On November 13th, 2024, the United States Committee on Oversight and Accountability held a hearing to discuss the reports of UFO sightings from the last year. When leaders of the hearing called for more transparency about the government’s knowledge of UFOs, Dr. Jon T. Kosloski, head of the AARO (All-Domain Abnormality Resolution Office) disclosed that of the 757 reports issued in between May of 2023 and June of 2024, 21 were unexplainable.
UFOs (unidentified flying objects), formally known as UAP (Unidentifiable Anomalous Phenomena), have puzzled The United States for decades. The first report of a UAP was issued in 1947 when a man named Kenneth Arnold claimed to have seen nine objects traveling at high speeds while flying his small plane somewhere around Mount Rainier in Washington state. After the initial sighting, over 800 more reports were issued before 1948. With the introduction of UFOs’ well timed proximity to the space race (which began in 1957), aerial activity became a major interest for Americans.
The same year as Arnold’s first UFO sighting, The United States Air Force began to investigate UAP. In 1952, they started a study under the code name “Project Blue Book” which received over 16,000 reports and lasted until 1969. A series of smaller investigations were held between the termination of Project Blue Book and the formation of the AARO, but no evidence of extraterrestrial life was ever discovered.
The AARO was launched in July of 2022 to investigate reports of UAP. The office branches off of the U.S. Department of Defense and is composed of the country’s leading experts in UAP. During its short existence, the AARO has received over 1650 UAP reports,however, there is still no evidence that proves the existence of extraterrestrial beings or technology.
During the November 13th hearing, the AARO discussed the UAP reports from the last year. Only 118 of the reported cases had verified causes, and around 50 of those were determined to have been everyday objects (birds, balloons, etc.). An additional 444 reports were filed under archive, due to a lack of information about the event.
Kosloski described 21 of the total reports as “true anomalies”, and went so far as to say that they are “interesting cases that I – my physics and engineering background, and time in the I.C. [intelligence community] – I do not understand, and I don’t know anybody else who understands them either”. Former intelligence officer, Luis Elizondo, said at one point during the hearing, “Let me be clear: UAP are real”.
Interestingly, all of the inexplicable reports of UAP that were issued to the AARO originated from both commercial and military pilots, occurring at high altitude, near national security sites. Despite being seen at estimated altitudes of 62 miles (upwards of 50 miles higher than commercial planes usually fly), there was video evidence, multiple eyewitness accounts, and/or sensor detections for every situation (although none of this provided any critical evidence about the UAP).
After almost 80 years of UAP investigations, these 21 cases could prove to be the first real incidents of extraterrestrial activity in history.
