Government UFO report finds no evidence flying objects are aliens but does not rule possibility out, reports say
A highly anticipated government report did not find evidence that the unexplained aerial phenomena likened to “UFOs” that Navy pilots have witnessed in recent years are alien spacecrafts, but the report also does not definitively say they aren’t, The New York Times and CNN reported.
The two news outlets cited multiple unnamed officials said to have been briefed on the contents of the government report but not authorized to speak publicly. The New York Times was first to publish details on the report expected to be publicly released in the coming weeks by the Pentagon and the US intelligence community.
The government has not reached a definitive conclusion about what these “unidentified flying objects” are, and many of their qualities remain a mystery, the officials told CNN and the Times.
According to the Times, officials said the report could not tie most of the more than 120 incidents of such phenomena over the last two decades to the U.S. military or other advanced government technology.
CNN reported the findings leave open the possibility these flying objects were created by other countries, like China or Russia.
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The report, commissioned by Congress, has garnered considerable attention as lawmakers and the public speculate on what the report may reveal about unidentified flying objects.
“What is true, and I’m actually being serious here, is that there are – there’s footage and records of objects in the skies, that we don’t know exactly what they are,” former President Barack Obama said last month upon news of the report’s commission.
According to the officials that the Times cited as having been briefed on the report, the objects’ acceleration and ability to change direction and submerge remains hard to explain. The possibility that the objects were weather balloons or other research was ruled out in at least some cases, the Times reported.
China and Russia have both invested heavily in hypersonic technology, the Times reported. If the objects ultimately were to be Chinese or Russian, that would be a much more troubling finding, one official told CNN, and it would indicate the countries were far outpacing the U.S. in such research, the Times reported.
The report will also include a classified annex, but officials told the Times that annex still does not include information linking the phenomena to aliens.
‘We can’t ignore this’: UFO sightings spark concern from more than just conspiracy theorists
Research into and fascination with UFOs has long been part of popular culture, though sightings or evidence pointing to extraterrestrial life have generally been dismissed as conspiracy theories.
In recent years, an increasing number of U.S. government and intelligence officials have confirmed the government’s interest in these unexplainable aerial phenomena.
Fueling the government’s investigation into these events has been the Pentagon UFO tracking program, which was spearheaded by former Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid in 2007.
In 2017, a New York Times report revealed multiple Navy pilots had seen UFOs while in flight. The Pentagon later declassified video of the incidents, which showed high-speed objects with no clear propulsion outpacing the officers’ jets.
In 2019, the Times published a report featuring interviews from Navy pilots who had see the objects.
“These things would be out there all day,” Lt. Ryan Graves, an F/A-18 Super Hornet pilot, told the Times. Graves had been with the Navy for 10 years at the time and had reported sightings to the Pentagon and Congress.
“Keeping an aircraft in the air requires a significant amount of energy. With the speeds we observed, 12 hours in the air is 11 hours longer than we’d expect,” he said.
Last week, a filmmaker shared video depicting radar footage he claimed shows a swarm of unidentified flying objects near a Navy ship off the coast of San Diego almost two years ago.
NBC News reported that the Defense Department confirmed the videos authenticity, saying it was recorded by Navy personnel and will be reviewed by the Pentagon’s Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force.
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Many who study UFOs argue the phenomena are just that: unidentified flying objects. While the phrase often draws connections to aliens, an increasing number of researchers, journalists and former government officials interested in these occurrences say they don’t necessitate the existence of extraterrestrial life but do warrant further, detailed investigations.
“There’s no question anymore that UFOs are real,” author and independent journalist Leslie Kean recently told USA TODAY.
Skeptics, though, often say the evidence is overblown. Videos could be showing optical illusions or focusing issues, and there are other phenomena scientists can’t explain.
“There’s all sorts of things we don’t understand,” said Seth Shostak, a senior astronomer at the SETI Institute. He noted, for example, that some rules of physics have been called into question by new research without a public outcry.
Regardless, public release of the government report is likely to keep the issue in the national conversation.
“I want us to take it seriously and have a process to take it seriously,” Sen. Marco Rubio. R-Fla., told “60 Minutes” last month. “Maybe it has a very simple answer … Maybe it doesn’t.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters last week the Office of the Director of National Intelligence was actively working on the report.
“We take reports of incursions into our airspace by any aircraft identified or unidentified very seriously and investigate each one,” Psaki said.
Contributing: Joel Shannon
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