20 UFO Sightings Investigated By The US Government

Up until now, one of the biggest questions is, "Do aliens exist?" Stories about unidentified flying objects (UFOs), spaceships, aliens, and extraterrestrial life have been around since time immemorial.

This April 26, as everybody celebrates Alien Day, let us dive into the big world of science fiction. You can try watching movies, reading books, or blogs about anything related to UFO sightings to mark the occasion.

Or you may also read about the 20 UFO sightings investigated by the United States government below to commemorate Alien Day.

20.

Dayton, OH - Since 1947

Rumors surrounding Wright Field (now Wright-Patterson Air Force Base) outside Dayton, Ohio, involve a particular building that seemed to be a warehouse, known as Hangar 18. Several UFO enthusiasts believe the government purposely hid physical proof from their investigations, such as flying saucer debris, extraterrestrial remains, and even caught aliens in the location dubbed "the Blue Room."

The story of Hangar 18 is rooted in the supposed crash of a UFO in the desert near Roswell, New Mexico, in July 1947. According to a Roswell Army Air Field (RAAF) press release, their personnel inspected the "flying disc" and sent it on to "higher headquarters." Another press release from an Air Force base in Fort Worth, Texas, claimed the disc was a weather balloon.

Many UFO researchers at that time believed some of the materials from Roswell were also moved to Wright Field after the crash and kept in Hangar 18, based on unsupported reports from former military pilots.

19.

Maury Island, WA - June 28, 1947

This incident is the cause of the Men in Black conspiracy theory. Harold Dahl was on a conservation mission on the Puget Sound near the eastern shore of Washington's Maury Island; he was collecting logs when he reportedly noticed six donut-shaped obstacles lingering about half a mile above his boat. One of them fell nearly 1,500 feet, which was followed by rain, and metallic debris, some of which hit Dahl's son, Charles, on his arm, and their dog, who unfortunately died.

Dahl was able to take photos of the aircraft through his camera, which he later presented to his supervisor, Fred Crisman. Crisman, who did not believe Dahl's story, returned to the location to personally take a look for himself. In there, he saw a strange aircraft with his own eyes.

The next morning, a man in a black suit visited Dahl. The man then gave a detailed account of what Dahl had just experienced. According to Gray Barker's 1956 book, "They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers," Dahl was reportedly instructed not to tell anyone about what he witnessed. If he did, negative consequences would happen.

18.

Chicago, IL - 1948 To 1969

In September 1947, the U.S. Air Force received reports about mysterious and unknown objects roaming in the skies. In need of figuring out what was happening, the Air Force launched an investigation called Project Sign.

Project Sign ran for a year, led by University Base of Top UFO Investigator J. Allen Hynek, the civilian scientific adviser to Air Force UFO investigations. The team reviewed 237 cases. In Hynek's final report, he concluded that about 32% of incidents could be attributed to astronomical phenomena, while another 35% had other explanations, such as balloons, rockets, flares, or birds. The 13% of the remaining 33% didn't offer enough evidence to yield an explanation. The last 20% provided investigators with some proof that still couldn't explain the incidents. The Air Force used the term "unidentified flying object," classifying the 20% as "unidentified."

In February 1949, Project Sign was succeeded by Project Grudge, which also ended at the end of the same year. Since the UFO incidents continued, the Air Force revived Project Grudge, which was soon renamed Project Blue Book. Hynek joined Project Blue Book in 1952 until its demise in 1969.

17.

Montgomery, AL - July 24, 1948

Another incident occurred at 2:45 a.m. on July 24, 1948, in the skies over southwest Alabama. It resulted in the U.S. government opening a top-secret investigation.

Pilot Clarence S. Chiles and co-pilot John B. Whitted flew their Eastern Air Lines DC-3, a twin-engine propeller plane, at 5,000 feet, on the move from Houston to Atlanta. It was a routine domestic flight with 20 passengers on board - 19 of them asleep at that hour.

The two pilots and the one passenger, who was wide awake, saw something believed to be unidentified flying objects or spaceships from other worlds. Chiles later described what he saw, saying, "It was clear there were no wings present, that it was powered by some jet or other type of power, shooting flame from the rear some 50 feet. There were two rows of windows, which indicated an upper and lower deck, [and] from inside these windows a very bright light was glowing. Underneath the ship, there was a blue glow of light."

16.

Fargo, ND - October 1, 1948

The event involved a 27-minute air encounter between a veteran World War II fighter pilot named George F. Gorman and an unknown white orb at a high altitude above Fargo, North Dakota, on Oct. 1, 1948.

Gorman, a 25-year-old former fighter pilot at the time of the incident, worked as a second lieutenant in the North Dakota Air National Guard. On that day, he was behind the flight controls of a P-51 Mustang. Though other pilots, who were also on a cross-country flight, landed at Fargo's Hector Airport, Gorman stayed in the air to have some night-flying time during cloudless conditions. While preparing to land at about 9 p.m., he saw what appeared to be the taillight of another craft advancing on the right, though the tower had no other object on the radar.

He took a closer look and pulled his plane up and close to within about 1,000 yards. "It was about six to eight inches in diameter, clear white, and completely without fuzz at the edges," he said of the object in his report. "It was blinking on and off. As I approached, however, the light suddenly became steady and pulled into a sharp left bank. I thought it was making a pass at the tower."

15.

New Mexico - December 1948

Two plane staff reported seeing a "green ball of fire" on the night of Dec. 5, 1948, heading west to east. In one instance, the fireball moved head-on toward the plane, forcing the pilot to change direction.

While describing the green fireballs, one of the pilots said, "Take a soft ball and paint it with some kind of fluorescent paint that will glow bright green in the dark... Then have someone take the ball out about 100 feet in front of you and about 10 feet above you. Have him throw the ball right at your face, as hard as he can throw it. That's what a green fireball looks like."

A crew of intelligence officers in the University of New Mexico's Institute of Meteoritics plotted the fireball's flight path and investigated the area a meteorite would have hit, but they found no meteor fragments, no debris, no craters, and even no proof of fire.

14.

Groom Lake, NV: Area 51 - Mid-1950s

There have been rumors of unidentified flying objects, captive aliens, and other unexplainable activities around Area 51 since the '50s.

For years, the Nevada Test and Training Range, also referred to as Area 51, was removed from any public map. Even the U.S. government never admitted the area's existence.

It was due to the ironclad security surrounding the site and the unusual aircraft developed and tested there that people knew it existed. In 1955, Lockheed Martin, the Central Intelligence Agency, U.S. Air Force, and a defense contractor started testing that time's newest aircraft in an ultra-remote site in the Mojave Desert of southern Nevada, about 80 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

13.

Chorwon, North Korea - May 1951

In May 1951, Private First Class Francis P. Wall and his regiment were stationed near Chorwon, about 60 miles north of Seoul, South Korea. They were in the middle of preparation to bombard a nearby village with artillery when the soldiers suddenly saw an odd sight up in the hills — described as "a jack-o-lantern come wafting down across the mountain."

They were permitted to fire at the object. Upon hitting the body of the craft, the object started behaving more erratically, moving from side to side while its lights were on and off. Wall's vaguely remembered what happened next. "We were attacked," he recalled, "Swept by some form of a ray that was emitted in pulses, in waves that you could visually see only when it was aiming directly at you. That is to say, like a searchlight sweeps around and the segments of light... you would see it coming at you."

12.

Lubbock, TX - August 1951

Scientists from Texas Technical College were hanging out in the backyard of geology professor Dr. W.I. Robinson on the night of Aug. 25, 1951. It was around 9:20 p.m. when they saw something in the sky, which they described as a V-shaped formation of 15 to 30 blueish-green lights.

That same night, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, about 350 miles away from Lubbock, an Atomic Energy Commission's top-secret Sandia Corporation employee and his wife noticed a huge airplane flying silently with six to eight bluish lights.

11.

Washington, DC - July 1952

In the summer of 1952, a slew of strange sightings was reported in the skies over Washington. The sightings of July 1952 were called "the Big Flap." The unusual event caught the attention of the media, prompting investigations made by a special intelligence unit of the U.S. Air Force.

10.

Everglades, FL - August 1952

It was an August night in 1952 when scoutmaster D.S. "Sonny" DesVergers claimed he had encountered an unidentified flying object that released a fireball, leaving him slightly burnt and hardly able to see.

Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, the chief UFO investigator for the U.S. Air Force, soon called the event "the best hoax in UFO history." However, this incident remains one of the most intriguing cases from Project Blue Book.

9.

Flatwoods, WV - September 12, 1952

Six boys aged 10 to 17, together with a dog and a mom noticed a throbbing red light streak across the sky that crashed on a nearby farm in Flatwoods, West Virginia, on Sept. 12, 1952. At first, it was only the three youngsters who saw it. The witnesses followed it up the hill and reported seeing a 10-foot Frankenstein-like monster.

The monster reportedly had a blood-red body and a seemingly glowing green face. The sighting has remained a local legend of the tiny village of less than 300 people for more than six decades. Tourists even come to Flatwoods to visit its monster museum and buy Green Monster tchotchkes and T-shirts.

8.

Mount Palomar, CA - November 1952

The mysterious events in 1952 involved George Adamski, considered one of the most controversial characters in the entire UFO history.

Adamski had several stories and claims regarding UFOs. It began in the late 1940s when he took pictures of what he claimed were flying saucers. Then, in 1952, Adamski insisted that he had personally met and talked to a visitor from Venus in a California desert, using hand gestures and telepathy.

With all the strange stories, he put his adventures in multiple books, including "Flying Saucers Have Landed" (1953), co-authored with Desmond Leslie, as well as the 1955 sequel, "Inside the Spaceships," which focused on his meetings with the Venusian and emissaries from Mars and Saturn.

7.

Keweenaw Point, MI - November 23, 1953

On Nov. 23, 1953, an Air Force jet mysteriously disappeared over Lake Superior. The U.S. Air Defense Command noticed a blip on the radar where there shouldn't have been, near the U.S.-Canadian border. It was reportedly an unidentified object in restricted air space over Lake Superior.

An F-89C Scorpion jet, with crews on board, decided to investigate it. First Lieutenant Felix Moncla was in the pilot's seat, while Second Lieutenant Robert Wilson observed the radar.

The men would not come back from their intercept mission; it was "one of the strangest cases on record." Though the United States Air Force, United States Coast Guard, and Canadian Air Force thoroughly conducted a wide search, they found no wreckage or sign of the pilots.

6.

Kelly, KY - August 21, 1955

An extended farm family referred to as the Suttons came to the Hopkinsville Police Station in southwestern Kentucky all gasping for breath on the night of Aug. 21, 1955. Their story regarding otherworldly beings was considered one of the most detailed accounts of an alien, which was also notable due to nearly a dozen witnesses, the duration of the encounter, and the very close proximity between the witnesses and creatures.

The encounter happened on the Suttons' farm in the tiny rural hamlet of Kelly, Kentucky. The family resided in an unpainted three-room home without running water, telephone, radio, television, or books. Their detailed story involved the UFO landing and the distinct appearance of small alien creatures. "These aren't the kind of people who normally run to the police for help," Police Chief Russell Greenwell later told investigators recalling the terror in the faces of the witnesses.

5.

Holloman Air Force Base, NM - March 1956

An incident where lifeless bodies were discovered under the open sky in the New Mexico desert with their eyes plucked out, tongues detached and private parts cut out — seemingly precisely performed, clean with no blood around.

There was speculation about whether the attackers might be peculiar beings conducting biological experiments on Earth's inhabitants. The alleged abduction by a saucer-like aircraft involved an American Air Force sergeant as the victim.

4.

White Mountains, NH - September 1961

In September 1961, Betty and Barney Hill noticed a strange light in the sky seemingly following them.

When they returned home to Portsmouth at dawn, they felt dirty and said their watches were suddenly not working. Barney's shoes were strangely scraped, while Betty's dress was ripped. Neither one of them remembered what happened during the two-hour drive.

With the assistance of a psychiatrist, the couple eventually told their story, claiming that Gray beings with large eyes had walked them into a metallic disc. Once inside, the Gray beings allegedly examined them and erased their memories. The incident became the first-ever alien-abduction human encounter in history.

3.

Skinwalker Ranch, UT - 1980s

Some have called it a supernatural place. Others have deemed it "cursed." Terry Sherman got so spooked by the happenings on his new cattle ranch that 18 months after moving his family of four to the property now known by many as "Skinwalker Ranch" in northeastern Utah, he sold the 512-acre parcel away.

In 1996, Terry and Gwen Sherman shared their experiences, saying that they had seen crop circles, UFOs, and the repeated mutilation of their cattle in an uncommon surgical and bloodless process. Terry eventually sold the ranch to UFO enthusiast Robert Bigelow for about $200,000.

Though several researchers claimed to have witnessed paranormal activities, they were unable to capture any physical proof supporting the Shermans' stories. In 2016, the ranch was resold to Adamantium Real Estate.

2.

Pacific Ocean - November 14, 2004

On Nov. 14, 2004, highly trained military staff experienced something "unsettling" while flying over the Pacific Ocean, about 100 miles southwest of San Diego, California. The ride was supposed to be a routine naval training exercise for experienced radar operators and fighter pilots.

The USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group, which had the nuclear-powered carrier, and the missile cruiser USS Princeton, were having drills before the deployment in the Persian Gulf. The Princeton's highly advanced radar reportedly picked up mysterious and unidentified objects for days. The Navy called them "anomalous aerial vehicles" or AAVs.

Upon observation, lead pilot and commander of the elite Black Aces squadron David Fravor noticed one of the objects flying about 50 feet above the water. Fravor, a Top Gun program graduate with more than 16 years of flying experience, later described it as about 40 feet long, shaped like a Tic Tac candy.

1.

Middle East - 2022

The U.S. government is reportedly investigating over 650 potential cases of so-called "unidentified aerial phenomena," one of the cases is a video showing a small orb that passed through an MQ-9 drone's camera screen in the Middle East in 2022.

The drone's camera followed the unknown object as it instantly moved through the sky, which can be seen in and out of the screen. However, according to Sean Kirkpatrick, the director of the Pentagon's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, the case was unresolved due to the lack of evidence.