What do a flying saucer, a Tic-Tac-shaped wingless plane, and miles of flashing lights have in common? They all defy explanation.
In 2017, several news outlets revealed the existence of the Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program (AATIP), a U.S. government-funded program that investigated unidentified flying objects from 2007 to 2012.
This secret $22 million program was not the first of its kind, however. Official government investigations into UFOs began in the late 1940s as part of Project Sign and produced some of the most reliable videos of aerial phenomena ever seen. Within a few years, this program evolved into Project Blue Book, which actively investigated UFO sightings throughout much of the Cold War. The 2017 discovery that the United StatesThe government’s active investigation of UFOs has reignited global interest in UFOs and aliens. Below are the five most credible UFO sightings of the 21st century.
1. New Jersey Highway Lights (2001)
IMAGE FROM A VIDEO RELEASED BY THE DOD’S ADVANCED AEROSPACE THREAT IDENTIFICATION PROGRAM showing an encounter between two Navy F/A-18F fighter jets and an unidentified object near San Diego in 2004.
Drivers often stop on the highway to look at the sky, but on July 14, 2001, drivers did just that on a New Jersey highway. For about 15 minutes just after midnight, they marveled at the sight of strange yellow-orange lights in a V formation over the Arthur Kill Waterway between Staten Island, New York, and Carteret, New Jersey. Lt. Daniel Tarrant of the Carteret Police Department was one of the witnesses, along with other residents of the city’s
Throgs Neck Bridge area on Long Island and Fort Lee, New Jersey, near the George Washington Bridge.
Air traffic controllers initially denied that airplanes, military jets or space flights could have caused the mysterious lights, but a group called the New York Strange Phenomena Investigators (NY-SPI) claimed to have received FAA radar data confirming the UFO sightings last night .
ADS
2. Encounter with the USS Nimitz (2004)
On November 14, 2004, the USS Princeton, part of the strike group of the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz, detected an unknown ship on radar 100 miles off the coast of San Diego. For two weeks, the crew tracked objects that appeared at an altitude of 80,000 feet, then crashed and hovered just above the Pacific Ocean.
When two FA-18F fighters from the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz arrived in the area, they initially saw what appeared to be rough water with an oval shadow beneath the surface.Then, after a few moments, a white Tic-Tac shaped object appeared above the water. There were no visible signs of the engine, fenders or windows and infrared monitors showed no exhaust smoke. Black Aces Commander David Fravor and Lieutenant Commander Jim Slaight of the 41st Attack Fighter Squadron attempted to intercept the ship, but it accelerated and reappeared on radar 60 miles away. It flew at three times the speed of sound and more than twice as fast as fighter aircraft.
3. O’Hare International Airport Saucer (2006)
Flight 446 was preparing to fly from O’Hare International Airport in Chicago to North Carolina when a United Airlines employee noticed a dark gray metal airplane on the tarmac stood above Gate C17. . On that day, November 7, 2006, at approximately 4:15 p.m., a total of 12 United employees and several witnesses spotted a saucer-shaped aircraft outside the airport.
Witnesses say it stayed in the air for about five minutes before shooting up and punching a hole in the clouds long enough for the pilots and mechanics to see the blue sky. This report became the most read article on the Chicago Tribune website to date and made international headlines. However, because the UFO was not visible on radar, the FAA labeled it a “weather phenomenon” and declined to investigate.
4. The Stephenville Sightings (2008)
The small town of Stephenville, Texas, located 100 miles southwest of Dallas, is best known for its dairy farms, but on the evening of January 8, 2008, several dozen of its residents saw something Something special in the sky.Citizens reported seeing white lights over Highway 67, first in a single horizontal arc, then in parallel vertical lines. Local pilot Steve Allen estimated that the flashing lights were “about a mile long and half a mile wide” and were traveling at a speed of about 5,000 miles per hour. No sound was reported.
, witnesses believed the event was similar to the Phoenix Lights sighting in 1997. While the U.The S.A.F. A few weeks later it became known that F-16s were flying in the Brownwood military area (southwest of Stephenville). Many of the city’s residents did not believe this explanation, believing that what they saw was too technologically advanced for today’s human capabilities.
ADS
5. East Coast GO FAST Video (2015)
When news of the Advanced Aerial Threat Identification Program broke in 2017, a video was released showing an encounter between an F/A-18 Super Hornet and a phenomenal unidentified one Airplane revealed. The object, seen along the East Coast using Raytheon’s Advanced Targeting Forward-Looking Infrared (ATFLIR) capsule, was similar to an object seen near San Diego in 2004: a fast-moving white oval measuring about 45 feet Length, without wings or discharge vane.
The pilots tracked the flying object 25,000 feet above the Atlantic and simultaneously rotated on its axis. No explanation was ever given.