What the Witnesses Saw—and What the Evidence Can Prove

From an unresolved report involving approximately 100 objects off Virginia to the testimony of Navy aviators David Fravor and Ryan Graves, this week’s briefing examines the widening gap between credible observation and publicly available proof.

• Read the complete investigation: One Hundred Objects off Virginia →

USS Nimitz. In November 2004, Commander Fravor launched from this vessel and encountered an object that could not be identified. Department of Defense footage associated with the incident has since been officially authenticated. This image is contextual and does not depict the encounter.

David Fravor: When Testimony Becomes Difficult to Dismiss

Commander David Fravor’s November 2004 encounter with the object now known as the Tic-Tac remains one of the most consequential military UAP cases of the modern era.

Fravor was not alone. Other members of his flight were present, and radar operators aboard the USS Princeton had reportedly been monitoring unusual contacts before his aircraft was redirected to investigate.

Fravor described a smooth, white, wingless object maneuvering above disturbed water. When he descended to examine it, the object appeared to react to his presence before accelerating away. Approximately five minutes of observation became the foundation of an account that Fravor has repeated with striking consistency for more than two decades.

His professional qualifications are verifiable. His account is corroborated in important respects by other personnel. Infrared footage associated with the broader incident was recorded during a later flight and eventually authenticated and released by the Department of Defense.

Those facts make Fravor an exceptionally significant witness.

They still do not identify the object.

Credible testimony can establish that an unusual observation occurred. It cannot always establish what caused it. Fravor’s importance lies partly in his refusal to pretend otherwise.

• Read the profile: David Fravor — The Commander Who Saw the Tic-Tac →

Ryan Graves, former U.S. Navy F/A-18 pilot. He has testified publicly about recurring unidentified contacts in military training airspace and founded Americans for Safe Aerospace to improve UAP reporting standards.

Ryan Graves: From UFO Mystery to Aviation Safety

Ryan Graves helped change the public UAP discussion by asking a practical question: What happens when unidentified objects repeatedly enter military training airspace?

Beginning around 2014, Graves and other Navy aviators operating off the eastern United States reported unusual radar contacts and, in some cases, visual observations. The reports became especially significant after upgraded radar systems began detecting objects that older systems had not shown.

Navy Fighter Pilot: The Truth About UFOs. "I've Seen Them With My Own Eyes" | Ryan Graves

Some pilots initially suspected equipment problems. The issue became more difficult to dismiss when radar contacts reportedly corresponded with infrared or visual observations.

Graves has consistently avoided presenting these encounters as proof of extraterrestrial visitation. He frames them as an aviation-safety, national-security and scientific problem. That distinction matters. If the objects were foreign surveillance systems, they represented a security concern. If they were domestic systems operating without adequate coordination, they represented a safety concern. If some demonstrated capabilities that conventional explanations could not account for, the scientific implications would be substantial.

Graves does not ask pilots to decide what they saw. He asks that they be able to report it accurately and without professional stigma. That may ultimately prove more valuable than any dramatic declaration.

• Read the profile: Ryan Graves — The Fighter Pilot Who Made UAP an Aviation-Safety Issue →

Analysis

Steven Spielberg. His films drew partly from documented UFO history, including consultation with astronomer J. Allen Hynek, who worked with the U.S. Air Force’s Project Blue Book programme.

Contextual portrait.

Spielberg: The Story We Carry Into Every Investigation

Long before congressional hearings and official UAP offices entered public discussion, Steven Spielberg helped define how millions imagined contact with an unknown intelligence.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind did not emerge entirely from fantasy. Spielberg consulted J. Allen Hynek, the astronomer who had worked with the U.S. Air Force’s Project Blue Book. The film drew from documented UFO history, contemporary reports and the institutional tensions surrounding official investigations.

But cinema does something that evidence cannot: it completes the story. It gives unexplained lights an origin. It gives secrecy a purpose. It gives humanity an encounter, an answer and, eventually, a resolution. Real investigations rarely provide that satisfaction.

The Virginia report contains no revealed visitors and no final explanation. Fravor’s testimony ends with an object departing at extraordinary speed. Graves’s reporting leaves us with recurring airspace encounters whose causes remain uncertain.

Spielberg helps us imagine disclosure. Journalism must determine whether disclosure has actually occurred.

Popular culture can inspire curiosity. It cannot substitute for proof.

• Read the analysis: What Spielberg Gets Right About UFO Disclosure →

The Evidence Ledger

What the available record confirms — and where the public record falls short.

{ https://theufotimes.com/ }

The Declassified DOW-UAP-PR043 in the PURSUE Disclosure is Likely a Missile

 Avi Loeb

View of DOW-UAP-PR043 (left) side-to-side with the matched Google Earth terrain (right). The labelled points were used as candidate terrain controls rather than as target positions. (Image credit: Nandal & Loeb 2026)

The UAP Science Advisory Council (https://uapsac.com/) is currently reviewing declassified, publicly available data, that was released so far on the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (PURSUE) website (https://www.war.gov/ufo/).

DOW-UAP-PR43: Africa, 2025 | The UFO Files

The main challenge in determining the velocity and size of UAP objects involve uncertainties about their distance and direction of motion. Without radar data or triangulation from cameras at different locations, as attempted in the Galileo Project Observatories (https://galileo.hsites.harvard.edu/) under my leadership, the actual speed and size of the objects remain unknown.

Together with my brilliant postdoc and council member, Dr. Devesh Nandal, we realized that unknown UAP parameters can be tightly constrained through a known background terrain, which can be used as a coordinate system to infer the motions of the target object as well as the camera, as functions of time.

To demonstrate the remarkable power of this method, we studied the declassified case DOW-UAP-PR043, involving an unresolved UAP report from Africa in 2025, released by the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) in the Pentagon here. Amazingly, we were able to do better than AARO and resolve this case as a likely fast missile. Our full analysis report is available here. Below are some details of the related scientific analysis.

We started with the publicly released infrared video with a resolution of 1920 × 1080 pixels and a frame rate of about 29.97 frames per second. The video file is 11.75 seconds long.

To evaluate the velocity of the small feature that crosses the image, we first located the terrain. The above image shows the video view (left) side-to-side with the matched Google Earth terrain (right). The best match for the location was near 11.388655◦ N, 43.139259◦ E, near Goubetto in southern Djibouti. The nearby channel belongs to the Damerjog drainage system. It resembles a river in the infrared image, but it is more likely a dry wadi.

We produced tilted Google Earth views and placed candidate ground-control points on clear channel bends and compound features. The location match was strong because the same ordered sequence of bends and tributaries appeared in both the video and the map.

We next stabilized the terrain and searched for features that moved relative to the ground.

Terrain-stabilized target track. The red circles mark the 13 measured target centroids from frame 61 to frame 73, and the yellow line shows the fitted direction of motion. The target moves toward the lower right. The small frame-to-frame departures from the line are minor compared with the total track length and are consistent with centroid and image-processing uncertainty. (Image credit: Nandal & Loeb 2026)

The map coordinates allowed us to ask: What speed would be inferred if the changing line of sight intersected the local ground plane? The answer is: 3.33 kilometers per second. We then attempted to infer the motion of the camera based on the largest local terrain correction. Our camera model implied that the camera altitude was 2.26 kilometers above the local ground plane and the camera’s platform speed was about 77.7 meters per second. We then tested for differential parallax. A stationary object at low altitude produced only a small fraction of the observed motion. The parallax contribution increased rapidly only when the assumed target altitude approached the conditional sensor altitude.

UAP velocity and viewing geometry as a function the UAP altitude above the ground plane. In the upper panel, the solid blue curve is the best conditional speed solution. The lower panel shows the corresponding mean slant range and its range along the measured track. The same angular motion maps to a shorter physical path as the assumed UAP altitude rises, so both inferred speed and slant range decrease. (Image credit: Nandal & Loeb 2026)

We intersected each target viewing ray with a horizontal surface at a chosen altitude. This generated a family of possible physical speeds rather than one unique value. The upper panel of the above figure shows the inferred UAP speed as a function of altitude.

Apparent-size of the UAP (in meters) as functions of altitude. The horizontal dashed line marks the published diameter of the missile AGM-88 body used only as an illustrative scale, while the pale horizontal band shows a broader missile-diameter comparison range. The vertical dotted line marks the inferred camera’s altitude. None of these lines measures the target length: a long missile viewed nearly nose-on could present a cross-track dimension closer to its diameter than to its full length, and the unresolved image may be broadened by the sensor response. (Image credit: Nandal & Loeb 2026)

The apparent target width was about 3.8 full-resolution pixels. We consider the resulting physical sizes as upper limits because the measured width includes the sensor point-spread function, compression, motion blur, registration uncertainty, and possible thermal blooming. The above figure shows the inferred UAP size in meters as a function of altitude. The inferred width of about 4 meters at an altitude of 1.5 kilometers cannot be compared directly with the published length of a missile. It is a blurred cross-track upper limit. Depending on viewing orientation, the more relevant comparison may be body diameter rather than body length.

Aerodynamic drag and heating for the missile hypothesis. Panel (a) shows the UAP speed-altitude curve, the Mach 1, Mach 3, and Mach 5 levels (horizontal lines), and the camera’s altitude (vertical dashed blue line on the right side). The curve is above Mach 5 under an altitude of 1.17 km. Panel (b) shows dynamic pressure and the relative heating proxy on logarithmic axes; both rise steeply toward low altitudes, which is why sustained low-altitude hypersonic flight is difficult. Panel © shows the predicted speed loss without propulsion during the observed 0.4004 s interval for several ballistic coefficients. The shaded strip marks the illustrative missile HARM-like ballistic-coefficient range. Panel (d) compares the fitted along-track acceleration with the 95% constant-velocity bootstrap band and with representative initial drag decelerations.

Next, we evaluated the drag and heating associated with friction on air, which increases significantly with decreasing altitude. Our results are summarized in the above figure. The required propulsion thrust rises with dynamic pressure at low altitudes.

A fast tactical missile is physically compatible with the data. The low-altitude hypersonic branch is strongly penalized by dynamic pressure, drag, and heating, which makes sustained cruise in that regime difficult. The short track does not show statistically significant acceleration or deceleration, so it cannot distinguish a propelled missile from a sufficiently high ballistic-coefficient object that is coasting. The apparent-size estimate also does not identify a missile class. The video provides no clear plume, launch context, impact, or independent target range.

An example of a low-altitude missile is the AGM-88 HARM (High-speed Anti-Radiation Missile) — U.S. air-launched anti-radar missile (as discussed here):

• Length: 4.2 m
• Speed: ~1 km/s
• Altitude profile: Highly variable, since it’s launched from aircraft at whatever altitude the strike platform is operating at and dives on the radar emitter.

Fighter jets can fire the AGM-88 HARM across a wide flight envelope, including low-altitude deck operations around 1.5 km. At 1.5 km, the dense air increases aerodynamic drag. Recent developments in hypersonic missiles are discussed here and here.

The UAP is unlikely to be a bird because the low speeds of birds (limited by about 24 meters per second) would require a distance from the camera of tens of meters, from where it would be possible to notice the wings of a bird based on infrared data from the Galileo Project Observatories. The lack of wings also eliminates the interpretation of an airplane. A close-by passage would also lead to angular acceleration or deceleration which are not detected.

Our scientific analysis shows that the declassified DOW-UAP-PR043 in the PURSUE disclosure is most likely a fast tactical missile.

UAP are a mixed bag, with many being human-made objects with insufficient data to identify their specific parameters. But the fundamental question remains: Is there any UAP which indicates alien technology?

All members of the UAP Science Advisory Council are open-minded to the possibility that such objects exist. This mindset was echoed in today’s cover story of TIME magazine here, titled “America is Finally Taking Extraterrestrials Seriously”. Also today, Popular Mechanics released here a podcast discussion by Andrew Daniels, Shawn Gorman and John Gilpatrick, on the question: “Does Avi Loeb Know Something the Rest of Us Don’t?”

For the record, my answer to this question is: No.

Cover story of TIME magazine on August 6, 2026. (Image credit: TIME)

{ avi-loeb.medium.com }

Mysterious orb seen racing over residential area in new UFO files

BY Rebecka Pieder

Another video, captured by a US military sensor camera at an undisclosed location in the Middle East in 2025, shows a round sphere travelling in a straight line over what looks like an urban residential area.

In one declassified FBI document, a former military pilot describes seeing lights in the sky in October 2023 on a flight between Boston and Dublin. He claimed that many other pilots have witnessed similar events between midnight and 3am.

The white lights would start out dim, getting progressively brighter before fizzling out. Some of the lights remained still, while others moved in straight lines, sometimes changing directions, the pilot said. He has seen variations of these lights at least ten times since spotting the lights for the first time in 2023.

In footage captured over the Pacific Ocean in 2019, a black sphere appears and then disappears from view. When it reappears, visibly quivering, it slowly drifts from left to right.

The video's description noted that although the imagery was captured by a sensor, the display itself was recorded using a handheld device, which may account for some of the flickering visible in the footage.

{ https://www.bbc.com/news }

Declassified UFO files reveal US probe into 1963 Brazil ‘dead spaceman’ crash claim that quickly fell apart

US declassified records detail a 1963 probe into a claimed sphere crash in Brazil.

By Asmi

Representational image of a UFO investigation following a mysterious 1963 incident in Brazil.

(Unsplash)

Declassified US government records have revealed that American officials investigated a bizarre 1963 report claiming a metal sphere had crashed in a Brazilian town with a dead, unidentified occupant inside.

The alleged incident took place in Conde, a municipality in Brazil’s Bahia state, on November 8, 1963. A Portuguese-language broadcast by Rio de Janeiro’s Radio Tupi reported that a large metal sphere had fallen in the middle of the town, leaving a deep hole.

According to a US government transcript of the broadcast, the object allegedly contained a human body wearing heavy clothing marked with inscriptions that could not be deciphered.

The extraordinary report quickly drew the attention of US officials. American diplomats in Brazil sought information about the incident, while the details were circulated among the State Department, the Defense Department and NASA.

Also read:

• Frank Kendall's access to classified info revoked over Air Force One leak claims; fiery netizens say 'should be treason'

But the investigation soon produced a far less mysterious explanation, and ultimately found no evidence that the reported crash had occurred.

US diplomats investigate mysterious sphere

On November 14, 1963, six days after the original radio report, the US Embassy in Rio de Janeiro sent a telegram to the State Department and the American Consulate in Salvador seeking clarification.

The embassy described the reported object as a “large metal manned balloon” and the alleged occupant as a “dead crewman” wearing what was described as a uniform or spacesuit with strange markings.

Officials had also heard reports that an object had been seen flying over the area around the same time and had tentatively been identified as a weather balloon, according to the Daily Mail report.

However, the embassy stated that no such craft had been recovered from the ground.

The inquiry was subsequently passed to the Defense Department and NASA. American officials were seeking to establish whether local authorities had actually confirmed the incident or whether reports circulating in Brazilian newspapers were unfounded.

Investigation finds no witnesses or wreckage

A final diplomatic cable dated November 20 provided a starkly different picture.

Harold Midkiff, the American consul in Salvador, reported that the story had apparently been fabricated in Rio de Janeiro. According to the cable, as cited by Daily Mail, newspaper reporters and other investigators had travelled to Conde but could not find anyone who had witnessed an unusual object falling from the sky.

Also read:

• New US proposal may end 60-day grace period for H-1B workers: How Indian professionals could be hit by change

The local secretary of public security had suggested that the object might have been a weather balloon, but that possibility could not be independently verified either.

Midkiff also forwarded two newspaper reports from Bahia supporting the conclusion that there had been no confirmed crash.

One report said Brazil’s Ministry of Aeronautics had categorically denied that a strange object had appeared in Conde. Another carried the dismissive headline, “The Airship that wasn’t there.”

The diplomatic record said the only unusual development that could be confirmed was that a reporter had managed to send a dispatch from Conde using an old Morse code machine at a federal telegraph office.

What the newly released UFO files actually show

The records are part of a new tranche of declassified UFO material released by the US government. Their inclusion in the archive provides a glimpse into how American officials handled extraordinary reports during the Cold War.

But the documents do not establish that a spacecraft crashed in Brazil, nor do they confirm that a non-human or unidentified crew member was recovered.

Instead, they show that US officials took the report seriously enough to seek verification through diplomatic channels. Their investigation ultimately found no witnesses, wreckage or other physical evidence supporting the sensational account.

The files also leave unanswered a basic question: who originally created the story and how it reached Radio Tupi remains unclear.

According to the Daily Mail report, an apparent date error in one of the records lists the incident as occurring in November 1964, although the surrounding documents and the diplomatic correspondence place the reported event in November 1963.

RELATED

Brazil UFO crash claims & new UFO files released | Backscroll

Pentagon UFO Files: 5 Shocking Revelations From Latest Document Dump| 41 Files, Including Videos Out

{ https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/us-news }

Pentagon releases fifth batch of UFO Files, comprised of 41 records

The latest records come from a mix of the Pentagon, FBI, CIA, State Department and Executive Office of the President.

 By Misty Severi

{ https://justthenews.com/ }

Alien body fossilized on side of crater on Mars, NASA photo, UFO UAP Sighting News.

Date of discovery: Aug 7, 2026

Location of discovery: Mars

NASA photo: 

• https://areo.info/mer/opportunity/121/tn/1P138922213EFF2809P2261L5M1_L2L5L5L6L6.jpg.html

Photo data: MER Opportunity rover, Sol 121

 

While searching through rover photos on Mars I came across something that really...was unexpected, even by me. I found a figure of a bipedal species that was clearly fossilized and fallen into a crater. I believe it might have been standing up at the craters edge but over time and Mars storms...slid down the hill. Its head falling off and rolling a few meters below it. The body is a little over 3 meters tall minus with the head. Its long arm and shoulder very visible and being held to its side along its hips, its chest huge indicating its a very muscular species, its two legs visible which tells us it a bipedal species. 

 

I did say fossilized...because if this species were to live on Mars...it would have to be silica base not carbon based like humans. Which means it could withstand the heat of Mars, lack of water and its body would not be soft flesh and bones, but instead a silica mesh within its body and possibly an exoskeleton too...which all mean it could not only live on Mars...but also thrive on Mars, and when it dies, it would not break down so easily like a human body would. 

 

Scientists have debated other possible intelligent life forms existing as non carbon based for decades, but I believe...the evidence for them existing is right here in this NASA rover photo. 

Scott C. Waring - UFO Sightings Daily 

{ https://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

UFO File 5th Drop, Dept of War, best UAP Over Iran, but why is Dept of War stalling? Paranormal News

Date of video: It said 2021 but really not known 

Location of sighting: It said middle east, but looks like Iran

Source: Dept of War website

 

It looks to me like a bunch of files released on the fifth drop are filler...meaning just there for numbers to make it look bigger than it is. For some reason the Dept of War released only a handful of good quality videos of UFOs, others are specks of sand or just drawn pictures. Why the big stall on the release? I think Trumps scared of what happened to JFK happening to him soon.

 

This UFO in this video is a thick triangle shape, never before seen in UFO research as far I have know. Triangles...yeah, they have been seen, but a thick triangle...nope. This craft is a metallic craft and clearly has a pilot controlling it. I would say the size is about that of a mini van and it has no visible wings, engines, propulsion of any kind. This is the best UFO in the whole 5th drop in my opinion of a 100% real UFO. 

But still...I wonder...why are they stalling the release of bigger more significant UFO evidence videos and photos? Something is amiss right now...a struggle within the Dept of War with other US gov agencies to access what they do not want to share and have not shared as of yet. There is a secret power struggle happening, lets wait and see who wins. 

Scott C. Waring 

 

US War Department Drops New UFO Files: Eerie Videos Of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena | WATCH

{ https://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

Three glowing red orbs over Guntersville, Alabama July 31, 2026, UFO UAP Sighting News.

Date of sighting: July 31, 2026

Location of sighting: Guntersville, Alabama, USA

Source: NUFORC #199826

 

Now this is a classic sighting. Meaning a sighting where it was seen over a mountain area outside a tiny town with a small population of only 9,394. Sightings over such small cities were the majority back in the 1950s-60s, but times have changed and so have the aliens and how they are expanding their areas to be more visible to the public. However...this is in an area hidden away in a back woods area so I would say they actually came from an alien base underground in the area. Also when more than one UFO is visible...its to make a long distance jump or flight. I really wish we had more video of them leaving the area. Flying upward out of the atmosphere or just moving off into the horizon...would have told us a lot. 

Scott C. Waring - UFO Sightings Daily

 

Eyewitness states: 

{ https://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

New UFO Files Detail FBI Records of 2026 Sightings

By Joe Edwards - Reporter

The U.S. Department of War has released a fresh tranche of documents relating to UFOs, which includes files regarding sightings in 2026.

Among the newly detailed encounters are accounts from two U.S. government special agents, including an afternoon incident documented with thermal video footage showing two slow-moving "black-hot" infrared anomalies

"Today, the Department of War is publishing the fifth release of declassified and historical Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) files as part of the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE)," said Sean Parnell, Assistant to the Secretary of War for Public Affairs and Chief Pentagon Spokesman.

The tranche also includes civilian encounters. One witness reported three separate sightings within a five-hour window somewhere in the western United States. Additionally, a phone interview from a civilian logged similar incidents which were backed up by a second witness.

Together, the files demonstrate that federal investigators actively documented and analyzed real-time UAP reports this year. In many cases, the exact dates and locations have been redacted to "protect the identity of eyewitnesses, the location of government facilities, or potentially sensitive information about military sites not related to UAP."

Images Reconstruct Reported 2026 UAP Sighting

Friday's release included several digital renderings of a reported 2026 incident in the Western U.S.

One of them depicts a nighttime desert landscape with rocky terrain and mountains in the background. A silhouetted figure stands beside a parked vehicle while a trio of bright red lights appears suspended in the sky above the mountains.

Witnesses spotted a red light above a nearby mountain range, according to an accompanying FBI record. They initially believed the light was located on the mountainside, but said it began moving eastward and appeared to be thousands of feet above the ground.

After about 15 minutes of observation, they reported that six to 10 additional red lights appeared directly above their location. The witnesses said the lights then appeared to "sync up" and travel together toward the east-southeast.

During the sighting, one of the lights was said to descend rapidly before disappearing, while the remaining lights continued moving across the sky until they eventually vanished from view.

They were based on firsthand descriptions provided by "two U.S. persons," and the renderings were prepared by the FBI, the Defense Department said.

Another rendering depicted a bright, elongated object streaking downward above a mountainous desert landscape. Presented through what resembles a binocular view, the image depicts a luminous trail descending from the sky toward the horizon.

‘Black-Hot’ Objects Spotted on Thermal Camera

Another FBI report details a 2026 incident in which a witness using a thermal optical device observed two unidentified objects moving slowly above a mountain range. The witness spotted a dark object in the sky, followed by a second object appearing nearby.

The two objects appeared to travel together at the same speed for roughly five to 10 minutes before disappearing from view, said the report. The witness recorded photographs and video of the objects but said they were unable to estimate their direction because of the distance involved. Both the exact date and location appear to have been redacted.

Footage released alongside the report features two, slow-moving areas of contrast registering as "black-hot" in infrared imaging.

Screenshot of video captured by a U.S. Government Special Agent via hand-held optical thermal imaging device during a 2026 incident in the western United States. The footage features two, slow-moving "black-hot" areas of contrast, visible in infrared imaging.

Defense Department

Thermally Elevated Aerial Object

Another document in the release details a 2026 observation by U.S. Government Special Agent who reported spotting what was described as a "thermally elevated aerial object" while conducting surveillance in the western U.S.

According to the agent's written statement, the object appeared in roughly the same area and along a similar flight path as an object observed the previous night. The agent said the object appeared "hot" on thermal sensors and was traveling southbound.

To provide a point of comparison, the agent also recorded a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter operating in the area and estimated the unidentified object appeared to be roughly half the helicopter's size.

The report states that the object's distance prevented the agent from identifying its physical characteristics, configuration or means of propulsion, and it eventually disappeared from view behind terrain. Again, the exact date and location, appear to be excluded.

Three Sightings Over Five Hours

Another report describes a prolonged 2026 encounter in which two witnesses reported seeing multiple unexplained red lights over the course of roughly five hours.

The first sighting occurred between about 8 p.m. and 8:30 p.m., after the witnesses pulled over during rainy conditions with heavy cloud cover and observed dull red, "dash"-shaped lights moving along a mountain ridgeline. Those lights disappeared after about 20 minutes, according to the report.

Another light was visible "directly above" their location for around 10 minutes before it, too, disappeared, it said.

Later, sometime between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m., the witnesses reported another episode, saying similar lights appeared much closer to their position, including one estimated to be about 500 feet above their vehicle and another that appeared to stop roughly 6 feet off the ground.

Another unusual event followed, when one witness reported seeing a glow descend into a dry wash about 100 meters behind them and move through it.

Additional files would be released "on a rolling basis," the Defense Department said, adding that it was working with agency partners on the next release.

• Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Ben Kelly and Trevor Davies.

{ https://www.newsweek.com/ }

Ex-Pentagon employee described seeing ‘translucent triangle’ fly overhead in 2023 UFO sighting

A former Pentagon employee and his wife saw a strange, triangle-shaped aircraft fly over their Colorado home late one night in October 2023, according to a startling account included in the fifth batch of UFO files released by the Trump administration Friday.

The story, outlined in an FBI interview summary known as a Form 302 from January of this year, contains some of the most striking descriptions of any Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena — government-speak for UFOs.

The witness said he and his spouse were sitting on their back porch shortly before 11 p.m. when they noticed something flying overhead “possibly as low as 300 feet.”

A former Pentagon employee and his wife saw a strange, triangle-shaped aircraft fly over their Colorado home late one night in Oct. 2023, according to an account included in the fifth batch of UFO files released by the Trump administration Friday.

U.S. Department of War

The summary report adds that the UFO “looked like a perfect triangle … without any extra wings, fins, or any bubble for the engine housing” and “appeared almost see-through” with “what appeared to be a haze or distortion around it … as if you were looking through mist; and that there were ripples like you were looking at an object that is underwater.”

The ex-Pentagon worker insisted that the object was “competely silent” and he “did not feel any rumble, static or any other effects from the object as it passed over him.”

Another digital rendering of a man looking up at the triangle-shaped phenomenon.

U.S. Department of War

Due to his less-than-perfect viewing angle at the time of the alleged sighting, the witness said he couldn’t identify whether the object’s shape was that of an isosceles or equilateral triangle.

He added its translucent appearance could be attributable to the UFO’s “either dark gray or silver” color blending in with the night sky, and that the precise shape of the form was difficult to discern.

The ex-Pentagon worker insisted that the object was “competely silent” and he “did not feel any rumble, static or any other effects from the object as it passed over him.”

U.S. Department of War

Due to his less-than-perfect viewing angle at the time of the alleged sighting, the witness said he couldn’t identify whether the object’s shape was that of an isosceles or equilateral triangle.

U.S. Department of War

The witness added its translucent appearance could be attributable to the UFO’s “either dark gray or silver” color blending in with the night sky, and that the precise shape of the form was difficult to discern

U.S. Department of War

The witness also initially believed the triangle had “rounded edges and corners,” but said that impression may have been due to the distortion around the UFO.

As the alleged craft traveled away from the couple, the man said he detected a “band of silverish blue light,” which he surmised could have been a byproduct of the vessel’s propulsion system.

The pair continued to observe the UFO as it moved in a “straight path” at a “consistent elevation” — traveling rapidly and “covering a large distance” in the time they were watching.

As the alleged craft traveled away from the couple, the man said he detected a “band of silverish blue light,” which he surmised could have been a byproduct of the vessel’s propulsion system.

U.S. Department of War

Moments before they lost sight of the triangle, the witness said it quickly switched to an almost vertical orientation without changing path or elevation.

He said the entire sighting lasted just four seconds, not enough time to whip out his phone to record or photograph it.

An artistic interpretation of a reported incident potentially involving unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) in the western United States in 2026. The digital rendering was prepared by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as a visual aid in support of the PURSUE initiative.

U.S. Department of War

Living right near an airport, the eyewitness claimed to be “very familiar” with the normal operation of ordinary aircraft, including private planes, helicopters and even advanced drones, but said the movement of the UFO “did not match anything he encountered before.”

President Trump, who ordered the rolling disclosure earlier this year, has said repeatedly that he is skeptical about the existence of alien life, but mandated transparency about UFOs after former President Barack Obama said of aliens during a February interview: “They’re real, but I haven’t seen them.”

{ https://nypost.com/ }

 BREAKING NEWS - Declassified UFO files reveal hunt for 'dead spaceman' after mysterious sphere crashed in city

• READ MORE: UFO disclosure movement's astonishing new Trump claims: Secret Oval Office meetings... Air Force One plan... and 'imminent' next move
  

By STACY LIBERATORE, US SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR

Declassified UFO files have exposed an extraordinary US investigation into claims that a ‘dead spaceman’ was discovered inside a mysterious metal sphere.

The object was said to have plummeted into the center of Conde, a municipality in the Brazilian state of Bahia, on November 8, 1963, blasting a hole approximately 13 feet deep.

Reports claimed the sphere had glass-covered windows and contained a human body dressed in heavy clothing marked with inscriptions nobody could decipher.

The astonishing account sparked inquiries by American officials, who asked diplomats in Brazil to determine whether something inexplicable had fallen from the sky.

Details of the alleged crash and its mysterious occupant were circulated among the State Department, Department of Defense and NASA.

For six days, officials pursued conflicting reports involving a possible spacecraft, a dead crewman and a suspected weather balloon.

But when US diplomats attempted to verify the account, the extraordinary mystery began to collapse.

The records were included in the Trump administration’s fifth tranche of UFO files released on Friday, alongside dozens of reports, images and videos previously unavailable to the public.

The object was said to have crashed into the center of Conde, a municipality in the Brazilian state of Bahia, on November 8, 1963, gouging a hole approximately 13 feet deep

On November 14, the US Embassy in Rio sent a telegram to the State Department and the American Consulate in Salvador asking for clarification

The story first surfaced in a Portuguese-language broadcast by Radio Tupi in Rio de Janeiro late on November 8, 1963.

A US government transcript recorded the station reporting that a ‘large metal sphere’ had fallen in the middle of Conde.

‘Inside is a human body dressed in heavy clothing bearing inscriptions which cannot be deciphered,’ the transcript stated.

It added that residents had been left intrigued and local authorities were informed, but it did not include photographs, identify witnesses or offer any physical evidence.

On November 14, the US Embassy in Rio sent a telegram to the State Department and the American Consulate in Salvador asking for clarification.

The embassy wanted to confirm whether officials in Salvador had issued an ‘unqualified negative’ response to local newspaper coverage of the incident.

Its message described the object as a ‘large metal manned balloon’ and the alleged occupant as a ‘dead crewman’ wearing a ‘uniform or spacesuit with strange markings.’

Officials had also heard that an object was seen flying over the area around the same time and had tentatively been identified as a weather balloon.

However, the telegram emphasized that no such craft had been recovered from the ground.

Its message described the object as a ‘large metal manned balloon’ and the alleged occupant as a ‘dead crewman’ wearing a ‘uniform or spacesuit with strange markings'

(stock)

A notation shows the request was passed to the Defense Department and NASA later that afternoon.

Six days later, a final diplomatic cable delivered the results of inquiries conducted in Bahia, and dismantled the extraordinary story.

The November 20 document quoted Harold Midkiff, the American consul in Salvador, as saying the account had ‘apparently [been] fabricated in Rio.’

Midkiff said newspaper reporters and other investigators rushed to Conde but could not find anybody in the area who had witnessed a strange object descending.

The local secretary of public security speculated that it might have been a weather balloon, but even that sighting could not be verified.

Midkiff also sent the embassy two reports from newspapers in Bahia that supported his findings.

One stated that Brazil’s Ministry of Aeronautics ‘categorically’ denied that any strange object had appeared in Conde.

The claim attracted the attention of American officials, who asked diplomats in Brazil to determine whether it was true

The other carried the dismissive headline: ‘The Airship that wasn’t there.’

According to the final cable, the only remarkable result of the episode was that a reporter managed to transmit a dispatch from Conde using an old Morse code machine at the federal telegraph office.

The documents do not reveal who originated the sensational claim or how it reached Radio Tupi.

An apparent error in the final record lists the incident as occurring in November 1964, despite the cable being written in November 1963 and referring to reports issued that same month.

Although the files show that American officials examined the allegation, their inclusion in the newly released UFO archive does not mean the US verified a crashed spacecraft or recovered an occupant.

Instead, the records trace how an extraordinary radio report prompted an official inquiry that ultimately found no witnesses or physical evidence that the alleged crash ever occurred.

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Department of Defense releases fifth set of UAP files, two potential sightings in Colorado Springs

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KKTV) - The Department of Defense (DOD) has released its fifth set of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) files Friday, with two incidents occurring in Colorado Springs.

DOD officials released two incidents of people describing potential sightings of UAPs in Colorado Springs in 2023, with artistic renderings of each.

The FBI investigated both incidents, according to the files released by the DOD.

Translucent ‘perfect triangle’ shaped UAP incident, October 2023

The Department of Defense has released its fifth set of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) files Friday, with two incidents occurring in Colorado Springs.

(Department of Defense)

Multiple agents from the FBI interviewed a former DOD employee who said he saw a dark “perfect triangle” shaped object in the sky in October 2023.

In the report, FBI officials said at around 10:50 p.m., the former employee and his wife were sitting on a back porch of their residence in Colorado Springs.

As the former employee was looking up, officials said he suddenly noticed that something had flown over his house from behind him.

The UAP appeared low in elevation, officials said, and the former employee estimated it was about the size of a large SUV based on his elevation estimation.

The former employee said he did not think he would have noticed the UAP if it was a cloudy night. Officials said he described the night as having clear skies, but could not recall seeing many stars in the sky.

At first, the former employee noticed the object’s movement before actually seeing its silhouette, officials said. He described the object as “almost see-through,” and it had appeared to have a haze or distortion around it.

The former employee further described it appearing as if he was looking at it through mist, officials said, and that there were “ripples like you were looking at an object that is underwater.”

The UAP looked like a “perfect triangle,” officials said, however, because of the former employee’s viewing angle, he could not determine whether it was an isosceles or equilateral in shape. He thought the triangle had rounded edges and corners, but stated the distortion around the UAP may have made the edges less sharp in appearance. His wife remembered seeing a “dark seem” running around the edge of the UAP.

The former employee stated that the UAP could have been either dark gray or silver in color, which would have blended in the night sky. With its surrounding distortion, it may have caused it to have the appearance of looking translucent.

The UAP traveled away from the former employee and his wife with a forward-facing point, officials said.

As it traveled away from them, officials said, along the trailing, flat, back edge, it had what appeared to be a band of “silverish blue light.” The former employee figured that the light could have been caused by the mode of propulsion for the UAP.

The UAP moved in a straight path at a consistent elevation, officials said. It moved “very quickly and covered a large distance in the short time they observed the UAP.”

The UAP the former employee and his wife saw that night did not match anything he encountered before.

The former employee said he witnessed the UAP for a total of four seconds from when he initially saw it to when he lost sight of it. He said it disappeared from his sight sooner than he expected it should have.

‘Solid black triangular object’ shaped UAP incident, October 2023

In a separate report, multiple agents from the FBI interviewed a US citizen about seeing a potential UAP near Colorado Springs also in October 2023.

The witness said he saw a “pixelated” or “distorted” UAP shaped like a “solid black triangular shaped object” with a “red light in each of the three corners.”

Officials said between 8 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., the witness walked over to his coworker and began looking up, admiring the stars.

As the witness looked up, he said he noticed a “very bright star” in the sky, which initially drew his attention.

As the witness was looking at the star, he said he noticed movement in his left peripheral vision. He looked further up and to his left and saw what appeared to be a “dark-gray colored cloud phasing into his sight.”

The cloud was stationary in the sky, officials said, and the witness stated it looked “very strange, as if it was pixelated or distorted in some other manner.”

As he watched the cloud, the witness said he saw a constant, diffuse red light on the bottom front point of a “solid black triangular shaped object” that was coming out of the cloud.

The object behind the point became wider and larger as it left the cloud until the witness saw the entire equilateral triangular object with a “red light in each of the three corners,” the witness said.

The witness estimated the UAP was “very large” and could have been as large as the parking lot that he was standing in. He estimated the UAP was about three to five stories in thickness.

At first, the UAP appeared to be moving at a steady speed like a helicopter, the witness said. It then almost instantaneously accelerated “to possibly Mach 1 or 2″ and turned slightly.

The witness noticed there appeared to be waves surrounding and radiating from the object. He compared the waves to the mirage effect that can be seen when one looks down a hot road into the distance.

Officials said the witness did not hear the object make any noise, could not see any form of propulsion and did not “smell anything out of the ordinary.”

As the UAP moved, it abruptly banked 90 degrees on its left side with its three lights still visible while veering towards the right, the witness said. It then quickly banked down to level flight.

The witness said the banking motion was opposite to that of a conventional aircraft that would bank in the direction it was turning.

As the witness lost sight of the object, he said he looked back to where it originally came from and noticed that the dark-gray cloud had disappeared.

The witness shortly called his wife to tell her about what he saw. She said his voice sounded “robotic, as if there was electronic interference occurring within the call.”

This is the second release of files that mention incidents in Colorado Springs. The first release was found in the DOD’s third release of UAP files back in June.

{ https://www.kktv.com/ }

Trump Administration - More UFO Secrets Unsealed ...TMZ Gets First Look

A brand new batch of declassified UFO files has finally dropped ... and TMZ has an exclusive look at some of the startling footage.

The Department of War is releasing its fifth trove of historical Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena records as part of the Trump admin's effort to be transparent with Americans.

Department of War

Check it out ... the footage spans decades and comes from locations around the world -- showing mysterious objects darting, hovering and glowing in the sky.

For those who believe the truth is out there ... one file from 1953 details a military analysis of footage allegedly showing UFOs, which investigators said displayed characteristics inconsistent with natural phenomena or known aircrafts.

Department of War

Things get even stranger ... and much more recent ... another document reveals the FBI interviewed an American in 2026 who reported three possible UAP encounters in the western U.S. within just five hours.

A senior Trump admin official tells TMZ ... "President Trump and the administration are not trying to sway anyone’s opinion in one way or the other – we are providing the public with as much information as possible and allowing people to make up their own minds."

Department of War

If you want to dig into the files yourself ... head over to the Department of War's website and take a look.

RELATED

 { https://www.tmz.com/ }

Star UFO Similar To US Gov Release UFO File Over Santa Fe Springs, California Aug 5, 2026, UAP Sighting News.

Date of sighting: Aug 5, 2026

Location of sighting: Santa Fe Springs, California, USA

Source: NUFORC #199918

 

This UFO was captured by a person in California this week. Its very similar to the 8 pointed star video released by US President Trump by the Dept of War. UFOs do come in all shapes and sizes so when searching the sky, search for the unexpected. This craft actually shut down the eyewitnesses phone...which sometimes does occur with UFOs...known to shut down radios, TVs, digital watches and even cars and some nuclear missiles at Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota. So yeah, without a doubt, this is a real sighting of alien tech in the air. 

Scott C. Waring - UFO Sightings Daily

 

Eyewitness states: 

Driving south on the 605 freeway going on to the 5 east freeway. I noticed a black dot, as we got closer I decided to look up because of the weird placement in the sky, it was a very pointy black star shape. Like a piñata.  My cell service stopped about 1 miles before approaching.

{ https://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

Orb Fleet Over Arcadia, California, USA Aug 2, 2026, UAP UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: Aug 2, 2026

Location of sighting: Arcadia, California, USA

Source: NUFORC Website

 

Now these white orbs are being seen more and more worldwide but this time there is not a single one, but many of them. A whole fleet and they are not small but large at 20-50 feet across! Wow, never heard about more than 3 of that size together before...past sightings of such large orbs were seen over Colorado Rocky mountains often being chased by USAF jets. 

 

This is very rare and such sizes and each traveling at a different speed which is proof its not a balloon traveling in the wind, but an intelligently controlled craft. Aliens are getting more bold, it wont be long now before the big reveal comes. 

Scott C. Waring - UFO Sightings Daily 

 

Eyewitness states: 

{ https://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

Cloaked UFO Throws 300 Meter Shadow Over Canada! Google Earth Discovery, UAP Sighting News.

Date of discovery: Aug 6, 2026

Location of discovery: Canada

Google Earth coordinates: 43°31'18.26"N 80°28'39.45"W

 

Hey all, I was exploring on Google Earth map and came across this remarkable shadow over some trees and a golf course. It was a rectangle shaped shadow and it was big. When I used Google Ruler it came to over 300 meters across by 150 meters wide. Now depending on how far the UFO was from the ground would determine its actual size, but the shadow gives us an idea...since the shadow should be 20-50% bigger than the UFO itself.

 

This happened because the UFO was cloaked, however the sunlight still was not affected by the cloak so the craft still threw a shadow. That doesn't happen for all cloaked UFOs but for some and here is the proof of that. Aliens...they fly low and bold over our cities and neighborhoods, not expecting anyone to ever notice them...but alien arrogance was their downfall. 

Back in Jan 8, 2008 a similar rectangle UFO was seen by hundreds of people over Stephenville, Texas, USA. Eyewitnesses said it was flying only 300 feet above him and was over 300 meters long, just like this shadow on Google Earth map. So yes...evidence points to UFOs being all shapes and sizes. 

Scott C. Waring - Taiwan 

 

{ https://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

Eerie ‘shape-shifting orb' spotted hovering over Colorado for hours

Knewz Staff

Strange 'shape-shifting' orb spotted in Colorado.

BY: Next 9NEWS | YouTube

An eerie orb that appeared to be 'shape-shifting' was spotted by witnesses in Colorado. The globule hovered in the same position for hours, sparking conversations about its unconventional nature. A fencing crew working on their jobsite first noticed a glowing circular shape in the morning sky but were unable to explain what it was, per the Daily Mail. 

One of the witnesses claimed to have observed the unidentified flying object with binoculars that revealed its transparency. Strangely, the orb remained fixed the entire day and was allegedly seen in two different places at the same time. 

Orb leaves witnesses wondering

Witness John Smith shared photos of the orb.

BY: Pexels

The brilliant white object caught the fencing crew's attention as they arrived at a job site in New Castle around 11 a.m. It reportedly hung over the sky for hours until the workers left the area around 4:30 p.m. In footage released, the strange orb appears to be luminous against the clear blue sky. When John Smith, a witness, paid close attention to the strange phenomenon, he realized it did not represent a tangible object. 

"[It was] perfectly round and transparent through binoculars, almost like a ball of energy," said Smith. The perfectly circular blob's fixed position is what left most viewers intrigued about its mysterious nature. Photographs of the orb have surfaced but barely justify the unnatural physicality of the object's size, altitude, or true distance. 

Orb spotted again

US Army noticed a potato-like orb near the base in 2022.

BY: KOAA 5 | YouTube

The mysterious orb was seen for the second time this month. Smith recalled witnessing a similar white object with similar characteristics at another job site. "We saw the second orb a week later about 50 miles away on another job site, same exact situation," he said. At the time, the orb did not budge from its suspended position the entire day. 

Images of the recent UFO sighting that Smith shared on Facebook sparked a debate among people trying to explain what it really was. Some even suggested it was just a balloon, but the witness had a different opinion. However, the photos did not justify its shape-shifting nature and ability to exist in two different locations simultaneously.

Was it a balloon?

People argued it could be a balloon.

BY: Pexels

Smith dismissed the theory of balloons, hinting at the massive size of the orb. "It definitely wasn't a balloon… It was triple the height of a 747," he said. He suggested that the orb was inexplicable, unlike the common sightings of balloons in Aspen. A self-described UFO researcher, Scott C. Waring, said the object was a "plasma orb" that could change sizes and shapes. He went on to allege that the orb could read the thoughts of the witnesses. 

In 2022, the U.S. Army reportedly witnessed a similar circular object shaped like a potato over Cheyenne Mountain, per Fox 21. The sighting made its way to the latest batch of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) reports from the Department of War. President Donald Trump had earlier directed the authorities to disclose all information about alien sightings in the sky to the public.

{ https://ca.style.yahoo.com/ }

An eerie, glowing orb appeared to hang frozen in the Colorado sky for six hours, leaving witnesses unable to explain what they had seen. 

A fencing crew noticed the brilliant white object near New Castle at approximately 11am and said it remained in the same position until they left the area around 4:30pm.

Images and footage from the encounter show what appears to be a luminous, almost perfectly circular object against the clear blue sky. 

John Smith captured the eerie object in the sky, telling the Daily Mail: '[It was] perfectly round and transparent through binoculars, almost like a ball of energy.'

He added that the orb displayed no obvious movement despite being watched throughout the working day.

Adding to the mystery, the crew claimed this was not their first encounter with the unexplained object.

'We saw the second orb a week later about 50 miles away on another jobsite, same exact situation,' said Smith. 'The orb stayed in place the entire day.'

The photograph alone cannot establish the object’s size, altitude or distance from the camera, leaving open more conventional explanations such as a balloon or an optical effect.

A fencing crew noticed the brilliant white object near New Castle at approximately 11am and said it remained in the same position until they left the area around 4:30pm.

But its apparent ability to remain fixed for hours, and its alleged appearance in two different places, has left the witnesses searching for answers.

Smith shared the footage and image in a Facebook group, where users offered numerous explanations for the mysterious sighting.

‘I honestly think this is a daytime plasma orb, which doesn’t happen often!’ one user said.

Several others argued that the object was nothing more than a weather balloon.

Smith rejected that theory, saying: ‘It definitely wasn’t a balloon… It was triple the height of a 747.’

It was unclear how Smith calculated the object’s altitude, which cannot be established from the footage alone without reliable information about its size and distance from the camera.

Some Boeing 747 models have a maximum operating altitude of 45,100 feet, meaning three times that height would be approximately 135,300 feet, or nearly 26 miles above Earth.

However, weather balloons routinely climb above 100,000 feet before bursting and can appear almost stationary when viewed from a great distance.

Smith said weather balloons are common around Aspen, but maintained that the object he and his colleagues witnessed was unlike any balloon they had previously seen.

Images and footage from the encounter show what appears to be a luminous, almost perfectly circular object against the clear blue sky

Read More

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• Trump's inner circle have shown me the real UFO disclosure: The President has an imminent speech 'written and ready'... what he'll explain about non-human life will make it all make sense 

Self-described UFO researcher Scott C Waring claimed the object was a ‘plasma orb’ capable of altering its size and shape.

‘This is a plasma orb which can change sizes and even change shapes,’ Waring said, although he offered no evidence supporting that conclusion.

He also questioned why the witnesses recorded only approximately 10 seconds of footage despite reportedly observing the object for several hours.

Waring went on to allege that the orb could read the workers’ thoughts and access their memories through telepathy, an extraordinary claim that cannot be verified from the photograph or video.

Neither image provides enough information to determine the object’s size, altitude or composition, and no official agency has identified it as plasma or extraterrestrial technology.

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