ExplainersOfficial UAP Reports: Dates, Counts and Conclusions
Read a government assessment by separating its reporting window, case status and evidentiary limits. The 2024 annual report is a worked example, not a live total.
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2010 Xiaoshan Airport UFO IncidentChina / DISPUTED / Grade CChina / 2010 / DISPUTED / Credibility COn 7 July 2010, Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport suspended departures and diverted arrivals after an unidentified airborne target was reported near the airport. Contemporary accounts place the restriction between 8:45 p.m. and 9:41 p.m.: 12 inbound flights were diverted and six outbound flights were delayed, with a newspaper estimate of more than 2,000 passengers affected. The initiating target remains unidentified in the public record. Widely circulated photographs were not released by the airport and were later assessed as aircraft or as unrelated to the operational event. No evidence of an extraterrestrial origin has been published, and no complete final government investigation report has been found in the public record.
2004 Nimitz Tic Tac EncounterUnited States / UNRESOLVED / Grade AUnited States / 2004 / UNRESOLVED / Credibility AOn 14 November 2004, Navy aviators operating with the USS Nimitz carrier strike group reported a white, wingless, oblong object above disturbed water off Southern California. A follow-on crew recorded the infrared video known as FLIR1. The Department of Defense formally released that Navy video in 2020 and said the recorded phenomenon remained unidentified. The case has unusually strong witness and provenance records, but the public file lacks the complete radar tracks, original mission data and sensor geometry needed to verify reported speed, distance or acceleration. It remains unresolved; the official video does not establish an extraterrestrial or non-human origin.
1950 Farmington UFO ArmadaUnited States / DISPUTED / Grade BUnited States / 1950 / DISPUTED / Credibility BThe Farmington UFO Armada was a wave of daytime reports over Farmington, New Mexico, in mid-March 1950. A March 18 Farmington Daily Times article called that day the third consecutive day of sightings, while other later sources use March 15-18; the surviving chronology therefore has a one-day uncertainty at its edges. Named residents described formations of silvery discs, with one red object, moving silently at apparently high speed. Contemporary journalism establishes that a broad public reporting episode occurred, but it does not verify the highest object counts or identify the objects. No authenticated event photograph, radar plot, physical trace or complete case-specific official investigation has been located in the public record.
1966 Portage County UFO ChaseUnited States / DISPUTED / Grade BUnited States / 1966 / DISPUTED / Credibility BBefore dawn on 17 April 1966, Portage County deputy Dale F. Spaur and auxiliary deputy Wilbur L. “Barney” Neff reported that a brilliant object rose near their patrol car on U.S. Route 224 by Atwater, Ohio. They followed it east; East Palestine patrolman Wayne Huston joined in a second cruiser, and Conway patrolman Frank Panzanella reported a distant light at the Pennsylvania endpoint. Contemporary records place the route along Ohio Route 14 and Pennsylvania Routes 51 and 65, about 80-86 road miles. Mantua police chief Gerald F. Buchert made a separate observation and exposed black-and-white film. Project Blue Book found no target on checked radar, no causal balloon launch and no Youngstown interceptors, rejected the marks on Buchert's negative as processing defects, and proposed that a satellite was followed by Venus. The file does not preserve a matched satellite calculation or measurements proving the officers' reported low-altitude geometry. Named testimony and official handling are well documented; the identity and continuity of the reported lights remain disputed, and no extraordinary origin is established.
Japan Airlines Flight 1628 UFO incidentUnited States / DISPUTED / Grade BUnited States / 1986 / DISPUTED / Credibility BJapan Air Lines cargo Flight 1628 was flying from Reykjavík to Anchorage when Captain Kenju Terauchi, First Officer Takanori Tamefuji, and Flight Engineer Yoshio Tsukuda reported unusual lights. Terauchi later described two luminous objects and a much larger dark “mothership”; the other crew members corroborated lights but not his detailed giant-craft description. Anchorage Center handled course and altitude changes, contacted the Elmendorf military radar center, and vectored nearby aircraft. The surviving FAA record contains interviews, radio transcripts, controller statements, radar printouts, and simulated displays. It also records failed confirmation by Fairbanks radar, United Flight 69, and a USAF C-130. FAA specialists attributed the retained dual radar target to a split return from the 747, while Philip Klass proposed ice-crystal/cloud effects and Jupiter for different visual phases. Those explanations are plausible but do not reproduce every reported detail; the careful conclusion is a documented aviation report with unresolved perceptions, not verified extraordinary technology.
1956 Lakenheath-Bentwaters UFO IncidentUnited Kingdom / DISPUTED / Grade BUnited Kingdom / 1956 / DISPUTED / Credibility BOn the night of 13-14 August 1956, U.S. and British personnel at RAF Bentwaters and RAF Lakenheath in eastern England reported several unusual radar contacts and lights. A 31 August U.S. Air Force intelligence extract documents three Bentwaters radar sequences, while a BOI-485 message and later accounts describe Lakenheath tracking and RAF Venom interceptions. The public file contains no original radar film, audio, event photography or single internally consistent chronology. The famous claim that a target followed a Venom after radar contact conflicts with later-identified aircrew and squadron logbooks. Atmospheric propagation, meteors, balloons and ordinary aircraft may explain parts of the night, but no single conventional explanation has been demonstrated for every report. The case remains disputed: unusually well documented for its era, yet least secure in its most dramatic details.
Red Bluff Project Blue Book UFO caseUnited States / DISPUTED / Grade BUnited States / 1960 / DISPUTED / Credibility BAt about 23:45 on 13 August 1960, California Highway Patrol officers Charles A. Carson and Stanley E. Scott reported a silent, glowing object south of Red Bluff, near Corning, then followed lights eastward for roughly two hours. The Air Force file also summarizes reports by local officers and later witnesses, but its radar inquiry records no unidentified scope target. Air Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC) concluded that inversion-related refraction caused the 12–20 August cluster and proposed Mars as the most likely light source for the patrolmen. Because the file uses distant weather soundings and does not quantitatively reproduce the reported geometry or motions, the official explanation is documented but not fully demonstrated. The case supports a reported police observation and official investigation; it does not establish an extraordinary craft.
Battle of Los Angeles UFO caseUnited States / EXPLAINED / Grade BUnited States / 1942 / EXPLAINED / Credibility BThe Battle of Los Angeles was a real wartime air-defense emergency, not evidence that an alien craft attacked California. After a radar contact and escalating reports, antiaircraft batteries fired about 1,400 rounds between roughly 03:00 and 04:15 on 25 February 1942. No bombs fell, no aircraft was shot down and postwar Japanese records disclosed no raid. Contemporary officials disagreed, but later military histories judged that a meteorological balloon probably triggered the firing and that smoke, flares and shell bursts created further apparent targets. Five civilian deaths were attributed indirectly to traffic accidents and heart attacks during the blackout. The famous searchlight image is a retouched newspaper print and cannot identify what, if anything, was in the beams.Recent Sightings
Browse sightingsRecent UFO/UAP video sightings
Multiple lights tracked over the Pacific in DOW-UAP-PR126Undisclosed maritime location, International watersA 2019 handheld military recording shows several apparent lights entering and leaving frame during a 152-second Pacific Ocean sequence.
Military sensor tracks contrast source in DOW-UAP-PR134Undisclosed location, Middle EastA 99-second 2025 Middle East clip shows an electro-optical and infrared sensor following an unresolved area of contrast.
Infrared target partly occluded in DOW-UAP-PR136Undisclosed location, Middle EastA 2023 Middle East infrared clip follows a small contrast source while part of the military platform repeatedly obscures the sensor view.
Brief left-to-right transit recorded in DOW-UAP-PR142Undisclosed location, Middle EastA 14-second 2025 Middle East infrared file contains only a roughly three-second passage of a small contrast source across the frame.
Sensor reacquires moving contrast source in DOW-UAP-PR149Undisclosed location, Middle EastA 51-second 2023 Middle East infrared clip shows a contrast source crossing the lower frame before the sensor pans to keep it near center.
Tiny bright object crosses Vikram-1 stage camera after separationSatish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, IndiaA brief point of light crossed the dark side of a Vikram-1 onboard view about seven minutes after launch from Sriharikota, during an active stage-separation sequence.
DVIDS video: DOW-UAP-PR116 Atlantic Ocean report, 2020Atlantic Ocean operating area, International watersDOW-UAP-PR116 is an official DVIDS/AARO release posted July 10, 2026, containing 32 seconds of infrared footage submitted by U.S. Northern Command from an Atlantic Ocean event in 2020.
DVIDS video: DOW-UAP-PR101 South China Sea infrared report, 2024South China Sea operating area, International watersDOW-UAP-PR101 is a DVIDS/AARO video posted July 10, 2026, showing a 2024 South China Sea infrared sensor report with an elongated contrast source that later appears as several points.