Did the FAA investigate the O'Hare UFO sighting?

No. The FAA logged no radar return for the object and declined to open a formal investigation, attributing the reports to a weather phenomenon without specifying one. The incident only became public after journalist Jon Hilkevitch obtained FAA air traffic control audio through a FOIA request.

Was there any photo or video evidence from the O'Hare sighting?

No usable photograph or video was ever produced from the incident, despite the presence of multiple witnesses on an active airport tarmac. The absence of visual documentation is one of the case's significant limitations, alongside the FAA's lack of a radar return.

The O'Hare Airport Sighting

Gate C17, Chicago O'Hare International Airport. November 7, 2006, mid-afternoon. A dark, silent disc hovered below the cloud deck for several minutes, then shot straight up and — according to multiple witnesses — punched a clean hole through the overcast on its way out.

The witnesses were not random passersby. They were United Airlines ramp workers, mechanics, and pilots. Around a dozen of them, standing on the tarmac, watching the same object over the same gate. None of them had a camera that produced a usable image. All of them, by later accounts, were shaken enough to file reports with their employer.

What happened

The sighting lasted roughly five minutes, somewhere between 4:15 and 4:30 PM local time. The object was described as a dark, metallic-looking disc, perhaps 6 to 24 feet in diameter depending on the witness, hovering silently below a 1,900-foot overcast. No sound. No navigation lights. No movement until it moved — and when it did, it went straight up at speed.

The cloud hole it allegedly left behind was real enough that multiple witnesses independently described it. Whether the hole was caused by the object's departure or was a pre-existing atmospheric feature is one of the things nobody resolved.

United Airlines initially denied the incident. The story broke publicly only after journalist Jon Hilkevitch filed a Freedom of Information Act request for FAA air traffic control audio — a request that cost him $14.95 — and the Chicago Tribune published his report on January 1, 2007. The story became one of the most-read pieces the Tribune ran that year.

The evidence

The FAA logged no radar return for the object. Air traffic controllers in the tower reported no visual observation. The agency declined to open a formal investigation, attributing the reports to a weather phenomenon — specifically without elaborating on what weather phenomenon would hover silently over a specific gate for five minutes and then accelerate upward.

The FAA FOIA documents archived by The Black Vault include the ATC audio that Hilkevitch's request surfaced. The audio confirms that the event was discussed by airport personnel in real time. The FAA's position — no radar, no investigation — remained unchanged after the documents became public.

In May 2007, NARCAP (the National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena) published Technical Report 10, a 128-page analysis by Richard Haines and colleagues. NARCAP's conclusion: a physical object was likely present, the radar non-detection was itself anomalous and worth investigating as an aviation safety issue, and the case warranted formal inquiry. NARCAP is careful not to claim the object's ultimate nature — their lane is aviation safety, not identification — but the report is detailed, methodical, and not dismissive.

Mark Hammergren, an astronomer at the Adler Planetarium, offered a prosaic read: the cloud hole was consistent with a fallstreak hole, a known meteorological phenomenon sometimes called a hole-punch cloud. That's a reasonable atmospheric explanation for the hole. It doesn't account for the hovering disc that witnesses watched for several minutes before the hole appeared.

Who witnessed the O'Hare UFO sighting in 2006?

Around a dozen United Airlines employees witnessed the event, including ramp workers, mechanics, and pilots stationed near Gate C17. They were trained aviation professionals observing the object in daylight at close range, which is part of why the case drew serious attention from aviation safety researchers.

What did the NARCAP report conclude about the O'Hare sighting?

NARCAP's 128-page Technical Report 10, published in May 2007, concluded that a physical object was likely present and that the radar non-detection was anomalous enough to warrant formal investigation as an aviation safety concern. The report stopped short of identifying the object's nature — NARCAP's focus is aviation safety, not UAP identification.

Was the cloud hole at O'Hare explained?

Astronomer Mark Hammergren suggested the hole in the overcast was consistent with a fallstreak hole, a known meteorological phenomenon caused by ice crystals falling from a cloud layer. NARCAP's investigators noted that this explanation addresses the cloud hole but does not account for witnesses observing a discrete hovering object before the hole appeared.

How did the O'Hare UFO story become public?

Chicago Tribune reporter Jon Hilkevitch filed a Freedom of Information Act request for FAA air traffic control audio related to the incident — a request that cost him $14.95. His report, published January 1, 2007, became one of the Tribune's most-read pieces that year and forced United Airlines to acknowledge the event after initially denying it.

The O'Hare Airport Sighting

What happened

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