
That might have been the end of this particular story, just another informational dead end in the FBI files.

Each body was bandaged in a manner similar to the blackout suits used by speed fliers and test pilots.”Īfter relaying an informant’s claim that the saucers had been found because the government’s “high-powered radar” in the area had interfered with “the controlling mechanism of the saucers,” the memo ends simply by saying that “o further evaluation was attempted” concerning the matter by the FBI agent. Each one was occupied by three bodies of human shape but only three feet tall, dressed in metallic cloth of a very fine texture. “They were described as being circular in shape with raised centers, approximately 50 feet in diameter. It related a story told to one of our agents by a third party who said an Air Force investigator had reported that three “flying saucers” were recovered in New Mexico. The subject of the memo was anything but ordinary. Edgar Hoover and recorded and indexed in FBI records. Like all memos to FBI Headquarters at that time, it was addressed to Director J. (see sidebar below for a brief biography). It was authored by Guy Hottel, then head of our field office in Washington, D.C. The file in question is a memo dated March 22, 1950-63 years ago last week. Yet, it is only a single page, relaying an unconfirmed report that the FBI never even followed up on. Over the past two years, this file has been viewed nearly a million times. The Belgians reached out to the UK’s Ministry of Defence to investigate further, but once they determined that the incident was not a hostile or aggressive one, they stopped the investigation.It’s the most popular file in the FBI Vault-our high-tech electronic reading room housing various Bureau records released under the Freedom of Information Act. The Belgian Air Force had no logical explanation for the activity, but it acknowledged that an unknown activity had taken place in the air. Some 13,500 people are estimated to have witnessed the incident, making it one of the most widely experienced UFO sightings of the modern era. READ MORE: Why Mysterious Green Fireballs Worried the Government in 1948 But the UFOs moved so fast that the pilots ended up losing them. Two F-16 fighter jets were sent out to investigate the anomalies, and though the pilots could not see anything visually, they were able to lock onto their targets with radar. But beyond the visual sightings, no evidence was found of any UFO’s existence.Ī few months later, in March 1990, new sightings of multiple objects were reported, confirmed by two military ground radar stations.


And finally, as for the “alien missiles,” there was a meteor shower that night, which could easily account for the sightings.Īt the end of November 1989, citizens of Belgium reported seeing a large, triangular UFO hovering in the sky.

The first F-4, reports Dunning, was never turned in for maintenance following the incident, so there’s no official indication that its instrumentation failed. It also could explain the radar lock-it might simply have been a malfunction. Second, as author Brian Dunning notes in his podcast "Skeptiod," the second F-4 jet had a long history of electrical problems, meaning the instrumentation might have failed regardless of possible UFO interference. Air Force section chief Lieutenant Colonel Olin Mooy detailed the events of the night: There are explanations for nearly all of them.įirst, the bright light seen by civilians (and possibly the pilots) might have been Jupiter, which was visible in the sky that night. He safely returned to base, despite the faulty equipment.Īfter the incident, Iran contacted the United States to aid them in an investigation. But according to the pilot, the UFO released a glowing object-which the pilot assumed to be some sort of missile headed straight for him. As he prepared to fight back, the pilot experienced malfunctions with his instruments and he witnessed another bright object released from the UFO that headed straight toward the ground. A second F-4 took its place, and as it neared the unusual light, it achieved radar lock. The September 19, 1976, incident in Tehran, Iran, started much like many others, with phone calls from concerned citizens reporting a bright light in the sky.Īn F-4 fighter jet was sent out to investigate, but as it neared the object, its instruments blacked out, forcing the pilot to return to base.
