Interim Director Aerial Phenomenon Investigations

14-020-CE4 (Unknown)

Remain Anonymous: No

Field Investigation Requested: Yes

Date of Sighting: Unknown

Time of Sighting: Varied

Duration of Event: Unknown

Location of UFO: Unknown

Shape of Object: Other

UFO Report: Witness contacted API regarding an alleged alien abduction.

Evidence Submitted: None

Case Disposition: Assigned

14-018-AN1 (Vernon, New Jersey)

Remain Anonymous: No

Field Investigation Requested: Yes

Date of Sighting: 01/27/2014

Time of Sighting: 9:25 pm EST

Duration of Event: 3-4 minutes

Location of UFO: Vernon New Jersey

Shape of Object: Orb

UFO Report: I was driving home from Matamoras PA coming over Highpoint Mountain on route 23 when I got the crest of the mountain you can look out and see the valley and then the mountains and ski slopes in Vernon on the other side. High above the ski slopes was a big orange/reddish ball that just hovered there. There was no movement which made me believe it was a light at the ski slopes. Then I realized it was way too large and way too high in the sky to be a light from the ski slopes. I kept watching it as I drove down the mountain and it still didn’t move and it appeared to get bigger. I also realized that it it was an airplane or helicopter because it didn’t have traditional running lights plus it was much larger. I decided to try to get a photo of it but needed to fins a safe place to pull off the road. When I finally parked and tried to get a photo, my iPhone could not get a focus on it because the sky was too dark. All of a sudden the light just disappeared but it never moved. There was no movement at all it just disappeared as if someone just turned the lights off. I can’t say it is extraterrestrial at all, the only thing I can say is that it was a strange light that I just can’t explain.  I’m just curious as to if anyone else saw it and may have a logical answer for it.

Evidence Submitted: None

Case Disposition: Information Only

14-017-FB1 (New York, NY)

Untitled

Remain Anonymous: No

Field Investigation Requested: Yes

Date of Sighting: Unknown

Time of Sighting: Unknown

Duration of Event: Unknown

Location of UFO: New York, NY

Shape of Object: Strange Craft

UFO Report: Strange aircraft from the my 52nd floor apartment facing the Hudson River in NYC it’s shape was unlike a helicopter or airplane  which is what drew my attention. it was traveling in a normal horizontal path. Not sure if it was coincidental or related but an F-15 or F/16 appeared about a minute after.

Evidence Submitted: 2 photos

Case Disposition: Likely Misidentified Osprey Aircraft
The Witness photographed an unusual aircraft flying over NYC, followed by a jet close behind.  Subsequent research lead Investigator to determine the object matched closely the length and appearance of a V-22 Osprey aircraft.

14-016-FB1 (Sedro-Woolley, WA)

254

Remain Anonymous: No

Field Investigation Requested: Yes

Date of Sighting: Unknown

Time of Sighting: Unknown

Duration of Event: Unknown

Location of UFO: Unknown

Shape of Object: Lights

UFO Report: Witness sent API several photos regarding strange lights in the sky.

Evidence Submitted: 3 photos

Case Disposition:  Known Celestial Object
The Witness’s husband in this case supplied footage of first, a waning Gibbous moon out of focus, and then Venus as video evidence of the object they have been seeing around their area for some months now. Although they MAY have actually been seeing a genuine anomalous object, no evidence of this was submitted.  What evidence WAS
submitted was clearly known celestial objects.

14-015-FB1 (Spain)

Remain Anonymous: No

Field Investigation Requested: Yes

Date of Sighting: 25/1/2014 

Time of Sighting: 0:10

Duration of Event: 90 seconds

Location of UFO: Mairena del Aljarafe, Seville, Spain. In a nearby road from Almensilla to Palomares.

Shape of Object: Cigar

UFO Report: I was driving to find the way out from Mairena del Aljarafe, in Seville. I was lost in a road inside the town but near to a forest. I was in an upside road and spotted a horizontally little cigar, with a green light in the left side and a red light in the right side. The red light was always lighting and the green light switched off every time the object moved.  When I spotted it, it was completely static in the silent sky. I stopped my car and switched off the motor trying to hear the sound of the object, but was completely silent. Sometimes it moved to right or left, and when it occurred the green light dissappears. The movement of the object was uniformly accelerated and the deceleration occurs just in the middle of the movement to finally stop again perfectly in the sky. I wasn’t affraid and inside of me I was desiring to contact in first person with the ship. 90 seconds before the sighting the object went slowly down to the ground only with the red light lighting and when it wasn’t visible a car appeared in the other side of the road. I tried to find it again but it wasn’t possible. The ship wasn’t there. I think no one spotted it, just me.

Evidence Submitted: None

Case Disposition: Information Only

A Convergence of Paranoia, Lens Flares, and Pareidolia

cbfddb5a3b39c8b16faa2180647c0b08

Overall, this year’s MUFON conferences in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia were well organized and better than expected. John Ventre, who is the MUFON State Director for Pennsylvania, invited a wide-range of speakers who managed to successfully entertained both ends of the UFO cult spectrum: believers to skeptics. In the end, there is not much I can report about the conferences other than they were well organized, and more importantly, they were not inundated with the new-age claptrap that have swamped most UFO conference for 2013 (i.e., pseudo-psychics, closed-room forums for abductees, and, or course, alleged TOP SECRET UFO programs leaked at deathbed confessions).

Nevertheless, during these conferences, I did notice several issues that continue to swamp Ufology: Paranoia, lens flares, and pareidolia:

Paranoia: Several of alleged “contactees and abductees” I spoke with claimed they were victims of US government surveillance, harassment, and illegal wiretapping. One alleged contactee claimed he was recently approached by a “black” branch of the National Security Agency in an effort to prepare him, the contactee, for the upcoming  gradual release of the top secret exchange program between Serpo, a planet of Zeta Reticuli, and extraterrestrials. Obviously, as former intelligence officer myself, I asked the contactee to elaborate more regarding this meeting with the NSA and he stressed that the NSA threatened him not to disclose the details about the  meeting because we, the population, “we not ready”. After spending over 20 years in the intelligence community, and working on several projects with the NSA myself, I am pretty certain that the NSA has no “black” branch focusing on extraterrestrial activities. The NSA, for the most part, has a Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) and Cyber Security mission in support of national security. Additionally, I spoke with other alleged abductees who claimed the Federal Bureau of Investigation harassed them regarding their alien abductions and that the FBI recently “framed” them on various bogus indictments (non-ET related). Of course, neither of these “victims of US Government harassment” could provide proof to substantiate their claims.

MIB Image courtesy of redicecreations.com

MIB Image courtesy of redicecreations.com

Pareidolia and Lens Flares: Additionally, during both conferences, I was approached by at least 20 different attendees who claimed to have 100% physical proof of UFOs (I want to point out that yes the photos were nonetheless UFOs to each of these attendees). After careful examination, however, I concluded all of the photos were nothing more than a combination of lens flares, pareidolia and natural phenomena. It is in the best interest of upcoming UFO conferences, therefore, that a type of “photo analysis booth” is set up in an effort to review photos of alleged UFOs and, more importantly, to educate the attendees regarding their photos.

Iron Jesus

What is a Report of Investigation?

What is a Report of Investigation?

The ROI is a document that is meant to provide all the information on a case that we are able find, and checklist indicating what avenues of investigation we explored (or did not explore). The strongest hypotheses for explanation of the sighting are enumerated and their strengths and weaknesses discussed. For researchers, the ROI is the best source for data about each case.

Here is an example of an ROI for case: 13-093-1

Why aren’t all ROIs available on the API website?

Before 2018, in an effort to save space on the server, we did not publish ROIs on the API website. However, we now publish .pdf files of ROIs after they have been redacted of witness personal information. ROIs from before 2018 may be also be published for the more interesting cases.

Are ROIs provided upon request?

Yes! All ROIs, when the investigation is complete, are available upon request. We note, however, that witness personal information is not provided. If you are a responsible investigator with whom we have a written agreement on investigational ethics,  and you wish to interview the witness, we will, in most circumstance, ask their permission to pass the full ROI on to you.

14-014-AN1 (Philippines)

image2

Remain Anonymous: No

Field Investigation Requested: Yes

Date of Sighting: 18/01/14

Time of Sighting: 9:10 pm

Duration of Event: 20 seconds

Location of UFO: Makati city, Philippines

Shape of Object: Bullet, Fireball, Orb, Star-like

UFO Report: i believe that there is an Alien and UFO every night i look at the sky to see if there is something strange and in the time i look the sky i saw a bullet or a starlike object. the object is not moving in his position. suddenly the object is gradually vanishing… i tried to get a camera or ipad to capture the object but i dont want to lose in my sight… i capture my map in google earth.

Evidence Submitted: Rendering

Disposition: Information Only

14-011-FB1 (Ohio)

Remain Anonymous: Yes

Field Investigation Requested: No

Date of Sighting: 05/21/2012

Time of Sighting: 340 PM

Duration of Event: 2min. approx.

Location of UFO: Warren,Ohio Trumbul County

Shape of Object: Cigar

UFO Report: I was watching a passenger jet flying from the NE going SW. Then I saw the front of what appeared to another jet flying on a intercept course, at the time I could only make out the front of the craft. Thought they were going to collide. I blinked because I didn’t want to see the planes collide. When I looked again the is was not a plane, a very long cigar shape ufo. The passenger jet did not change his flight path at any time while I was watching. The ufo did not have any wings , no sound, no vapor trail. I could see wingtip to wingtip of the jet, the ufo is 3times bigger then the jet.By now I can see the hole thing. Metallic in appearance, as it flew off to the NW. I reported to MUFON on 5/23/2012 Day after report to MUFON. I watched a Lear Jet fly from the south very low in sky very loud whining noise to these jets. Flew over house and turned to the NW same flight path as the ufo, within the hour 4 black attack helicopters flying from the west, turned NW same flight path as ufo. I could see no marking on helicopters and they were flying very low. Later that evening after dark. I watched another large military black jet coming from the south, he went afterburners over my house. very loud wings were sweeping back could see the flames coming out of the 2 jet engines of the jet. Flew the same flight path as the ufo. To this day I cannot find the military jet that I saw. Squared back 2 jet engines. Unknown if it is a fighter or interceptor.

Evidence Submitted: None

Disposition: Information Only

14-010-AN1 (Puerto Rico)

image

Remain Anonymous: Yes

Field Investigation Requested: No

Date of Sighting: Saturday December 2013

Time of Sighting: 4:20am

Duration of Event: 2 minutes

Location of UFO: Dorado, Puerto Rico

Shape of Object: Diamond

UFO Report: Only rendering provided.

Evidence Submitted: Sketch

Disposition: Witness did not request investigation.