The U.S. Navy has officially acknowledged three incidents reported by F/A-18 Hornet fighter pilots of “unidentified aerial phenomena” — what most refer to as UFOs — and released video of the encounters.
The Defense Department on Monday published the videos of the separate incidents, one taken in November 2004 and the other two in January 2015, “which have been circulating in the public domain after unauthorized releases in 2007 and 2017,” officials said in a statement.
“After a thorough review, the department has determined that the authorized release of these unclassified videos does not reveal any sensitive capabilities or systems, and does not impinge on any subsequent investigations of military air space incursions by unidentified aerial phenomena,” according to Pentagon spokeswoman Sue Gough.
The Navy has previously stated the videos did belong to the service, but did not give credence to the idea its pilots have confronted alien spacecraft.
But after Navy pilots in recent months have stated there has been an increase of UFO sightings in recent years, the service issued new guidelines on how to best document sightings or encounters, according to a report from Politico last year. The New York Times also reported pilots had sightings — and, in one instance, a near collision — while flying training missions off the East Coast between 2014 and 2015.
