The Navy now confirms that, yes, military pilots did see strange objects flying fast and high, as shown in three videos from years ago.
So they’re real, but what are they?
Not UFOs (Unidentified Flying Objects), but UAPs: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena. Which explains exactly nothing.
While many people think “UFO” means “flying saucer” or “alien spacecraft,” it does not. No one actually knows what they are, which is why both the older term and the newer one begin with U — for Unidentified.
In other words, they’re nothing more, or less, than a tantalizing mystery.
In an emailed statement sent to NBC News, Navy spokesman Joseph Gradisher wrote: “The three videos (one from 2004 and two from 2015) show incursions into our military training ranges by unidentified aerial phenomena.”
For emphasis, Gradisher added that the Navy “has characterized the observed phenomena as unidentified.” He confirmed that the videos “are copies of official Navy footage taken by Naval personnel conducting training missions in controlled military airspace.”
The three videos, including exclamations by apparently bewildered pilots, have been available for years. But they provoked new controversy when they were posted on line by To the Stars Academy of Arts and Sciences, a group by rock singer Tom DeLonge focused on UFOs and presumed alien life, and by the New York Times, in 2017 and 2018. The Times also reported that for several years the Pentagon ran a program to study the mysterious sighting.
“The website The Black Vault last week first reported the Navy’s ‘unidentified aerial phenomena’ designation and said the three videos are commonly known as ‘FLIR1,’ ‘Gimbal’ and ‘GoFast,’” says NBC.
Gradisher, the Navy spokesman, did not use those names but said the video from 2004 was captured by a jet from the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz, and was “widely shared” aboard the ship, which has a crew of about 5,000.
That video — FLIR1 — shows an oblong object that accelerates rapidly from view.
The Gimbal video shows an object notable because it was flying against the wind; one voice says it appeared to be a drone while another says, “look at that thing!”
The GoFast video shows an object flying over water, as pilots wonder aloud what it could be.
And the rest of us are left to wonder exactly the same thing. Here’s the CNN take:
