Navy pilots' close encounters

In April 2014, four naval aviators narrowly escaped disaster. Just as they entered highly controlled airspace for a training exercise, their two F/A-18F fighter jets nearly collided with an unidentified flying object (UFO). To the frustration of dozens of their fellow aviators, such a near-catastrophe was inevitable.

For months before and after the incident, aircrews flying in “exclusive use” training areas off the U.S. East Coast frequently observed unknown objects exhibiting highly anomalous flight characteristics. Despite the collision hazard posed by the UFOs, aviators lacked a formal mechanism to report the mysterious objects.

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Despite the frequency of the encounters and the severity of the hazard, it took the Navy five years to adopt a formal UFO reporting structure. The first batch of these reports, heavily redacted and spanning only a few months in 2019, makes clear that the U.S. government faces a significant challenge.

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As the reports make clear, aviators are eager for answers regarding their UFO encounters. Requests and queries such as “please respond [via classified] email,” “any questions, please ask,” “responses to working [classified email] please” and “will their [sic] be another [Office of Naval Intelligence] brief before [we] deploy?” punctuate many of the reports.

According to [former Navy fighter pilot Ryan] Graves, “I see [aviators] searching and looking for help – looking for answers – and I see them getting nothing back.” “I guarantee they’re angry that this is interfering with their job… people seem exasperated,” he continued.

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For his part, Graves remains puzzled about the strange objects that he and his fellow aviators observed hovering in place – irrespective of wind – or flying at several hundred miles per hour for remarkably long periods of time.

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A few years after the 2014 incident, a test pilot flying in a nearby area told Graves of an encounter with such an object. According to Graves, a cube-in-a-sphere UFO was “just riding along with him,” about 30 feet from the aircraft, before it “zipped off.”

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Ultimately, Graves is committed to scientific investigation of the mysterious objects that he and dozens of his fellow aviators observed in recent years. To that end, he is spearheading an effort to gather scientists, engineers and aerospace experts associated with the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) to analyze the UFO problem.

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Importantly, as Graves notes, “the [Department of Defense] isn’t aligned around scientific discovery. They have their plate full with the responsibility of defending our country.”

“Let’s relieve that burden from them. Let’s carefully reconsider our classification processes, let’s enable a process to move [UFO]-related data through a review and declassification process that is governed by an oversight committee with DoD, academic, industry and civilian constituents,” he said.

  The Hill

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.