UAP cases in The Catalog

PLATE Nº 01UAPSp. anomalum aerium

Audubon-style specimen plate of canonical UAP silhouettes: saucer, triangle, Tic Tac, boomerang

701 cases the U.S. Air Force could not explain.

The Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon is the iconic American anomaly. Project Blue Book ran from 1952 to 1969 and catalogued 12,618 sightings. The Air Force closed 11,917 of them. The remaining 701 — almost six percent of the total — were officially marked unexplained and have never been re-opened. The 2026 PURSUE release added more declassified cases. Decades later, the official catalog still has a column titled 'Unidentified.'

701 of 12,618

Project Blue Book cases left officially unexplained

11,917 explained; 701 unexplained; 0 reopened.

U.S. National Archives — Project Blue Book Index — National Archivesretrieved 2026-05-24

Open the full plate in the Field Guide ↗

Nº 0027Class IIOpen
Star sighting in Giethoorn, Overijssel
It was a nice night tour when all off a sudden a big bang was heard and a tiny gray star looking thing came blasting low over the water
2026-05-10
Nº 0026Class IIOpen
Chevron sighting in London, England
The shape looked similar to a normal car shape that we would think of. Main body was black and was lighting bright with yellow glare.
2026-05-10
Nº 0025Class IIOpen
Orb sighting in Fence Lake, NM
Objects appeared in 2 separate photographs of a total of 7 shot
2026-05-07
Nº 0024Class IIOpen
Triangle sighting in Qualicum Beach, BC
A witness on Vancouver Island watched a large, white, self-luminous triangle hang low over Qualicum Beach on May 5, 2026 — not drifting, not strobing, just there.
2026-05-05
Nº 0023Class IIOpen
Rectangle sighting in Tabor City, NC
Immediately after starlink train passed I saw a square shaped light moving erratically
2026-05-03
Nº 0022Class IIOpen
Sphere sighting in Reno, NV
Silver circular/spherical object flying east to west in sky IVO Reno airport. Object then began rising until it disappeared from sight.
2026-04-29
Nº 0021Class IIOpen
Disk sighting in Waterford, PA
Saucer shaped, silver. Aware of being perceived, carpenter bee like moving when perceived
2026-04-21
Nº 0020Class IIOpen
Sphere sighting in Aurora, CO
During the Artemis Earth return on April 10, 2026, a witness near Buckley Space Force Base reported a small spherical object passing close to the capsule — no official explanation on file.
2026-04-10
Nº 0019Class IIOpen
Disk sighting in Hillsboro, IN
We were driving eastbound. When we looked north, we saw flashing lights so we stopped and then we caught it on video
2026-01-13
Nº 0018Class IIOpen
Other sighting in Chelmsford, MA
A witness in suburban Boston watched a formation of objects cross the sky alongside a separate flashing orb — same minute, same patch of sky, no obvious connection.
2023-05-09
Nº 0017Class IIOpen
Orb sighting in Limerick, County Limerick
White sphere of light, silent size of small bowling ball, just moving across my back wall very slow
2018-03-03
Nº 0016Class IIOpen
The GIMBAL Video
In January 2015, an F/A-18's infrared camera caught a wingless oval object off the U.S. East Coast that appeared to slow, hover, and rotate in mid-air. The New York Times leaked the footage in 2017; the Pentagon confirmed it was real in 2020 — and still calls the object unidentified. Whether it shows a craft or a camera artifact is genuinely argued over.
2015-01
Nº 0015Class IIOpen
The GoFast Video
A 2015 Navy infrared clip shows an object screaming low across the ocean — the crew can be heard losing it. GoFast became one of the most-shared UAP videos on Earth. Then the math caught up: a prominent skeptic and the Pentagon's own UAP office both concluded the breakneck speed is an illusion of parallax. The object is slow, and far higher than it looks.
2015-01
Nº 0014Class IIOpen
Circle sighting in Kingsville, MD
Saw a silver orb while driving that was moving unnaturally, I immediately pulled out my phone a took a photo of it.
2013-07-30
Nº 0013Class IIOpen
The Aguadilla Incident
On April 25, 2013, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection aircraft filmed a thermal-infrared sequence near Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, of a small object that appeared to fly low and fast, split in two, and dip toward the ocean. The Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies called it genuinely anomalous, while skeptics — and a 2025 Pentagon AARO report — argue it shows wind-drifting sky lanterns, with the 'speed' a parallax illusion and the 'water entry' a thermal-imaging artifact.
2013-04-25
Nº 0012Class IIOpen
The Stephenville Sightings
In January 2008, dozens of residents around Stephenville, Texas — including a pilot and a constable — reported a huge, silent, fast-moving object with brilliant lights, some claiming jets gave chase. The Air Force first denied any aircraft were present, then confirmed ten F-16s were training nearby. A MUFON analysis of FAA radar reported an unidentified non-transponder track, while skeptics attribute the whole episode to jets and high-intensity flares.
2008-01-08
Nº 0011Class IIOpen
The O'Hare Airport Sighting
On November 7, 2006, around a dozen United Airlines employees at Chicago O'Hare — ramp workers, mechanics, pilots — watched a silent dark disc hover below the clouds over Gate C17, then shoot straight up and reportedly punch a hole in the overcast. The FAA logged no radar return and declined to investigate, calling it a weather phenomenon. The independent group NARCAP later published a 128-page study. No photo was ever produced.
2006-11-07
Nº 0010Class IIOpen
USS Nimitz Encounter
Over two weeks in November 2004, U.S. Navy radar tracked an unidentified object off the California coast that maneuvered in ways no known aircraft could match. The pilot who saw it up close has been on the record ever since.
2004-11
Nº 0009Class IIOpen
Phoenix Lights
On the evening of March 13, 1997, thousands of witnesses across Arizona — including Senator John McCain and Governor Fife Symington — reported a massive silent V-shaped craft passing slowly over Phoenix, followed several hours later by a row of stationary lights over the same metro area. The Air Force attributed the row of lights to A-10 flares; the triangular craft was never officially explained.
1997-03-13
Nº 0008Class IIOpen
The Belgian UFO Wave
Between November 1989 and April 1990, more than 13,500 people in Belgium reported the same thing — a large, silent, triangular craft moving slowly at low altitude with bright lights at each corner. The Belgian Air Force scrambled F-16s on March 30/31, 1990; one pilot got a brief radar lock. The Belgian Defence Ministry took the reports seriously on the record, and SOBEPS compiled a casebook that remains one of the best-documented mass-sighting archives in the world.
1989-11-29
Nº 0007Class IIOpen
Light sighting in Veracruz, Veracruz
Light was coming toward us, then stopped, then zigzaged extremely fast side to side then shot straight up into the sky till it disappea
1986-02-01
Nº 0006Class IIOpen
Rendlesham Forest
Across three nights in late December 1980, U.S. Air Force personnel at the twin RAF bases at Bentwaters and Woodbridge in Suffolk, England reported encounters with unidentified lights — and, on the first night, what some witnesses described as a small craft on the forest floor. Deputy Base Commander Lt. Col. Charles Halt's contemporaneous memo to the UK MoD and his audio recording from the second night remain the most-cited documentary evidence in the UAP archive.
1980-12-26
Nº 0005Class IIOpen
Disk sighting in Denver, CO
Hovering a UFO big as a football field, Silver, No wings, No sound, No windows
1978-05-11
Nº 0004Class IIOpen
The Kecksburg Incident
On December 9, 1965, a brilliant fireball crossed the skies over the eastern U.S. and Canada, and witnesses near Kecksburg, Pennsylvania reported an acorn-shaped metallic object in the woods — and a military cordon that hauled something away. The Army said it found nothing. Astronomers point to a meteor; the case, dubbed 'Pennsylvania's Roswell,' remains unresolved.
1965-12-09
Nº 0003Class IIOpen
Changing sighting in Berlin, PA
Half the size of full moon, sparkled looked like boiling water, then silver size of a star, then shot off east to west then disappeared
1962-05-19
Nº 0002Class IIOpen
The Green Fireballs of New Mexico
Between December 1948 and 1951, witnesses across northern New Mexico reported vivid green fireballs that moved too slow and too level for meteors. Lincoln LaPaz, head of UNM's Institute of Meteoritics, ruled out the natural-meteor explanation after more than a hundred interviews. A 1949 Los Alamos conference settled weakly on "probably of natural origin." Project Twinkle, set up to photograph one, never did. The case is still officially open.
1948-12-05
Nº 0001Class IIOpen
Kenneth Arnold's Flying Saucers
On June 24, 1947, a civilian pilot named Kenneth Arnold was searching for a downed Marine transport near Mount Rainier when he watched nine bright objects flash past the mountain at a speed he calculated at roughly 1,700 mph. The wire-service reporter he spoke with the next day garbled his description into a two-word phrase that defined the next eighty years of UFO discourse: flying saucers.
1947-06-24

Star sighting in Giethoorn, Overijssel

Chevron sighting in London, England

Orb sighting in Fence Lake, NM

Triangle sighting in Qualicum Beach, BC

Rectangle sighting in Tabor City, NC

Sphere sighting in Reno, NV

Disk sighting in Waterford, PA

Sphere sighting in Aurora, CO

Disk sighting in Hillsboro, IN

Other sighting in Chelmsford, MA

Orb sighting in Limerick, County Limerick

The GIMBAL Video

The GoFast Video

Circle sighting in Kingsville, MD

The Aguadilla Incident

The Stephenville Sightings

The O'Hare Airport Sighting

USS Nimitz Encounter

Phoenix Lights

The Belgian UFO Wave

Light sighting in Veracruz, Veracruz

Rendlesham Forest

Disk sighting in Denver, CO

The Kecksburg Incident

Changing sighting in Berlin, PA

The Green Fireballs of New Mexico

Kenneth Arnold's Flying Saucers