On a recent evening near a secure U.S. facility, three federal agents saw a flying object they couldn't identify: a large "matte black triangle" that moved as fast as a fighter jet, made no sound and then disappeared, according to FBI and Defense Department reports.
Why it matters: The 15-foot flying triangle is classified as a UFO-like "Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena" because the U.S. doesn't have the technology to make such a craft — and neither do its adversaries.
- The reports of the drone-like aircraft is of growing interest and concern to intelligence and military officials.
Driving the news: The two reports about the mysterious triangle were included in a batch of 10 documents released Friday by U.S. officials under President Trump's order this year to disclose UAP records from all government sources as soon as possible.
- Friday's disclosure marks the seventh release of a tranche of documents under the order.
- Some of the documents found in the National Archives are from the 1940s.
Zoom in: The flying triangle reports are the most intriguing because the incident — from this year — is so recent. The month and day are redacted. The FBI document is labeled an "Unidentified Aerial Object Observation Report" and the Defense Department's report on it is classified as a "Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena" report.
- The observers were federal agents, including two with "extensive operational experience" and familiarity with drones. One had a "thermal monocular" for infrared tracking and yet couldn't detect "discrete heat sources associated with propulsion" from an engine on the mysterious craft.
- The agents reported seeing the drone-like triangle, with a wingspan of about 15 feet, rise vertically for as many as 300 feet above a mountain ridgeline without tilting or swaying. It stopped, hovered for about 20 seconds, and then flew horizontally as fast as a fighter jet for about 1.5 miles in three seconds without making a sound before it vanished.
The intrigue: One of the documents released Friday doesn't concern a flying object. It's a declassified 2010 report about the Utah property known as the "Skinwalker Ranch," named after supernatural shapeshifting witches in Navajo culture.
- "Witnesses have reported unidentified balls of light at close range, daytime sightings of "dog-like" creatures running on two legs, unnatural animalistic howling/screaming, 'little people,' prehistoric-like birds and a maggot which measured about 8 feet long and 2- to 3-feet in diameter," the report said.
- The report's authors present no final conclusions or hard evidence, such as photographs, of the supernatural. DNA tests from one clump of hair from a suspected "Skinwalker" showed it came from a raccoon.
- The ranch is now the subject of a Netflix show.
Other items in the tranche include:
- A 1954 report from a Swedish Transair pilot who said he and his crew witnessed flying saucers: "Previously I have been extremely skeptical about all the stories of mysterious objects — called flying saucers — that have been seen at diverse points," the captain said. "Now I don't know exactly what to think; but it did seem to me that we had seen a robot of some kind."
- A 1957 report from a B-52 pilot over Saudi Arabia who said he witnessed an unidentified aircraft.
- 1949 and a 1952 UFO reports from California's Catalina Island, site of some of the nation's first "flying saucer" sightings.
- A 1963 interagency coordination memo and 1960s records concerning how NASA and the Defense Department would handle and publicly discuss the collection of "fragments or suspected fragments of space vehicles of all types."
Yes, but: The records released by the administration do not express any conclusions as to whether the government believes the UAPs represent the existence of alien life.
- They also don't indicate any conclusions as to whether UAPs represent a national security threat to the U.S.