The Pentagon released yet more documents related to unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) on Friday.
This is the seventh tranche of records released since May, though, unlike previous releases, there are no videos or images included. Instead the latest trove is an assortment of memos and reports of encounters with possible UAP.
The most in-depth account is a report from this year in which multiple federal law enforcement agents in an undisclosed location witnessed a UAP “presenting as a matte black triangular shape of extremely low aspect ratio.”
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The object reportedly had a 13- to 15-foot wingspan, measured about six to nine feet in length and had a thickness of one to two feet. According to the agents, the craft was steady as it climbed about 200 or 300 feet into the air above a ridgeline over the course of 10 seconds. At that point, it hovered for another 20 seconds before it flew out of sight at fighter-jet-like speeds into a nearby canyon while hugging the low-lying terrain and executing fluid turns.
The craft didn’t make any of the sounds associated with a fighter jet, however, such as roaring engines or whooshes as it flew through the air. Nor did it display any apparent exhaust plumes or other emissions expected from powered flight. It did show up on an agent’s handheld infrared monocular, however, with a uniform thermal signature across the entire body. According to the report, optical views through binoculars revealed “no propulsive apertures, rotating elements, rivets, panels, windows, canopy, cabin structures, and no protrusions or structural features” on the UAP.
Previous releases have been greeted with skepticism by researchers, who have said that much of what’s been included in those releases was previously seen or had context omitted. But Harvard University professor Avi Loeb, who heads the U.S. government’s UAP Science Advisory Council, said in a blog post that the agents’ newly released story raises questions that could be vital to national defense.
“The fundamental question is whether the triangular object was manufactured in a black project of an adversarial nation or an extraterrestrial project with off-world technology,” he wrote, adding that his current goal for the advisory council is to deploy new sensors in the areas where the UAP were observed.
“As we get higher quality data, we will be able to identify the nature of these mysterious objects,” he wrote. “In collecting better clues, we will either help the Pentagon and the Intelligence Community fulfil their mission of protecting the U.S. from adversaries or discover technology of non-human origin. Investing in the related research is a win-win proposition.”
Friday’s release also included several other witness accounts. Among them was a 1957 Air Force report on an incident involving a B-52 bomber making radar contact with a UAP for five to seven minutes over Saudi Arabia and a 1955 report in which a civilian in California recounted seeing a “very bright and orange” object falling straight down.
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