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Country dossier

UFO sightings in the United States: documented cases, reports, and evidence

The United States has 56 documented UFO/UAP cases in this archive, spanning 1942 to 2024. This page groups the national record so readers can compare case dates, evidence types, official context, and representative reports before opening the full dossiers.

Archive profile

United States

Case count
56
Time span
1942-2024
Main evidence types
Witness reports / Official records / Images and video / Aviation context / Military context
Representative cases
2024 U.S. Drone SightingsIn late 2024, reports of drones and unusual lights across New Jersey and the northeastern United States prompted federal investigations, flight restrictions, and public concern. Authorities said many reports matched lawful drones, aircraft, stars, or planets, while confirmed drone activity near sensitive sites remained a real airspace-security issue. This dossier separates verified events from viral claims.2023 North American High-Altitude Object ShootdownsBetween 10 and 12 February 2023, U.S. fighters shot down three objects over northern Alaska, Yukon and Lake Huron after the North American Aerospace Defense Command detected them during heightened scrutiny following the Chinese surveillance balloon incident. The Alaska and Yukon objects flew near 40,000 feet; the Lake Huron object was tracked near 20,000 feet. Officials treated their uncertain identity and operating altitudes as civil-aviation and possible surveillance risks. Searches later ended without recovering debris from any of the three, so no public physical examination established an exact model or owner. President Joe Biden said the intelligence community considered balloons linked to private, recreational or research activity the most likely explanation and found no evidence tying the objects to China's surveillance program or another country's surveillance fleet. The events are well documented as air-defense operations, but the objects remain individually unidentified in the public record.Eglin AFB UAP case resolutionOn 26 January 2023, a U.S. military pilot near Eglin Air Force Base detected four radar targets between about 16,000 and 18,000 feet, then visually observed only one and captured one electro-optical and one infrared still image. The video recorder was already inoperable, so no event video exists. AARO concluded with moderate confidence that the imaged object was very likely a lighter-than-air craft, based on its reported behavior, viewing geometry, wind and sun conditions, and comparison testing with a commercial lighting balloon. The other three radar targets lacked imagery and could not be analyzed. A radar circuit-breaker trip during the approach had occurred repeatedly on the same aircraft before the event, so the public record does not support attributing that fault to the object.Los Angeles jetpack man reportsThe Los Angeles ‘jetpack man’ case is a series of distinct aviation reports, not a tracked continuous object. On 30 August 2020, crews on approach reported a person-like object near the Runway 25R final at about 3,000 feet. On 14 October, a China Airlines crew briefly saw a shiny object near Culver City at roughly 6,000–6,500 feet. On 28 July 2021, one Kalitta Air captain reported a reddish, person-sized object about 15 miles east of LAX at 5,000 feet. FAA radar reviews did not produce a discernible track, and released FBI files do not identify an operator or device. An LAPD helicopter separately filmed a Jack Skellington-shaped balloon north of Century City; that makes balloons plausible, but location and date differences prevent it from solving every report.

Complete case list

United States

56 of 56 cases
2024 U.S. Drone SightingsIn late 2024, reports of drones and unusual lights across New Jersey and the northeastern United States prompted federal investigations, flight restrictions, and public concern. Authorities said many reports matched lawful drones, aircraft, stars, or planets, while confirmed drone activity near sensitive sites remained a real airspace-security issue. This dossier separates verified events from viral claims.United StatesGrade B / DISPUTED2023 North American High-Altitude Object ShootdownsBetween 10 and 12 February 2023, U.S. fighters shot down three objects over northern Alaska, Yukon and Lake Huron after the North American Aerospace Defense Command detected them during heightened scrutiny following the Chinese surveillance balloon incident. The Alaska and Yukon objects flew near 40,000 feet; the Lake Huron object was tracked near 20,000 feet. Officials treated their uncertain identity and operating altitudes as civil-aviation and possible surveillance risks. Searches later ended without recovering debris from any of the three, so no public physical examination established an exact model or owner. President Joe Biden said the intelligence community considered balloons linked to private, recreational or research activity the most likely explanation and found no evidence tying the objects to China's surveillance program or another country's surveillance fleet. The events are well documented as air-defense operations, but the objects remain individually unidentified in the public record.United StatesGrade B / EXPLAINEDEglin AFB UAP case resolutionOn 26 January 2023, a U.S. military pilot near Eglin Air Force Base detected four radar targets between about 16,000 and 18,000 feet, then visually observed only one and captured one electro-optical and one infrared still image. The video recorder was already inoperable, so no event video exists. AARO concluded with moderate confidence that the imaged object was very likely a lighter-than-air craft, based on its reported behavior, viewing geometry, wind and sun conditions, and comparison testing with a commercial lighting balloon. The other three radar targets lacked imagery and could not be analyzed. A radar circuit-breaker trip during the approach had occurred repeatedly on the same aircraft before the event, so the public record does not support attributing that fault to the object.United StatesGrade A / EXPLAINEDLos Angeles jetpack man reportsThe Los Angeles ‘jetpack man’ case is a series of distinct aviation reports, not a tracked continuous object. On 30 August 2020, crews on approach reported a person-like object near the Runway 25R final at about 3,000 feet. On 14 October, a China Airlines crew briefly saw a shiny object near Culver City at roughly 6,000–6,500 feet. On 28 July 2021, one Kalitta Air captain reported a reddish, person-sized object about 15 miles east of LAX at 5,000 feet. FAA radar reviews did not produce a discernible track, and released FBI files do not identify an operator or device. An LAPD helicopter separately filmed a Jack Skellington-shaped balloon north of Century City; that makes balloons plausible, but location and date differences prevent it from solving every report.United StatesGrade C / DISPUTED2019 USS Omaha Sphere VideoA short monochrome video publicly released in May 2021 shows a small round target near the ocean horizon while shipboard voices track it and one operator says, "splash" as the image disappears. Filmmaker Jeremy Corbell attributed the recording to USS Omaha on 15 July 2019. Pentagon spokesperson Susan Gough confirmed that Navy personnel recorded the imagery and that the UAP Task Force included it in ongoing examinations. That confirmation did not publicly verify the ship, date, exact location, target size, speed, water entry or underwater continuation. A Navy FOIA response later found that Omaha's retained logs and voice records for 1-18 July 2019 were unavailable, preventing direct public correlation with the claimed date. The clip is an authentic Navy-made record of an unresolved observation, but the stronger "transmedium sphere" interpretation remains unproven.United StatesGrade B / UNRESOLVED2015 Gimbal UAP VideoIn January 2015, a U.S. Navy F/A-18 sensor recorded the 34-second infrared sequence known as Gimbal during East Coast training. The official clip is authentic and shows a warm, indistinct target that appears to rotate while crew audio refers to a group of objects. The public file does not include the claimed radar display, original metadata, exact range, full mission record or complete video. Independent reconstructions reach different results depending mainly on assumed distance: a nearby path can appear highly unusual, while a more distant conventional aircraft and infrared glare can fit the short clip. No public official resolution identifies the object or verifies extraordinary performance, so the case remains unresolved rather than evidence of exotic technology.United StatesGrade A / UNRESOLVED2015 GoFast UAP VideoIn January 2015, a U.S. Navy F/A-18F recorded a small round object with a forward-looking infrared sensor over the Atlantic east of Florida. The authentic 34-second GoFast clip appears to show a target racing just above the ocean. NASA calculated in 2023 that it was about 13,000 feet high and moving near 40 mph; AARO's broader 2025 model produced a wind-compensated range of 5-92 mph and found with high confidence that no anomalous performance occurred. Motion parallax explains much of the apparent speed. The public video does not identify the object, and AARO lacked the original file, aircraft position and heading, and aircrew accounts. GoFast is therefore best described as a resolved performance claim attached to an unidentified object, not proof of extraordinary technology.United StatesGrade A / EXPLAINEDMorristown UFO hoaxThe Morristown case is a confirmed deliberate hoax, not an unresolved aerial mystery. Joe Rudy and Chris Russo staged five red-light displays around Morris County, New Jersey, on 5, 26 and 29 January and 7 and 17 February 2009. Their published first-person account says they used road flares carried by helium balloons, recorded their preparations and launches, alerted news outlets and sometimes presented themselves as witnesses. Residents and motorists genuinely saw lights; the deception concerned their cause and the information supplied to investigators and media. Police suspected flares and balloons after the first event, while the larger final display prompted renewed calls, traffic disruption and a prosecutor's inquiry reported on 18-19 February. Rudy and Russo admitted responsibility on 1 April. Contemporary reports say they later pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and each received a $250 fine and 50 hours of community service. The explanation is strongly supported by their documentation, the repeated-event chronology and the legal outcome. Important limits remain: no direct FAA advisory, incident file, 911 log, radar record or court docket was located, and reports differ on the largest number of lights released at once.United StatesGrade A / EXPLAINEDStephenville UFO sightingsOn the evening of 8 January 2008, residents around Stephenville, Dublin and rural Erath County reported bright lights and, in some accounts, a very large silent structured object. Contemporary Associated Press coverage named pilot and business owner Steve Allen, Ricky Sorrells and Constable Lee Roy Gaitan, but their descriptions, locations and reported times do not form one synchronized observation. The AP's phrase 'several dozen' covered reports from several towns over several weeks, not a verified count of people watching one object on 8 January. The Air Force first said no base aircraft were involved, then corrected that statement on 23 January: ten F-16s from the 457th Fighter Squadron trained in the Brownwood Military Operations Area from 18:00 to 20:00. That correction establishes overlapping military activity, not the identity of every reported light. A later MUFON study analyzed FAA-derived returns from five radar sites for 16:00 to 20:00 and tried to correlate them with witness sectors. Its high-speed examples depend on sparse primary returns, timing estimates and assumptions that separate points belonged to the same target; the report itself records coincidence and radar-error alternatives. No public FAA or military finding confirms one anomalous aircraft, and no authenticated photograph or video of the 8 January event has surfaced. The archive therefore retains B / DISPUTED.United StatesGrade B / DISPUTED2006 Chicago O'Hare UFO sightingOn 7 November 2006, multiple United Airlines employees reported an unlit gray disc above Concourse C at Chicago O'Hare International Airport. A United supervisor's call to the FAA tower and later FOIA-released communications establish that the report entered aviation channels; controllers saw nothing, the FAA said a preliminary radar check found nothing unusual, and it suggested weather or lighting in low cloud. No event photograph or video has been authenticated. The record confirms a reported incident and institutional response, but it does not identify the cause.United StatesGrade B / UNRESOLVED2004 Nimitz Tic Tac EncounterOn 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.United StatesGrade A / UNRESOLVED1997 Phoenix LightsThe Phoenix Lights were a real sequence of reports on 13 March 1997, but the public story often merges two different events. Between roughly 8:00 and 8:45 p.m., witnesses across Arizona described moving lights, sometimes interpreted as one enormous V-shaped craft. Around 10:00 p.m., stationary lights southwest of Phoenix were filmed. Contemporary reporting linked that later display to parachute illumination flares dropped by Maryland Air National Guard A-10s over a training range behind the Sierra Estrella. Telescope and pilot accounts support aircraft as the leading explanation for the earlier formation, although no complete public radar or air-traffic record reconstructs every report. No public evidence establishes an extraterrestrial craft.United StatesGrade B / EXPLAINEDGulf Breeze UFO incidentThe Gulf Breeze case began with building contractor Ed Walters's claim that he photographed a lighted object outside his Florida home on 11 November 1987. Five color instant photographs and an anonymous letter reached the Gulf Breeze Sentinel on 16 November; the weekly printed photographs on 19 November, and other residents then reported lights or objects. MUFON investigated and some of its analysts endorsed Walters, while CUFOS and Jet Propulsion Laboratory analyst Robert Nathan argued that the imagery showed features consistent with double exposure. In June 1990, a small foam-and-paper model resembling the photographed form was found in the attic of Walters's former house; newspaper experiments produced similar images. Walters denied making it and said it had been planted. The public record therefore establishes a major local reporting and photographic controversy, not a verified extraordinary craft.United StatesGrade C / DISPUTEDJapan Airlines Flight 1628 UFO incidentJapan 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.United StatesGrade B / DISPUTEDHudson Valley UFO waveThe Hudson Valley UFO wave was not one encounter but a changing cluster of night-light reports across Westchester, Putnam and Dutchess counties in New York and nearby western Connecticut. Contemporary reporting places the best-documented core from March 1983 through summer 1984; the later book Night Siege broadened the public narrative through 1986. Witnesses described V, boomerang or circular arrangements of white, red and green lights, often perceived as very large, slow and quiet. New York State Police Sergeant Kenneth V. Spiro told The New York Times that a trooper followed one display to Stormville Airport and found five or six small aircraft flying together. A contemporary Discover article separately reported local pilots practicing day and night formations and an FAA inspection in September 1984. These records make light-aircraft formations a strong explanation for many displays, but they do not match every report to a named flight. No consolidated police file, flight log, radio recording, radar plot, FAA final report or authenticated original event image was located. Public counts are also incompatible: a private hotline logged more than 600 calls, investigators spoke of roughly 900 forms, and much larger estimates of thousands had no published counting method. The famous Bob Pozzuoli video has conflicting June and July 1984 dates in later sources and no public original tape, metadata or custody record. Grade B / DISPUTED therefore reflects a substantial contemporary record and a well-supported conventional mechanism, while preserving the limits of incident-by-incident identification.United StatesGrade B / DISPUTED1980 Cash-Landrum UFO IncidentOn the night of 29 December 1980, Betty Cash, Vickie Landrum and seven-year-old Colby Landrum said a bright, flame-emitting object blocked or hovered beside Farm to Market Road 1485 between New Caney and Huffman, Texas. They later described numerous twin-rotor helicopters and reported illnesses after the encounter. A recorded 1981 interview, Air Force-released claim and lawsuit files, and contemporary reporting establish that the witnesses made the allegations and pursued compensation. The public record does not independently confirm the object, the helicopter formation, ionizing-radiation exposure or government ownership of the reported craft.United StatesGrade C / DISPUTEDVal Johnson incidentMarshall County deputy Val Johnson reported seeing a sharply bounded light low over Minnesota Highway 220 at about 1:40 a.m. on 27 August 1979. He drove toward it, recalled a flash and breaking glass, and next reported himself stopped across the road after an interval he could not account for. Responders found him injured and his 1977 Ford LTD with a cracked windshield, damaged lights, a small hood dent and two bent police antennas. Johnson later stated that his mechanical wristwatch and the dashboard clock were both fourteen minutes slow. Those are documented reports and surviving damage, not proof of a craft or of altered time. The sheriff’s office and the civilian Center for UFO Studies investigated; later testing produced observations and hypotheses, but no public, reproducible report established a single cause. Ball lightning, road debris or an accident, deliberate damage and an unidentified ordinary event remain disputed possibilities. The careful classification is C / DISPUTED.United StatesGrade C / DISPUTED1976 Cannon AFB UFO ReportThe strongest record for the Cannon AFB case is a National Military Command Center memorandum stamped 06:30 EST on 21 January 1976. It says the Air Force Operations Center had received a report at 05:55 EST of two UFOs near the base flight line. Security Police reportedly estimated each at about 25 yards in diameter and described gold or silver surfaces, a blue light on top, a central opening and a red light below. The memo says the Air Force was checking radar and weather-inversion data, but the reviewed public packet does not provide those results, observer names, duration, altitude, motion or a final identification. Later local reporting and a 2004 anonymous witness story expanded the narrative, yet they cannot be treated as the same evidentiary layer as the contemporary memo. The archive therefore retains the case as insufficient data, with moderate documentary value but no demonstrated extraordinary origin.United StatesGrade C / INSUFFICIENT DATA1975 Loring AFB UFO incursionsBetween 27 October and 1 November 1975, Loring Air Force Base in Maine treated several reports near its weapons storage area as an airspace-security incident. National Military Command Center records describe an unidentified aircraft or helicopter at about 150 feet, repeated but unsuccessful search sorties, coordination with Canadian and U.S. police agencies, and one later slow target detected by RAPCON radar. The records never identify the operator or aircraft. Some detailed tower and witness claims survive only in later reconstructions, and no verified event photograph, film, raw radar plot or recovered object is public. The case is therefore a well-documented unresolved incursion, not proof of an extraterrestrial craft.United StatesGrade B / UNRESOLVEDTravis Walton abductionThe public record supports a narrower case than the famous alien-abduction story. On 5 November 1975, crew boss Mike Rogers and five other coworkers reported Travis Walton missing after all six said they saw a luminous object near a forest road and a light strike him. Navajo County authorities searched for a possible injured person or homicide victim. Walton reappeared late on 10 November or early on 11 November and later described beings and rooms aboard a craft. The crew's polygraph results addressed their stated belief and possible responsibility for Walton's disappearance; they did not establish that an external spacecraft existed. Walton's onboard account has no authenticated photograph, film, audio, radar, medical finding or recovered trace that independently verifies it. The case therefore remains C / DISPUTED, not a confirmed abduction and not a conclusively demonstrated hoax.United StatesGrade C / DISPUTEDWurtsmith AFB UFO incidentOn the evening of 30 October 1975 in Michigan, 31 October in UTC, Wurtsmith Air Force Base security personnel reported an unidentified low-flying aircraft near the motor pool and Weapons Storage Area. An initial OPREP-3 called it a dark helicopter that hovered, but a 00:30 EST correction explicitly said there was no hovering and described several aircraft on RAPCON. A KC-135 tanker was sent to investigate. Its crew reported visual contact with a lighted aircraft moving southeast at about 150 knots and radar “skin paint”; a second lighted aircraft appeared to join it, both lights went out, and contact was eventually lost toward Lake Huron. These documents establish a real security and flight response, not an identified extraordinary craft. They record no weapons effect, landing, damage or measured high-performance maneuver. Names and richer witness details come mostly from a 1979 wing-history reconstruction; a 2012 daylight-disc story is a still later, uncorroborated account. A conventional helicopter or aircraft, or the mistaken association of several ordinary aircraft, remains plausible, but no public record identifies the traffic conclusively. The case therefore remains B-grade and disputed.United StatesGrade B / DISPUTED1973 Pascagoula UFO encounterThe Pascagoula encounter is a documented same-night report of an extraordinary personal experience, not a documented extraterrestrial abduction. Charles Hickson, 42, and Calvin Parker, 19, told Jackson County officers that robotic beings took them from a fishing spot beside the Pascagoula River on 11 October 1973. Officers secretly recorded the men after leaving them alone; the conversation supports that they remained distressed and continued discussing the claim without an audience. It does not verify the beings, craft or cause. No authenticated event photograph, film, radar track, physical trace or government conclusion establishes what happened.United StatesGrade C / DISPUTEDCoyne helicopter incidentOn a proficiency flight from Columbus to Cleveland, Army Reserve UH-1H 68-15444 carried pilot in command Capt. Lawrence Coyne, copilot 1st Lt. Arrigo Jezzi, crew chief Staff Sgt. Robert Yanacsek and flight medic Staff Sgt. John Healey. A signed Army disposition form dates the encounter to 23:05 on 18 October 1973 near Mansfield, Ohio, at 2,500 feet on heading 030. It records a red light apparently converging at high speed, Coyne's descent to about 1,700 feet, one Mansfield Tower acknowledgement without an answer to the aircraft query, and a later 3,500-foot altimeter reading while the collective was full down. The form does not mention a cigar shape, green beam, spinning compass or total radio failure. Those details appear in next-day testimony, early newspapers and Coyne's 1978 United Nations statement, with material differences among the four crewmen. A family of ground witnesses was located only after a 1976 newspaper appeal. No public radar plot, tower tape, flight recorder, maintenance analysis or authenticated event image has been recovered. Aircraft, an Orionid meteor and pilot response under collision stress remain debated but unverified. The archive therefore retains B / UNRESOLVED: unidentified in the surviving public record, not established as exotic.United StatesGrade B / UNRESOLVEDFalkville metal manThe secure historical core is narrow: Greenhaw made a report on 17 October 1973, The Decatur Daily printed it the next day, and four Polaroid images of a shiny human-sized figure entered circulation. Nearly everything about the encounter itself comes from Greenhaw. Later investigators described the figure as a person in a fire-protective garment or foil and cited an unnamed minor's alleged confession, but that statement is not publicly available. Conflicting stories about the originals—destroyed in a November 1973 fire versus stolen in 1983—break the photograph chain. The case remains D / DISPUTED, with a prank more plausible than an anomalous being but not fully documented in public records.United StatesGrade D / DISPUTED1968 Minot AFB UFO encounterDuring the early hours of 24 October 1968, Minot-area missile teams reported changing or moving lights while a B-52 conducted local training. The aircraft later recorded a weather-radar return, temporarily lost UHF transmission and photographed its radar scope; the crew did not visually see that return during the main radar episode. A separate orange-light observation and an Oscar 7 security alarm followed. Project Blue Book attributed different portions to stars, the B-52, ground lights or possible plasma, but its language was tentative and the released record lacks enough synchronized raw data to prove one complete reconstruction.United StatesGrade B / UNRESOLVEDMalmstrom missile UFO reportsThe Malmstrom case combines two different records. A contemporary 341st Strategic Missile Wing history documents all ten Echo Flight launch facilities losing strategic alert at 08:45 MST on 16 March 1967. Engineers investigated, reproduced the relevant No-Go indications with injected electrical pulses, and later added pulse protection, but the released history never identifies the initiating disturbance. The same history says rumors of UFOs near Echo at the time were disproven by a mobile security team and that local radar reported no unusual activity. A separate Project Blue Book file records unidentified-object reports around Belt and Great Falls on 24-25 March, yet its July follow-up says the wing knew of no equipment malfunctions during those sightings. Robert Salas's public account emerged decades later, changed from November Flight on 16 March to Oscar Flight on 24 March, and alleges guard sightings followed by another ten-missile shutdown. No public contemporary Oscar operations log, signed guard statement, radar record, photograph, or technical report has been located. The Echo failure is well documented; a UFO causing Echo or Oscar is not. The case remains B-grade and disputed.United StatesGrade B / DISPUTED1966 Portage County UFO ChaseBefore 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.United StatesGrade B / DISPUTED1965 Exeter UFO incidentIn the early hours of 3 September 1965, eighteen-year-old Norman Muscarello reported five brilliant red lights moving low near Route 150 south of Exeter, New Hampshire. Patrolman Eugene Bertrand Jr. returned with him and saw a similar sequence; patrolman David Hunt arrived later and also reported the lights. Signed statements and a 131-page Project Blue Book file document the reports and the Air Force investigation. The file ultimately lists the case as unidentified, but no authenticated event photograph, film, radar record or physical trace is public. Earlier B-47 traffic and a later KC-97 tanker hypothesis provide conventional context without identifying a specific aircraft at the core time and place.United StatesGrade B / DISPUTED1965 Kecksburg UFO incidentOn 9 December 1965, a bright fireball crossed parts of Canada and the northeastern United States. Near Kecksburg, Pennsylvania, some residents later described a luminous object descending toward woods, an acorn-shaped object on the ground and military removal of it. The contemporaneous Project Blue Book file instead records that state police and local searchers found no object and ended the search around 2 a.m.; another memorandum favored a bolide or meteor. Scientific reconstruction of the regional fireball also supports a natural meteoric event. The more specific landing and recovery account remains disputed because no authenticated event photograph, artifact, radar record, inventory or public chain of custody verifies it. NASA's later FOIA litigation concerned the adequacy of its record search, not confirmation that it possessed a recovered object.United StatesGrade C / DISPUTED1964 Socorro UFO incident: Lonnie Zamora and the Blue Book fileOn 24 April 1964, Socorro police officer Lonnie Zamora abandoned a traffic pursuit after hearing a roar and seeing a blue-orange flame. He said he then approached a smooth, pale oval object, briefly saw two figures in white nearby and watched the object rise and depart southwest. Sergeant M. S. Chaves arrived about three minutes later and saw fresh-looking indentations and scorched vegetation, but not the object. Air Force investigators documented the scene, tested soil and brush, checked aircraft, balloons and military activity, and retained the report as unidentified. Those records establish a prompt police report and a real investigation; they do not establish an extraterrestrial craft, because no authenticated event image, radar track, unusual residue or second close-range witness identifies what Zamora saw.United StatesGrade B / UNRESOLVEDRed Bluff Project Blue Book UFO caseAt 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.United StatesGrade B / DISPUTED1957 RB-47 radar-visual UFO incidentIn the early hours of 17 July 1957, an RB-47H electronic-reconnaissance crew reported a sequence of bright lights and radar-like emissions while flying from Mississippi through Louisiana and Texas. A contemporary Air Force summary also records a brief ground-radar contact near Fort Worth. The case is stronger than a lone visual report because official messages and crew questionnaires survive, but it remains unresolved rather than extraordinary proof: no raw radar film, continuous electronic recording or authenticated photograph of the reported source is public.United StatesGrade B / UNRESOLVEDKirtland AFB UFO sightingBetween about 22:45 and 23:05 MST on 4 November 1957, Civil Aeronautics Administration controllers R. M. Kaser and E. G. Brink reported a dark, vertically oriented object with a white light moving low across Kirtland Air Force Base, then climbing into cloud. A radar account followed, but no raw radar plot, recording, photograph or identified aircraft survives in the reviewed public sources. The Air Force and the Condon Report favored a powerful private aircraft that approached the wrong runway and departed; James E. McDonald later argued that this did not fit the controllers’ description or reported geometry. The event is documented but its cause remains disputed. Unidentified does not mean extraterrestrial.United StatesGrade B / DISPUTEDLevelland UFO caseThe Levelland case is a documented cluster of reports from roads around Hockley County during the wet, low-cloud night of 2-3 November 1957. Motorists described lights or luminous forms in different colors, shapes, durations and positions; several attributed temporary engine, headlight or radio failures to the nearby light. The strongest surviving account is an Air Intelligence interview with a 19-year-old Texas Tech student: his ammeter discharged and his engine, lights and radio failed before he saw an oval light; after four or five minutes the light rose and his car restarted. Separate law-enforcement witnesses reported only brief red-orange streaks and did not report vehicle failure. The 1006th Air Intelligence Service Squadron checked weather, air traffic, balloons, utility lines and oil-field gas, interviewed five principal sources, and initially forwarded the matter as unresolved. Project Blue Book later classified it as ball lightning or an electrical-weather effect, while its own file contains reviewers who said ball lightning was too poorly understood to account for the details and that no single explanation was required. A mechanic documented an ordinary distributor fault in one separately publicized truck, but that finding cannot be generalized to every vehicle claim. The file contains no authenticated event photograph, radar plot, instrument measurement or physical trace. B / DISPUTED therefore reflects a substantial contemporary record with unresolved causal and counting conflicts, not evidence of extraterrestrial technology.United StatesGrade B / DISPUTEDKelly-Hopkinsville encounterThe durable record begins with a frightened group arriving at Hopkinsville police headquarters late on 21 August 1955. The contemporary Kentucky New Era account estimated about ten or twelve people at the Sutton farmhouse and said officers could not determine how many claimed to see the figures. Billy Ray Taylor reported an initial bright object; Taylor and Cecil “Lucky” Sutton later reported small, bright-eyed figures, fired a .22 pistol and shotgun, then sought help. More than a dozen officers searched until after 2 a.m. without finding tracks, a landing mark or anything that proved or disproved the story. Later investigators proposed a meteor and great horned owls. That model is plausible but unproven, so the case remains C / DISPUTED.United StatesGrade C / DISPUTED1953 Ellsworth AFB radar-visual reportThe public Air Force file identifies this as a 5-6 August 1953 chain of reports around Black Hawk, Rapid City and Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota. A Ground Observer Corps report prompted radar searches and two F-84 responses; pilots and ground witnesses described bright, changing lights, while controllers logged numerous returns. The file also preserves important limits: radar-scope photographs failed, gun-camera film was blank, positions were not continuously matched, and one pilot wrote that a principal light could have been a star or planet affected by refraction. Project Blue Book investigated and a status report left the case unsolved pending further study. Edward Ruppelt later called it his best unknown, but his 1956 memoir shifted the same story to 12-13 August and dramatized some correlations beyond the surviving statements. A 1968 Colorado Project analysis instead attributed the sequence to stars viewed through inversion layers, at least one meteor, anomalous-propagation echoes, a possible ghost echo and a malfunctioning airborne gunsight. That later explanation is substantial but inferential. The safest conclusion is a documented radar-visual investigation with disputed interpretation—not proof of an extraordinary craft.United StatesGrade C / DISPUTEDKinross incidentOn 23 November 1953, U.S. Air Force F-89C 51-5853A left Kinross Air Force Base with pilot 1st Lt Felix Moncla Jr. and radar observer 2nd Lt Robert Wilson to identify a radar track over Lake Superior. The mishap report says ground control vectored the interceptor, saw its return merge with the other return at about 18:55 EST, and then lost the F-89 return and IFF signal. A separate RCAF search report confirms the contact loss and unsuccessful five-day search, but not a collision or target identity. The USAF identified an RCAF C-47; later Canadian-record claims complicate that identification. No wreckage, raw radar record, or demonstrated cause is public.United StatesGrade B / UNRESOLVED1952 Flatwoods Monster incidentThe Flatwoods incident joins two different evidence layers. A bright fireball crossed several states around 7:15 p.m. on 12 September 1952, strongly supporting a meteor rather than a landing craft. Soon afterward Kathleen May and six boys climbed toward the Fisher farm and, under a flashlight and intermittent light, reported eyes and a tall figure that terrified them. United Press preserved those claims and local newspaperman A. Lee Stewart's next-day account of odor, trampled ground and two skid-like marks, but no authenticated scene photograph, specimen or laboratory result survives publicly. A later barn-owl and aircraft-beacon reconstruction is plausible and explains several visual details. It remains a reconstruction, so EXPLAINED here means a strong conventional account, not forensic proof of every detail.United StatesGrade C / EXPLAINED1952 Washington, D.C., UFO Radar IncidentsOn 19-20 and 26-27 July 1952, air-traffic and military radar operators around Washington National Airport and Andrews Air Force Base reported intermittent unidentified returns while pilots and ground observers described unusual lights. Fighters were dispatched during the second weekend, but the surviving Project Blue Book file does not document one object tracked continuously across every radar, visual report and interception. Contemporary records distinguish strong, aircraft-like returns from later weak or unstable echoes and note that interceptor reports and many witness details were missing. The Air Force emphasized temperature inversions and radar propagation; a 1953 Civil Aeronautics Administration study showed that refracting layers could produce comparable false targets, although its Washington tests focused on August observations rather than reconstructing every July report. The incidents are historically important and genuinely documented, but the public record supports a disputed radar-visual episode, not proof of an extraordinary craft over the capital.United StatesGrade B / DISPUTEDNash-Fortenberry UFO sightingThe Nash-Fortenberry sighting is a documented aircrew report, not proof of an extraordinary vehicle. William B. Nash and William H. Fortenberry told Air Force investigators that six sharply defined red-orange lights crossed below their southbound DC-4, appeared to reverse direction, and were joined by two more before climbing and going dark. The official packet records a roughly 12-to-15-second observation and an immediate investigation; it also records no physical evidence and only the two pilots as aircraft witnesses. Blue Book filed the report as Unknown. That label means the available inquiry did not identify the lights—not that it established extraterrestrial origin.United StatesGrade B / UNRESOLVEDTremonton UFO filmOn 2 July 1952, U.S. Navy photographer Delbert C. Newhouse exposed roughly 30 feet of 16 mm Kodachrome after his wife noticed about ten to twelve bright objects seven miles north of Tremonton, Utah. The film is real, entered Air Force custody, and was examined by Air Force and Navy analysts, the Robertson Panel, and later the Colorado UFO project. Those reviews did not converge: the Navy laboratory argued that the lights were self-luminous controlled objects, while the Robertson Panel rejected that analysis and emphasized reflections and gulls. In 1968 William K. Hartmann judged the film consistent with white birds and later regarded birds as the identification. Missing distance, scale and calibration, conflicting frame counts, and uncertain relationships among the original, duplicates and modern transfers prevent a stronger claim.United StatesGrade B / DISPUTED1951 Lubbock LightsThe Lubbock Lights case combines two related but not necessarily identical records. Beginning on 25 August 1951, Texas Technological College professors repeatedly reported groups of blue-green lights crossing the night sky. On 31 August, student Carl Hart photographed V-shaped groups of lights. Project Grudge investigators interviewed witnesses and examined the negatives; preliminary laboratory work found no retouching but did not identify the source. One principal observer, William Ducker, later said his research concluded that the professors had seen migratory geese illuminated from below by city lights. That explanation applies most directly to the recurring visual observations and does not automatically resolve Hart's photographs.United StatesGrade B / DISPUTEDFort Monmouth UFO caseOn 10 and 11 September 1951, maintenance students operating Signal Corps radar at Fort Monmouth reported several unusual returns. Separately, at about 11:35 EDST on 10 September, a T-33 crew flying from Dover to Mitchel Air Force Base saw a round silver object near Sandy Hook. Project Grudge Special Report No. 1 did not establish a continuous radar-visual track: it judged the T-33 object probably one of two Evans Signal Laboratory balloons, identified two later radar returns as weather balloons, questioned the initial radar speed estimate, and left a 13:30 return on 11 September unknown but possibly caused by anomalous propagation or operator expectation. No raw plots, radar logs, scope film, verified event photograph, or confirmed ground visual observation survives in the reviewed public record.United StatesGrade B / UNRESOLVED1950 Farmington UFO ArmadaThe 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.United StatesGrade B / DISPUTED1950 McMinnville UFO PhotographsOn 11 May 1950, Paul and Evelyn Trent said they saw a metallic, disk-shaped object near their farm between Sheridan and McMinnville, Oregon. Paul made two photographs with a roll-film camera before the object moved away. The original negatives entered national press circulation and were located for direct examination by the University of Colorado project in 1967; their present public custody is unclear. They show a small dark object in the sky, but a photograph alone cannot establish its size or distance. William Hartmann regarded the case as unusually resistant to a simple explanation while explicitly leaving fabrication open. Later analysts split between a distant-object interpretation and a small model suspended near overhead wires. The photographs are genuine case images; the identity of the photographed object remains disputed.United StatesGrade B / DISPUTEDMariana UFO Film (1950)In August 1950, Great Falls Electrics manager Nicholas “Nick” Mariana and his secretary reported two bright objects near the team's ballpark; Mariana filmed about 16 seconds at 16 frames per second with a 16mm Revere camera. The date usually given is 15 August, although the later Colorado Project found the baseball schedule inconsistent with that date and left 5 versus 15 August open. The Air Force examined the original film in 1950, borrowed it again in 1952, and returned it. Mariana later alleged that roughly 30-35 early frames showing larger, structured images were missing. The case file records that allegation but also an Air Force denial, damaged sprocket holes, a broken frame and repair instructions; it contains no verified admission that frames were deliberately removed. Project Grudge and the 1953 Robertson Panel favored sunlight reflected by two F-94 aircraft. Robert M. L. Baker's 1956 photogrammetric study found aircraft reflections possible but strained and reached no clear conclusion; William Hartmann's 1968 Condon Report case study likewise called the case unexplained while retaining aircraft as a possibility. The public online clip comes from a 1956 documentary and is not the uncut original reel. The archive therefore rates the case B / DISPUTED, not evidence of extraterrestrial technology.United StatesGrade B / DISPUTEDClyde Tombaugh UFO sightingThe best-supported reconstruction places Clyde Tombaugh in the yard of his Las Cruces, New Mexico, home with his wife and mother-in-law on 20 August 1949. At about 10:45 p.m., according to a 1963 account based on Tombaugh's personal communication, he saw six to eight faint rectangular lights cross from near the zenith toward the southeast in roughly three seconds; the other two witnesses caught only part of the passage. Tombaugh's astronomical and optical work makes his description worth preserving, but expertise cannot supply missing range, altitude or physical identity. No authenticated event photograph, sensor record, contemporaneous newspaper account or publicly accessible original Air Force report was found. A rare reflection or refraction effect was Tombaugh's later preferred class of explanation, but it was not demonstrated. The event remains a disputed testimony-based sighting, not evidence of extraterrestrial origin.United StatesGrade C / DISPUTED1948 Mantell UFO IncidentOn 7 January 1948, Kentucky Air National Guard pilot Captain Thomas F. Mantell Jr. died after climbing in a P-51 to investigate an object reported from Godman Field and other Kentucky locations. The surviving Project Blue Book file records tower observations and Mantell's radio descriptions of an object ahead and above him that appeared metallic and very large, but it contains no radar track, photograph or recovered object. Accident evidence and later Air Force analysis support loss of consciousness from oxygen deprivation followed by a high-speed dive and structural breakup; they do not show that the reported object attacked the aircraft. Venus was examined and did not adequately explain the daytime pursuit. Edward J. Ruppelt later judged a classified Skyhook-type high-altitude balloon the most coherent explanation for the visual reports. A balloon is the leading conventional assessment, but the public record does not conclusively identify one launch and track as the object Mantell followed.United StatesGrade B / EXPLAINEDAztec UFO incidentNo contemporaneous crash report, named recovery witness, military file, photograph, artifact with a documented chain of custody, or authenticated event film has been produced for a craft allegedly recovered near Aztec, New Mexico, on 25 March 1948. The public story emerged in Frank Scully’s 1949 Variety columns and his 1950 book Behind the Flying Saucers, based chiefly on claims by oil promoter Silas Newton and the man presented as “Dr. Gee,” later identified as Leo GeBauer. Reporter J. P. Cahn tested their purported saucer metal and investigated their business history; his 1952 and 1956 True articles connected the tale to dubious oil-finding devices and victims. Newton and GeBauer were convicted in 1953 of operating a confidence game involving such equipment. That verdict is powerful evidence about their reliability and commercial scheme, but it did not adjudicate the alleged Aztec recovery point by point. The FBI’s 1950 Guy Hottel memo is likewise not confirmation: the Bureau says it relayed an uninvestigated second- or third-hand New Mexico story and cannot verify that it repeated the Aztec narrative. The case remains D / disputed and is best understood as a poorly sourced crash-retrieval story amplified by publishing and associated with proven fraud.United StatesGrade D / DISPUTEDChiles-Whitted UFO encounterAt about 02:45, recorded in the contemporary file as Eastern Standard Time, on 24 July 1948, Eastern Air Lines Trip 576 was flying at 5,000 feet roughly 20-25 miles southwest of Montgomery, Alabama. Captain Clarence S. Chiles and co-pilot John B. Whitted reported a wingless, cigar-like form with bright openings, a blue glow below and a long red-orange exhaust-like flame; their signed accounts and drawings differ on distance, duration and details. Passenger McKelvie saw only a momentary straight streak of red and yellow light and no physical shape. Project Sign checked military traffic and 225 commercial or government schedules without finding a fit, and the archival case was retained as an unknown. Project Grudge's later astronomical review considered a brilliant meteor a fair or low-probability explanation, not a demonstrated solution. No photograph, radar return, physical trace or measured size survives. The alleged 1948 Estimate of the Situation is known through later recollection, but AARO reported that it could not locate or verify the document. The visual report therefore remains unresolved; that does not establish an extraterrestrial craft.United StatesGrade B / UNRESOLVEDGorman dogfightOn 1 October 1948, George Gorman reported a 27-minute F-51 pursuit of a small white light over Fargo. Three other witnesses briefly saw a white light, but did not corroborate the full complex chase. Project Sign first treated Gorman as sincere and temporarily rejected ordinary aircraft and the known balloon; a January 1949 Air Weather Service reconstruction later found that the lighted weather balloon could have occupied the reported area. The file has no photograph, radar return, physical craft or meaningful radiation anomaly. Balloon motion and perceptual effects provide a substantial conventional account, while gaps in continuous tracking prevent a fully demonstrated reconstruction.United StatesGrade B / DISPUTED1947 Roswell incidentThe Roswell incident is a documented debris-recovery and public-information reversal, not a documented recovery of an extraterrestrial craft. On 8 July 1947, Roswell Army Air Field announced possession of a “flying disc”; the next day, senior officers presented light balloon and radar-reflector material. A 1995 GAO search found only two surviving government records created in 1947, both consistent with a balloon. The U.S. Air Force later linked the debris to Project Mogul and treated later body stories as memories of separate 1950s activities. The exact balloon train cannot be proved from every missing record, but no contemporary public file supports alien bodies or extraterrestrial material.United StatesGrade C / EXPLAINEDKenneth Arnold Sighting (1947)Kenneth Arnold's 24 June 1947 flight is a well-documented report, not a documented craft. Arnold said that while detouring in his CallAir A-2 to search for a missing Marine transport, he watched nine reflective, apparently tailless objects pass Mount Rainier and continue toward Mount Adams. He timed part of the passage, then derived an extraordinary speed from estimated landmarks and distance. His July statement and drawing entered Army Air Forces files; newspapers transformed several saucer comparisons into the durable label “flying saucer.” No camera record, radar track, physical trace or second observer tied to Arnold's exact viewing geometry is public. A 1949 military review questioned his size and speed estimates and considered known aircraft plausible. The observation therefore remains unresolved at grade B: historically consequential and traceable, but incapable of proving an extraordinary or non-human vehicle.United StatesGrade B / UNRESOLVEDMaury Island incidentThe Maury Island incident is a disputed 1947 story, not a verified aircraft encounter. Dahl said that six ring-shaped objects hovered over his boat on June 21 and that one dropped metal-like material and dark rocks; Crisman later promoted samples as possible disc fragments. The surviving FBI file confirms that Army intelligence officers William L. Davidson and Frank M. Brown interviewed the men in Tacoma on July 31. It also records that Dahl and Crisman admitted the material had been collected as ordinary rock formations and falsely represented as flying-disc debris. Davidson and Brown died hours later when their B-25 suffered an engine and wing fire near Kelso. The same record found no sabotage indication and did not treat the crash as proof of the claim.United StatesGrade D / DISPUTEDWest Rindge UFO debris caseOn 7 July 1947, people at Earl Whitehead's Route 202 property in West Rindge, New Hampshire, noticed curls of smoke, small burned spots and scattered grass fires; the surviving record does not say they saw an object fall or any craft in the air. Metal pieces passed through local hands to Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers. An FBI follow-up summarized a spectrographic examination as ordinary cast iron exposed to very high heat and said four measured pieces probably came from a machine-made hollow cylinder. The memo did not identify an exact source, preserve raw laboratory data or document an unbroken collection-to-test chain. It also revised an initial rough diameter from 14 inches to 8 inches. MIT inquiries reportedly rejected a locomotive or steam-engine source, while jet, V-2 and guided-missile comparisons remained speculation. The FBI Boston office intended to destroy specimens after 15 August 1947 unless headquarters requested them; no public record proves whether that occurred, and the FBI told NHPR in 2026 that it could locate no responsive later record. The best-supported conclusion is heated terrestrial cast iron of unknown specific origin, not authenticated UFO debris.United StatesGrade C / DISPUTEDBattle of Los Angeles UFO caseThe 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.United StatesGrade B / EXPLAINED