Whether they were covered up or forgotten, these scenarios may never be figured out.
Earlier this year, the Pentagon admitted that UFOs exist and that the U.S. is now forming a task force to investigate such things. However, this isn't the first time the U.S. government has put together a group to look into the possibility of unidentified flying objects.
Official government UFO studies began in the late 1940s with Project Sign, which provided some of the most credible videos of aerial phenomena to date. Within a few years, that program eventually evolved into Project Blue Book, which actively investigated UFO sightings throughout much of the Cold War.
Although, many of these sightings have never been explained. Let's dive into a few that I feel are necessary to talk about. Who knows... perhaps we'll eventually learn more about them with the government's latest task force. Also, I'm leaving out the Roswell crash in 1947 because just about everyone is aware of that story.
1. The "Phoenix Lights"
On March 13, 1997, hundreds of people in the Phoenix, Arizona area called their local law enforcement, and a popular UFO reporting hotline as well, to report a series of strange lights moving over their cities and towns.
According to the National UFO Reporting Center, the first call they received came in at 8:16 p.m. from a retired police officer in Paulden, Arizona — a town about two hours north of Phoenix. He reported seeing a series of reddish lights arranged in a V-formation.
The Phoenix Lights case remains one of the largest UFO sightings in history.
2. O’Hare International Airport Saucer (2006)
A flight was getting ready to fly to North Carolina from Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport when a United Airlines employee on the tarmac noticed a dark grey metallic craft hovering over gate C17. That day, November 7, 2006, a total of 12 United Airlines employees— and a few witnesses outside the airport — caught a glimpse of the saucer.
Witnesses say it hovered for about five minutes before shooting upward, where it broke a hole in the clouds. The news report became the most-read story on The Chicago Tribune’s website to that date and made international news. However, because the UFO was not seen on radar, the FAA called it a “weather phenomenon."
3. The USS Nimitz Encounter (2004)
On November 14, 2004, the USS Princeton — part of the USS Nimitz carrier strike group — filed an unknown craft on radar 100 miles off the coast of San Diego. For two weeks, the crew had been tracking objects that appeared at 80,000 feet and then plummeted to hover right above the Pacific Ocean.
In September 2019, the U.S. Navy officially disclosed its findings, calling the unknown objects an “Unidentified Aerial Phenomena.” The Department of Defense then posted the following on their website:
"DOD is releasing the videos in order to clear up any misconceptions by the public on whether or not the footage that has been circulating was real, or whether or not there is more to the videos."
Fingers crossed that we find out more about this one!
4. East Coast "GO FAST" Video (2015)
The Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program was leaked in 2017, and shortly after a video emerged revealing an encounter between an F/A-18 Super Hornet and unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP). The craft was seen along the east coast and was similar to that spotted off San Diego in 2004.
The fast-moving white oval was about 45-feet-long and didn't have wings or exhaust plume. The pilots tracked the object at 25,000 feet above the Atlantic Ocean as it flew away and simultaneously rotated on its axis.
5. The Stephenville Sightings (2008)
The small town of Stephenville, Texas, which is 100 miles southwest of Dallas, is mostly known for its dairy farms, but on January 8, 2008, dozens of its locals saw something unique in the sky. They reported seeing white lights above Highway 67, first in a single horizontal arc and then in vertical parallel lines.
Local pilot Steve Allen estimated that the strobe lights “spanned about a mile long and a half-mile wide,” traveling about 3,000 miles per hour. Witnesses believed the event was similar to the "Phoenix Lights" sightings of 1997.
By Matthew Sterner
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