U.S. government to release landmark report on UFOS
WASHINGTON — The U.S. government, once openly dismissive of UFO sightings that for decades sparked the popular imagination, is poised to issue an expansive account of what it calls “unidentified aerial phenomena,” based heavily on observations by American military pilots.
The U.S. intelligence community, in conjunction with the Pentagon, is due in the coming days to submit a report to Congress on the subject. The Pentagon in recent years has released or confirmed the authenticity of video from naval aviators showing enigmatic aircraft exhibiting speed and manoeuvrability exceeding known aviation technologies.
In the lead-up to its forthcoming report, Defence Department officials have made clear they take the issue seriously while sidestepping questions about any potential extraterrestrial origins. The report marks a turning point for the U.S. military after decades of deflecting, debunking and discrediting observations of unidentified flying objects and “flying saucers.”
“We take reports of incursions into our airspace — by any aircraft, identified or unidentified — very seriously, and investigate each one,” Pentagon spokesperson Sue Gough said.
The experience of retired U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander Alex Dietrich is a case in point. The fighter pilot was among several aviators from the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz involved in a 2004 encounter off California’s coast with unknown aircraft described as resembling large “Tic Tac” breath mints.
Dietrich recalled in an interview with Reuters this week that the oblong object lacked “any visible flight control surfaces or means of propulsion.” Dietrich said she believes the episode was “analyzed in a professional, sober way” by the military chain of command after she and her colleagues were debriefed.
She said she hopes her ability to go public will help ease the stigma others once faced under similar circumstances, encouraging them to “speak up, even if they don’t know what they saw.”
“I’m trying to normalize it by talking about it,” Dietrich said, adding, “I hope I’m not the ‘UFO, Tic Tac person’ for the rest of my life.”
The New York Times reported on June 3 that U.S. intelligence officials have found no evidence that unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) witnessed by Navy pilots are alien spacecraft, but cannot explain the unusual movements of these objects and cannot definitively rule out extraterrestrial explanations.
The Times, citing senior administration officials briefed on a classified version of the report, said officials found that the vast majority of more than 120 UAP incidents over the past two decades — many observed by personnel aboard U.S. Navy aircraft and warships — did not originate from any American military or other advanced government technology.