You're reading: NPR: How UFO sightings went from conspiracy theory to a serious government inquiry

NPR: How UFO sightings went from conspiracy theory to a serious government inquiry

By NPR.

Published June 5, 2021 at 1:31 am

This video grab image obtained April 28, 2020 courtesy of the US Department of Defense shows part of an unclassified video taken by Navy pilots that have circulated for years showing interactions with "unidentified aerial phenomena". The Pentagon has officially released three videos taken by US Navy pilots showing mid-air encounters with what appear to be UFOs. The grainy black and white footage had previously been leaked and the Navy had acknowledged they were Navy videos. The Department of Defense said April 27, 2020 it was "releasing the videos in order to clear up any misconceptions by the public on whether or not the footage that has been circulating was real, or whether or not there is more to the videos."

Photo by AFP

Are we alone? Have alien spacecraft been buzzing across Earth’s skies? Those are the questions being asked in the U.S. government’s new report on unexplained aerial phenomena — its preferred term for what many of us call unidentified flying objects, or UFOs.