Archives consultant David Clarke said the main Rendlesham file was already public.
Photo: N Chadwick, CC BY-SA 2.0
Government9 Aug 2010
Brazil's Air Force commander signed Portaria 551/GC3, limiting the Air Command's UFO role to registering reports and forwarding them to the National Archives. Air defense command catalogs reports and the Air Force documentation center sends originals to the archive.
Government5 Aug 2010
A National Archives release of MoD UFO files included a second-hand account that Winston Churchill ordered a wartime encounter between RAF bombers and a UFO kept secret to avoid mass panic. The claim came via a relative of one of Churchill's bodyguards and is unconfirmed.
Photo: Sgt. J. Mapham, No. 5 Army Film & Photographic Unit, Public domain
Government18 Feb 2010
The UK National Archives released 24 Ministry of Defence UFO files, over 6,000 pages covering 1994 to 2000. Highlights reported included a 1952 Churchill memo asking about flying saucers and a 1997 triangle report near Michael Howard's Folkestone home, which the MoD found no evidence for.
Photo: Christopher Hilton, CC BY-SA 2.0
GovernmentAug 2009
The National Archives put online a fourth batch of Ministry of Defence UFO files: 14 files, about 4,000 pages, spanning 1981-1996. Highlights included Rendlesham Forest correspondence, the 1989-90 Belgian wave and London sightings the MoD traced to an advertising airship.
Photo: Eirian Evans, CC BY-SA 2.0
GovernmentMar 2009
The UK National Archives opened a third batch of Ministry of Defence UFO files, mostly late-1980s and early-1990s reports. Highlights included the Calvine photographs, Tornado crews' 1990 report later traced to Soviet rocket debris, and a 1992 advertising airship mistaken for a UFO.
Sightings2009
The Ministry of Defence logged 643 UFO reports by late November 2009, triple its usual yearly count and second only to 1978 among recent years. Released files show many sightings were Chinese lanterns, and the surge fed the decision to close the MoD's UFO desk.
Photo: Moyan Brenn from Italy, CC BY 2.0
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
Government14 May 2008
The UK Ministry of Defence began releasing its UFO files through The National Archives website, starting with sighting reports and MoD assessments dating back to the 1970s. The program ran until a tenth and final release in June 2013.
Photo: Christine Matthews, CC BY-SA 2.0
GovernmentOct 2007
Settling journalist Leslie Kean's federal FOIA lawsuit, NASA agreed to search its archives again for records on the 1965 Kecksburg, Pennsylvania, incident and to pay her legal fees. The court-supervised search ended in 2009 without resolving what fell; many files were missing.
Photo: NASA, Public domain
GovernmentMay 2006
After a Freedom of Information request, Britain's Ministry of Defence released Project Condign, a Defence Intelligence Staff study of UFO reports completed in December 2000. It said sightings could be explained by natural causes such as meteors and unusual atmospheric conditions.
Photo: ArildV, CC BY-SA 3.0
Government2004
The Brazilian Commission of Ufologists, coordinated by Revista UFO editor A. J. Gevaerd, launched a 2004 campaign asking the government to open its UFO files. Organizers say it led to meetings with Air Force and Defense Ministry officials and to later document releases to the National Archives.
