Jun 25, 2021
Topline
American intelligence agencies released a long-awaited report into “unexplained aerial phenomena” on Friday, and although virtually all of the sightings it examined remain unidentified, some of them could be evidence of advanced technology from a U.S. adversary, it concluded.
The U.S. military released videos in April of fast-moving unidentified objects.
U.S. Military
Key Facts
The Office of the Directorate of National Intelligence investigated hundreds of unidentified objects seen by U.S. Navy pilots and other sources since 2004, and compiled its findings in an unclassified report released Friday afternoon.
The ODNI report said investigators could not identify what was seen in the vast majority of these sightings, though it said most of them were real objects spotted by multiple sources rather than optical illusions, and just one was a deflating balloon floating in the air.
Investigators said some of the objects — a few of which zipped around the sky and changed course rapidly — looked like advanced technology from Russia, China, a classified U.S. program or another nation, but there’s no hard evidence.
Other possible explanations include ice crystals, birds, recreational drones, and plastic bags and other garbage.
Tangent
The report didn’t mention the fringe belief that UFOs are spacecraft flown by extraterrestrial beings, a theory popular among enthusiasts but totally lacking in evidence.
Big Number
11. That’s the number of times pilots reported a near-miss with a UFO, according to the ODNI report. Investigators say these unexplained objects pose a safety risk, and if they belong to a foreign government, they could also be hazardous to national security.
