Navy pilots have definitely seen some weird things they can’t explain according to the US government, but as of right now no one can definitively say those things are aliens. You know, yet.
One of the many extremely weird stories from the Trump presidency was some very strange talk about unidentified flying objects that US Navy pilots had observed in recent years. It all got buried under the constant barrage of controversies and an eventual insurrection attempt, but it was minor news when foreign officials said that Trump knew about aliens and just wasn’t tweeting it out like he did about everything else. But according to a new report, the US government still isn’t ready to declare they’ve discovered aliens hanging out on earth just yet.
As the New York Times details, more than 100 incidents over the last 20 years of strange reports from Navy pilots definitely did not feature American military craft. But beyond that, well, no one really knows what pilots are seeing so no one can officially call them aliens.
The report determines that a vast majority of more than 120 incidents over the past two decades did not originate from any American military or other advanced U.S. government technology, the officials said. That determination would appear to eliminate the possibility that Navy pilots who reported seeing unexplained aircraft might have encountered programs the government meant to keep secret.
But that is about the only conclusive finding in the classified intelligence report, the officials said. And while a forthcoming unclassified version, expected to be released to Congress by June 25, will present few other firm conclusions, senior officials briefed on the intelligence conceded that the very ambiguity of the findings meant the government could not definitively rule out theories that the phenomena observed by military pilots might be alien spacecraft.
The Times report has many more details about the actual incidents, as well as what some speculate they might be. Is it China or Russia experimenting with hypersonic travel? Spy missions with tech we’ve never seen? Or little green men? Well, we still don’t know. Or at least that’s what Uncle Sam would like you to believe. Because right now, the official word is essentially an acknowledgement that it’s all very weird, but could be just about anything but known American tech.
The report concedes that much about the observed phenomena remains difficult to explain, including their acceleration, as well as ability to change direction and submerge. One possible explanation — that the phenomena could be weather balloons or other research balloons — does not hold up in all cases, the officials said, because of changes in wind speed at the times of some of the interactions.
Some added interest in the sightings accumulated in recent weeks, as reports about the phenomena were actually addressed by former president Barack Obama during an interview with James Corden.
“There is footage and records of objects in the skies that we don’t know exactly what they are,” last month, stopping short of saying “dem aliens” exist but admitting there is official reporting about some odd stuff no one seems to understand. The new Times report about the government findings doesn’t change things all that much, but it’s also not the smoking gun on alien activity many were hoping it to be.
[via NY Times]