In 2021, a pilot flying near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Virginia reported seeing an “unknown phenomenon” hovering a few hundred feet above the busy airport. It was described as flickering and moving in a circular trajectory before disappearing from the morning sky.
Earlier that year, pilots reported seeing a “long cylindrical object” flying overhead their aircraft.
These reports bear striking similarities to the unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) descriptions given in a 2024 Pentagon report to Congress. In one instance, a government contractor witnessed a “large metal cylindrical object about the size of a commercial aircraft” floating in mid-air before suddenly vanishing.
These pilot reports come from a centralized digital center located at the National Archives in Washington D.C., containing thousands of government records related to unidentified flying objects (UFOs) – now referred to as unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) by the Pentagon. The National Archives made these reports available to the public in April this year.
The government’s investigations have gathered a wealth of photos, documents, and videos regarding unidentified flying objects, including a collection submitted by pilots to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) from 2007 to 2024.
The Epoch Times reviewed hundreds of these reports and consulted with aviation experts. The authenticity of these reports is hotly debated, with some supporting the pilots’ testimonies while others remain skeptical. This article aims to systematically elucidate these reports for the benefit of our readers.
Many of the pilot reports submitted to the FAA between 2007 and 2024 consist of sightings that couldn’t be explained by conventional means, including lights or objects, as well as mistaken identifications of satellites, balloons, space debris, and other aircraft.
In one 2009 sighting, a pilot described seeing an object resembling a “very large kite.”
In September 2022, a pilot flying near Liberal, Kansas, reported seeing a “large swath of flashing white light” passing beneath their aircraft.
The U.S. military’s explanation for the famous 1947 Roswell incident was that the recovered debris came from a weather balloon. Similarly, many reports filed with the FAA have been identified as balloons, including a 2021 report describing a “silvery balloon ascending at roughly 11,000 feet.”
On February 3, 2023, a significant sighting of a large balloon received over ten separate reports. Interestingly, this occurred a day before the U.S. Air Force shot down a Chinese spy balloon, which had previously been seen in U.S. airspace the week before.
It remains unclear if these reports are related to the same balloon. At the time of writing, the FAA had not responded to inquiries from The Epoch Times.
Some of the other UAP reports submitted by pilots to the FAA turned out to be space debris, rockets, or potential misidentifications of other aircraft, satellites, or “Starlink” satellite events.
However, there remain some sightings that defy easy explanation. A 2007 early National Archives report detailed at least twelve aircraft reporting seeing a UAP near Hayden, Colorado, that appeared to be “tracking” them. Puzzlingly, the FAA did not detect any radar returns from this object.
Many pilots reported seeing lights that moved irregularly or rapidly changed altitude before hovering. In another report, a pilot near Washington D.C.’s Ronald Reagan National Airport observed a UAP “flickering in circular patterns” before disappearing a few minutes later.
Another pilot reported seeing a red, white, and green-light flashing unidentified flying object that maintained the same speed, direction, and altitude as their aircraft for over fifteen minutes. Another aircraft confirmed seeing the object, while the North American Aerospace Defense Command stated that “nothing” like other aircraft or military aircraft was observed in the area.
In November 2024, the Pentagon informed Congress of an incident involving government contractor vehicles witnessing a “large metal cylindrical object about the size of a commercial aircraft” outside a U.S. government facility.
The object remained stationary with “extremely bright white lights behind or around it.”
Approximately 15 to 20 seconds later, the object abruptly vanished. The Pentagon deemed this sighting unexplainable or an “anomalous” phenomenon due to the object’s considerable size and instantaneous disappearance.
In 2018, based on reports from the FAA, multiple witnesses over Columbia City, Indiana, spotted a circular object with “flashing red and green lights” above Columbia City Hospital.
During a 2024 congressional testimony on UAP events, the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office’s new director, Jon T. Kosloski, mentioned a second inexplicable sighting. In this incident, a law enforcement officer observed a massive sphere floating several hundred feet above the ground several miles away from their location. Kosloski stated that as the officer approached a well-lit spot closer to the object, he observed a “darker than black” object around four to six feet wide.
As the officer moved within roughly 130 to 200 feet of the dark object, it tilted approximately 45 degrees before swiftly ascending vertically at a speed far surpassing any unmanned aircraft the officer had previously seen.
“It made no noise,” Kosloski noted, “And as it exited the officer’s line of sight through the windshield, it emitted very bright red and blue lights, illuminating the inside of his vehicle brightly, similar to fireworks going off outside the vehicle.”
Kosloski added that due to the object’s large size, rapid acceleration, and lack of impact on the ground below after its disappearance, the sighting remains a mystery.
Speculation concerning the origin of unidentified flying objects has persisted even before the FAA began cataloging pilot reports of such phenomena.
A senior pilot from a U.S. commercial airline, who requested anonymity, expressed doubts about whether some of these unidentified flying objects may be related to advanced military projects in the U.S. However, without authorized knowledge of classified programs, definitive conclusions are impossible.
Former Navy pilot Ryan Graves recounted two incidents he experienced off the Virginia Beach coastline in July 2023. The UAPs he witnessed in 2013 and 2014 had no apparent lift or propulsion systems, control surfaces, or recognized aircraft features like wings, flaps, or engines.
Similar to other UAP reports filed with the FAA, Graves shared that some objects appeared to fly in circular patterns.
Over a decade ago, Graves frequently observed these objects make unpredictable and unexplainable maneuvers on radar screens, which led him to establish the grassroots organization “Americans for Safe Aerospace.” The group aims to provide support, research, and public education services for pilots who have encountered UAPs.
“The Pentagon’s specific definition of the UAP acronym is… the ability to perform capabilities that exceed the highest technological reach we have currently. That’s why my data can strongly support it,” Graves remarked on the wealth of reports he has collected from pilots.
Regarding theories suggesting his experiences were the result of U.S. military experimentation on its personnel, Graves disagreed. He emphasized that such actions would be illegal based on the executive orders that established the current classification system.
“Not informing us [the soldiers] and exposing us to this technology is illegal,” Graves told The Epoch Times. “It’s like passing me the most classified document I’m not authorized to view. Because I don’t have the qualifications to ‘know’ this plan. They have a duty to prevent such occurrences.”
So, what do commercial aviation experts make of pilot reports regarding UAPs?
Richard Levy, who served as a pilot for American Airlines for decades and worked as an aviation safety consultant, shared his opinion. He stated, “If they [pilots] can substantiate with their senses and judgment that they saw something they can’t explain, such as a craft, some lights they can’t explain, or phenomena with no traffic imagery to account for [on radar], I support them in reporting it.”
He further emphasized, “Now, what they saw is a different question. But I support what they say.”
However, some industry professionals remain skeptical of the authenticity of UAP pilot reports.
Shem Malmquist, with nearly 40 years of experience in the aviation field as a commercial pilot, professor, and safety consultant, shared his perspective with The Epoch Times. He believes that most reports can be attributed to common events like misidentification of space debris or satellites and even optical illusions.
“These are very cool visual illusions. The problem is your brain hasn’t evolved in this environment,” Malmquist stated. “Your perception, spatial, distance, altitude – everything is exceeding the way your brain handles information.”
He highlighted that airline and military pilots do not receive specific training in identifying unexplained phenomena in the sky but rather training for very specific tasks.
“They see something, they think they know what they’re talking about. They think they understand, but this… is beyond their professional realm,” Malmquist underlined.
Shawn Pruchnicki, an aviation professor at Ohio State University and a former senior research engineer with NASA’s Ames Research Center, also weighed in on the issue. Pruchnicki suggested that pilots have not received direct training in identifying unexplainable phenomena in the sky.
“In that training sequence, there’s no step that provides any sort of training or discussion… There’s no step that involves training pilots to do this: Trying to differentiate one item from another, trying to separate physical, visual illusions from potential real targets or something similar,” Pruchnicki told The Epoch Times.
Having examined dozens of pilot UAP reports, Pruchnicki noted that some phenomena are indeed unusual. As a pilot with a deep understanding of aircraft performance, he shared, “So, color of the object and issues of that nature are not always the most critical – quite simply, it’s how these apparent aircraft move that piques our interest.”
He mentioned that pilots also possess a certain understanding of high-altitude aerodynamics.
“We understand that from an aerodynamic perspective, from the human performance standard, something being able to make sudden turns and essentially disappear straight up can be incredibly unusual and very, very unlikely,” Pruchnicki explained.
He noted that in some reports, radar images confirmed that objects were capable of flying over incredible distances in a matter of seconds, with speeds reaching up to 30 Mach.
“This is unfathomable. Nobody has that technology,” Pruchnicki stated. “We’re still struggling to develop aircraft that can sustain speeds around 5 or 6 Mach.”
Pruchnicki emphasized that while radar readings could potentially be deceived into believing objects were traveling at such speeds, further analysis of pilot UAP reports is warranted.
“At the base level, we need to understand – at the very least, what sort of threat does this pose to aviation safety?” Pruchnicki added.