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Mass sighting of aerial objects described in a broadsheet; often cited as an early UFO report but likely an atmospheric optical phenomenon.
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Broadsheet account of dark spheres appearing to 'battle' in the sky over Switzerland; also considered a probable atmospheric optical effect.
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One of the largest documented national UFO waves, with hundreds of French sightings reported over a few autumn weeks in 1954.
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A cluster of UFO sightings at Loring, Wurtsmith, Malmstrom, and other US and Canadian air bases over several weeks in late 1975 prompted Air Force and NORAD attention.
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Leaked Navy videos and photographs show triangular or pyramid-shaped objects near USS Russell and other vessels off the California coast in 2019.
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The Office of the Director of National Intelligence's June 2021 report to Congress reviewed 144 UAP cases, finding most unexplained and one attributable to a deflating balloon.
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A July 2023 House Oversight hearing featured public testimony from three former military officials, including David Grusch, alleging a decades-long government UAP retrieval and reverse-engineering program.
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AARO officials briefed Senate committees in 2024 on the office's case backlog, resolution rate, and continuing review of historical and current UAP reports.
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The Department of Defense established AARO in July 2022, consolidating and expanding UAP investigation authority across air, sea, space, and undersea domains.
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AARO's first historical record report reviewed U.S. government UAP-related investigations back to 1945, finding no evidence of extraterrestrial visitation, crash retrievals, or reverse-engineering programs.
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A declassified CBP infrared aircraft video shows an object moving over water near Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, submerging without a visible splash; later publicized by UFO researchers.
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A Brazilian farmer described being taken aboard a craft and encountering a humanoid occupant; the case remains a foundational and disputed early abduction claim.
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Dozens of Zimbabwean schoolchildren independently described witnessing a landed craft and humanoid beings during a school break.
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Local legend claims a mystery airship crashed and its pilot was buried in 1897; historians regard the story as an unverified, likely fabricated hoax.
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Claimed 1948 crash and recovery similar to Roswell, widely regarded by researchers as a hoax originating from a con artist's story.
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US anti-aircraft batteries fired over a thousand rounds at a perceived aerial intruder over the city; an Army review attributed the alarm to a weather balloon.
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Thousands of reports and radar-visual confirmations of triangular craft over Belgium, including a jet-scramble incident.
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Reports of a crash, tremor, and lights in Wales fueled speculation of a UFO event, later largely attributed to an earthquake coinciding with a meteor.
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A New Hampshire couple's account, partly recovered under hypnosis, became the first widely publicized alien-abduction case in the US.
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Bob Lazar claims to have worked reverse-engineering alien craft at a secret 'S-4' site near Area 51; his account and educational credentials remain unverified and disputed.
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Welsh schoolchildren reported a landed, cigar-shaped object near their school, part of a wider wave of local sightings.
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A silver metallic sphere filmed near Buga, Colombia; a radiologist-led team claimed it showed no welds and 'AI-decoded' symbols, but critics linked the footage to a metal-detector company's marketing campaign.
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Three Texas motorists reported severe radiation-like burns after encountering a diamond-shaped object escorted by helicopters.
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United Airlines employees reported a saucer-shaped object hovering over a gate before shooting upward, punching a hole in low clouds.
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The Chilean Navy released infrared footage of an unidentified aerial object, one of the few instances of a government affirming a case as genuinely unexplained.
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Two airline pilots reported a close pass by a cigar-shaped object with windows near Alabama.
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A Chinese government surveillance balloon transited the continental United States in early 2023 before being shot down; the episode preceded and briefly overlapped with several unrelated UAP object shootdowns.
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Brazilian Air Force investigated reported light-beam 'attacks' on residents of an Amazon island; part of the resulting report remains classified.
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University of Colorado study commissioned by the Air Force concluded UFOs did not warrant further scientific study, effectively ending Project Blue Book.
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An alleged Mexican military recovery of a crashed object near Coyame, Chihuahua, remains unverified and undocumented in any released records.
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An Army Reserve helicopter crew reported a near-collision with a cigar-shaped object that allegedly caused an unexplained altitude change over Mansfield, Ohio.
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Former intelligence official David Grusch publicly alleged the existence of a decades-long, multi-agency program retrieving crashed non-human craft; the claims remain uncorroborated.
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Wisconsin farmer Joe Simonton claimed men aboard a landed craft gave him pancakes; a famously odd contact claim never substantiated.
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Multiple witnesses in New Hampshire reported a large pulsating object; investigated directly by the Air Force's Project Blue Book.
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A Canadian prospector, Stefan Michalak, reported burns after encountering a landed, disc-shaped object in Manitoba.
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An Anglican priest and dozens of witnesses reported a detailed, extended observation of a craft with humanoid figures over Papua New Guinea.
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In the week following the Chinese balloon shootdown, U.S. and Canadian fighter aircraft shot down three additional unidentified objects over Alaska, Yukon, and Lake Huron, none of which were ever recovered or identified.
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West Virginia witnesses described a tall, glowing entity after seeing a fireball land; researchers largely attribute the report to a misidentified barn owl and meteor.
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Allied and Axis pilots reported mysterious lights following aircraft during WWII; largely attributed to St. Elmo's fire, flares, or enemy tech.
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Scandinavia experienced a wave of reports of rocket- and missile-shaped objects; largely attributed to meteors and early Soviet missile testing.
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A widely circulated 2015 Navy infrared video appears to show a UAP rotating in place as it travels, a motion pilots involved described as inconsistent with a known aircraft.
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Navy F/A-18 infrared footage of a fast-moving object over water off Florida; some analysts argue the apparent speed is a parallax illusion.
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Wave of 'mystery airship' sightings across the US Midwest and West predating powered flight; researchers attribute most reports to hoaxes and misidentification.
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A Florida photographer's widely publicized series of UFO photos sparked national attention but is now regarded by most researchers as an elaborate hoax.
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An unidentified object over Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport in China led to diversion of multiple flights and a brief airport closure.
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Recurring, scientifically monitored luminous phenomena observed for decades in Norway's Hessdalen valley, studied by an ongoing automated observation project.
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Thousands of witnesses across New York reported boomerang-shaped light formations over several years; some researchers attribute the wave to organized ultralight-aircraft flights.
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A Japan Airlines cargo flight crew reported a large unidentified object pacing their aircraft over Alaska for nearly 50 minutes, corroborated in part by FAA radar.
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Japan's Ministry of Defense issued formal guidance directing Air Self-Defense Force personnel to report and investigate unidentified aerial phenomena, mirroring similar US and allied reforms.
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Unusual lights filmed from a cargo plane and TV crew off New Zealand's coast were later partly attributed to squid-boat lights and the planet Venus.
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Residents reported a fireball and acorn-shaped object crashing in Pennsylvania woods, with an alleged but never officially confirmed military recovery.
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A rural Kentucky family reported besieging small metallic creatures around their farmhouse for hours.
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Pilot's 1947 sighting of nine fast-moving objects near Mt. Rainier that coined the term 'flying saucer'.
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Security personnel reported physical encounters with landed objects at the nuclear weapons storage area.
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A series of videos filmed from a Istanbul-area coastline allegedly show a formation of small metallic craft; widely regarded by video analysts as a probable hoax.
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Forestry worker Robert Taylor reported a close encounter with a domed, spherical craft near Livingston, Scotland, resulting in a rare criminal investigation logged as an actual assault case.
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A V-shaped formation of lights was photographed repeatedly over Texas; officially attributed to streetlight reflections off birds, an explanation some researchers contest.
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Airmen reported nuclear missile systems going offline coinciding with a UFO sighting near the Montana missile base.
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Air National Guard pilot Thomas Mantell died chasing an unidentified object; later attributed to a Skyhook balloon.
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An amateur film of two bright objects over Montana became one of the earliest UFO films subjected to formal analysis.
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Reported UFO/debris event in Washington state days before Arnold's sighting; long since concluded to be a hoax.
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The House Intelligence Committee's May 2022 hearing was the first open congressional hearing on UFOs/UAP since 1968, featuring Pentagon officials discussing the newly formed UAPTF.
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A farm couple's two photos of a disc-shaped object are among the most analyzed UFO images from the era.
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Ufologist Jaime Maussan presented two small, three-fingered mummified specimens to the Mexican Congress; Peruvian authorities determined they were fabricated from human and animal bone.
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A wave of Michigan sightings that astronomer J. Allen Hynek initially attributed to swamp gas, a controversial explanation that spurred congressional hearings.
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Numerous Air Force personnel at Minot AFB, North Dakota, reported a UFO seen visually and tracked on radar near nuclear missile silos in October 1968.
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Purported top-secret papers describing a 1947 government panel managing alien contact surfaced anonymously; the FBI and most researchers concluded the documents are forged.
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A series of formations of lights over New Jersey turned out to be a hoax using flares attached to helium balloons.
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NASA's independent study team released a 2023 report recommending better data collection for UAP research and finding no evidence UAP have extraterrestrial origin, while criticizing the stigma around reporting.
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A December 2017 New York Times investigation revealed the Pentagon's Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program and published the leaked FLIR1 and Gimbal videos, reigniting mainstream interest in UAP.
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Navy pilots including David Fravor intercepted the 'Tic Tac' object during training exercises off California, later confirmed authentic by the Pentagon.
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A dramatic spiral of blue light over Norway drew global media attention before being attributed to a malfunctioning Russian Bulava missile test.
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Following the 2021 preliminary assessment, ODNI and Congress have continued developing guidance and legislative proposals for the systematic declassification and disclosure of historical government UAP records.
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Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker reported being taken aboard a craft by claw-handed beings while fishing in Mississippi.
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The Department of Defense formally established the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force in August 2020 to standardize UAP reporting and investigation across the military.
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The U.S. Department of Defense formally released and confirmed the authenticity of three previously leaked Navy UAP videos, a watershed moment in official government acknowledgment.
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A jellyfish-like light formation appeared over the Soviet city, later linked by some analysts to a contemporaneous rocket launch.
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Thousands witnessed a V-shaped formation of lights over Arizona; the Air Force attributed part of the display to flares from a training exercise.
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USAF reconnaissance aircraft crew tracked an object simultaneously on radar, visually, and via electronic countermeasures gear across several states.
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USAF personnel at RAF Bentwaters reported landed lights and radiation readings in nearby woods over several nights, documented in the Halt Memo.
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Debris recovered from a New Mexico ranch in 1947, first announced as a 'flying disc' then a weather balloon; USAF later attributed it to Project Mogul.
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A viral 2015 claim of photographs showing an alien body from Roswell was subsequently identified as a mummified Native American infant.
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A September 2025 House Oversight Committee hearing continued congressional scrutiny of UAP transparency, featuring further witness testimony and renewed calls for full disclosure legislation.
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Multiple witnesses and a Canadian military/RCMP response followed reports of an object crashing into a Nova Scotia harbour.
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Decades of reported anomalous events at a Utah ranch studied by NIDS, BAASS, and later a government-linked program; no findings have been independently verified.
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Police officer Lonnie Zamora reported a landed, egg-shaped craft and humanoid figures near Socorro, New Mexico; still considered one of the best-documented unexplained cases.
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Numerous Texas residents, including a former police officer, reported large bright lights; the Air Force initially denied and later confirmed a training exercise was underway.
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Iranian Air Force jets reported instrument failures while pursuing a bright object over Tehran, an encounter detailed in a declassified DIA report.
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A French farmer reported a landed disc that left physical ground traces later studied by France's official GEPAN agency.
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Arizona logger Travis Walton says he was abducted for five days in 1975, an account later dramatized in the film 'Fire in the Sky'.
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A Brazilian Navy photographer captured images of an object over a South Atlantic island, producing some of the most formally analyzed UFO photos.
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Massive 1908 Siberian explosion sometimes claimed by fringe theorists as an alien craft mishap; mainstream science attributes it to an airburst meteor or comet.
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Crew of the littoral combat ship USS Omaha reported and recorded a spherical unidentified object off San Diego in 2019, later confirmed genuine by the Navy.
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Multiple Navy pilots reported near-daily encounters with fast-moving objects off the US East Coast, prompting internal Navy airspace-safety reports.
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A Minnesota deputy sheriff reported his patrol car was struck by a light source, cracking a windshield and stopping his watch and dashboard clock.
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French farmer Maurice Masse described a landed egg-shaped craft and two small humanoid occupants in a lavender field; case remains one of GEPAN/GEIPAN's oldest unresolved files.
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Australian pilot Frederick Valentich vanished after reporting a UFO was following his plane over the Bass Strait; no wreckage was ever found.
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Brazilian residents and possibly military personnel reported encountering strange creatures after a reported UFO crash.
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Soviet state press reported children in a city park witnessing a landed craft and a giant humanoid figure; most researchers consider the account exaggerated by Soviet media.
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A wave of aerial sightings and unexplained sounds around Warminster, England, that drew national press attention and "UFO tourism" in the mid-1960s.
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Radar and visual sightings over the capital twice in one month triggered a major press event and Air Force response.
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Hundreds of students and teachers at an Australian school reportedly witnessed an object land in a nearby field before departing.
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Multiple independent witnesses, including pilots, reported a large light formation over Canada's Yukon Territory.