Watch Again: UFO Sightings Aired At Congressional Hearing

WASHINGTON, DC — A House intelligence subcommittee heard testimony Tuesday on unidentified aerial phenomena — commonly called UFOs or unidentified flying objects — and the findings in a 2021 report on whether 144 documented sightings of erratically flying aircraft indicated alien life or a national security threat.

Watch the two-hour hearing by the Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence and Counterproliferation Subcommittee on Patch or on House Intelligence Committee’s YouTube channel.

Members of the subcommittee questioned two Pentagon experts on what they know about UFO sightings, as well other findings in last year’s report. Most investigators concluded the mysterious objects “probably do represent physical objects” but found “no clear indications” that they’re linked to alien life.

Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security Ronald Moultrie and Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence Scott Bray took questions during the hearing, Livescience reported.

It was the first public hearing on UFOs in 50 years, Indiana Congressman Andre Carson tweeted. Carson, a Democrat who chairs the subcommittee, said that “Americans need to know more about these unexplained occurrences” and whether they pose a national security risk.

In the report last year, the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group said at least 18 of the 144 sightings involved unusual flight patterns in which the mysterious objects appeared to “remain stationary in winds aloft, move against the wind, maneuver abruptly or move at considerable speed, without discernible means of propulsion.”

Once dismissed as science fiction by so-called ufologists, UFOs have now drawn serious studies by both defense and intelligence agencies amid pilots’ reports of encounters with aircraft flying at mysterious speeds and trajectories. Many were reported in a series of bombshell reports published in 2017 by Politico and The New York Times on the Pentagon’s secret UFO research program, a $22 million, multi-year effort to investigate UAP.

The craft that were analyzed during the five years of the program were vastly superior to anything in the U.S. or foreign militaries, the reports said. The five-year program was initiated in 2007 at the request of former Nevada Democratic Sen. Harry Reid, at the time the Senate majority leader, who slipped it in as an earmark. The program was dismantled around 2012.

In their report to Congress last year, investigators said more analysis and data are needed to determine if the sightings represented any “breakthrough” spy technology used by U.S. adversaries — a prospect that alarmed members of both political parties.

Former Navy pilot Ryan Graves told “60 Minutes” correspondent Bill Whitaker that pilots speculate on whether the unusual aircraft they're encountering represent secret U.S. technology, an adversary's spy vehicle or something otherworldly.

Of those, he said, "the highest probability is it's a threat observation program," possibly using Russian or Chinese technology.

“I am worried, frankly,” he told Whitaker in the “60 Minutes” interview. "You know, if these were tactical jets from another country that were hangin' out up there, it would be a massive issue.

“But because it looks slightly different, we're not willing to actually look at the problem in the face. We're happy to just ignore the fact that these are out there, watching us every day."

The Pentagon has walked back decades of public denial about the existence of the mysterious sightings in the sky, but investigators’ report last summer didn’t shed much light on pilots' sightings.

In interviews, retired Naval Cmdr. David Fravor has described an oblong aircraft flying erratically through his airspace at an incredible speed, defying accepted principles of aerodynamics. He has described the UAP as other-wordly.

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“I can tell you, I think it was not from this world,” Fravor told ABC News in 2017. “I'm not crazy, haven't been drinking. It was — after 18 years of flying, I've seen pretty much about everything that I can see in that realm, and this was nothing close.”

Wingless, it was approximately 40 feet long, shaped like a Tic Tac, about the size of of his F/A-18F fighter jet and mimicked its moves. Fravor told Whitaker in the “60 Minutes” interview that he wanted to get closer to the craft as it continued to gain altitude, "and when it gets right in front of me, it just disappears."

Tuesday’s hearing comes five months after the National Defense Authorization Act required the Pentagon to permanently establish a federal office to address UAP.

Related

• What Government Learned About UFOs And Alien Spacecraft
• ‘60 Minutes’ Sheds Light On UFO Sightings, Government Response
• Long-Awaited UFO Report Contains Few Answers; More Data Needed
• UFOs Are Real, Retired Navy Commander Suggests Of Weird Aircraft

The Associated Press contributed reporting.