As Congress Introduces New UAP Reporting Legislation for Pilots, FAA Reports Continue to Detail Flight Safety Incidents Posed by UAP
Several completely redacted FAA reports may also include incidents near military installations, echoing historical reports.
By Dustin Slaughter (@DustinSlaughter)
New Federal Aviation Administration documents obtained by the UAP Register detail dozens of anomalous aerial encounters reported by commercial and private aviators from November 2022 to December 2023. The reports underscore the importance and timeliness of proposed legislation in Congress that would help increase the reporting of such encounters. The legislation would also protect flight crews from employer retaliation for reporting incidents involving unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UFOs.
Three Flights Detect Anomalous Tracks on Radar
Early on the morning of February 14, 2023, Atlanta Air Traffic Control Center was notified by three commercial flights of targets detected by all three aircraft’s Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance Systems (TCAS). The targets that were detected by two Southwest Airlines pilots and one Spirit Airlines pilot were reported between the southeast and southwest arrival corridors of Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the largest airport in Georgia and one of the largest in the United States. There is no mention of any visual contact made by any of the pilots.
The mysterious targets “were not able to be verified” by the Atlanta Air Route Traffic Control Center. The incident was entered into the FAA’s system as “Emergency, Other” and listed as unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP), according to one of many so-called Mandatory Occurrence Reports (MOR) obtained by the UAP Register.
Charter Flight Encounters Anomalies, Changes Course to Avoid Collision
Omni Air International Flight 1169 en route from Honolulu, Hawaii to Fort Worth, Texas on November 18, 2023, encountered “several bright, erratic lights directly in front and above their flight path” as it approached Los Angeles International Airport. Concerned about a possible collision, Flight 1169 requested “deviations 20 degrees left to avoid the lights.” Once granted by Air Traffic Control (ATC), the plane shifted course and then continued on its way without further incident. The flight returned to its original course, noting that the lights were “80 miles off their right side” and approximately over the El Toro FAA radio station, east of Costa Mesa, CA. The entry emphasized that it was “not a UAS [unmanned aerial system] report.”
The February and November 2023 incidents are just two of dozens of incidents contained in a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) document detailing anomalous commercial airline encounters, following earlier reporting from the UAP Register last year involving additional incidents in American airspace. While many of the reports appear to detail prosaic events, including Starlink and drone sightings, others seemingly do not. Additional incidents contained in the document that have occurred in the vicinity of other U.S. military installations are completely withheld from public scrutiny. One also includes observations made by airport personnel and confirmed by service members at Malmstrom Air Force Base. Malmstrom has allegedly seen its share of dramatic UAP activity over the years.
Emergency Helicopter Pilot Detects Over a Dozen Objects with Night Vision Goggles
Another incident report involves an Emergency Medical Services helicopter in flight over Olathe, Kansas. The pilot, wearing night vision goggles, reported 15 unlit flying objects “closely following each other” at an altitude between 15,000 and 20,000 feet that could only be seen through the pilot’s goggles. The distance between the objects and the helicopter was not known.
Two Mysterious Objects Appear and Disappear from Radar, Visual Detection
On April 17, 2023, a Frontier Airlines flight notified an Air Traffic Control Center (ATC) near Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, that two bright lights in their vicinity were turning on and off at an altitude of 35,000 feet. The ATC confirmed two primary targets at that location as the tracks appeared and disappeared on the scope. Suddenly, the two targets reappeared two miles south of the SDZ position before disappearing completely. The encounter lasted approximately 25 minutes.
Ft. Bragg, a massive military installation, is also where the Airborne and Special Operations test directorate is located, so it is not clear whether military testing was occurring at that time. A spokesperson for the base did not confirm.
“The U.S. Army Special Operations Command regularly conducts aviation training at Fort Liberty, North Carolina. Training is conducted at all hours ensuring forces remain ready and capable for any contingency,” Jacqueline Hill, a spokesperson for U.S. Army Special Operations Command, told the UAPR when asked about whether training was occurring at the time of the incident.
On the evening of December 2, 2023, Air Traffic Control staff at Great Falls International Airport spotted over five “lit objects flying in a circular pattern,” according to one FAA report. “Lights changed in intensity consistent with circling or holding pattern at different altitudes.”
Occurring at essentially the same time was a Starlink satellite launch from Cape Canaveral, FL. While some features of the sighting may be consistent with Starlink, additional details are not:
“Movement not always circular in pattern, but at times appeared to form up in formation or move to/from the area.”
The Great Falls ATC also inquired with local law enforcement about unmanned aerial system activity. ATC was notified that there was no authorization for UAS activity at the time of the sighting. Additionally, Salt Lake City Air Route Traffic Control Center confirmed that there was no military testing activity occurring at that time. The ATC did not pick up any corresponding targets on radar. Personnel at Malmstrom Air Force Base, located 20 miles east of Great Falls International, also witnessed the objects.
History Repeats Itself: UAP Activity Near U.S. Military Bases
In addition to Malmstrom, there are several other reports of UAP-related incidents occurring in the vicinity of U.S. military facilities from February to September 2023 that are not detailed, unfortunately. The incidents took place near military facilities in Duluth, MN, and Miami, FL; Edwards AFB in California; and Kirtland AFB in Albuquerque, NM. The FAA did not release details of the incidents, citing a Department of Defense provision to protect “defense critical infrastructure information.”
The UAPR is attempting to gain more information about these sightings.
There are past documented UAP incidents at military installations such as Edwards and Kirtland AFB that are publicly available, however.
On May 29, 1952, “[T]wo silvery metallic discs flew in close formation and moved in an arc” over Edwards AFB, according to records from the U.S. Air Force’s Project Blue Book and noted in UFOs and Government: A Historical Inquiry. The craft made no sound and displayed no visible means of propulsion. Witnesses to the event included two aeronautics engineers, an Air Force test mechanic, and a Caltech laboratory employee.
Kirtland AFB, near Albuquerque, NM, was the site of a more alarming UAP incident on the evening of November 4, 1957, according to another Blue Book report. Air traffic controllers spotted an “egg-shaped” object no longer than 20 feet projecting a white light from its base at one end of Kirtland, maneuvering slowly between 20 to 30 feet off the ground. It then slowly started gaining altitude, passing over a nuclear weapons storage area as it climbed. ATC radar tracked the object as its altitude varied. It soon shot up into the sky to follow a C-46 that had taken off from the base.
Safe Airspace for Americans Act Introduced
To address the safety of flight issues being reported by some commercial and private airline pilots, the bi-partisan Safe Airspace for Americans Act was introduced in January by Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) and Glenn Grothman (R-WI). The proposed legislation, if passed and signed into law, would mandate the development of “procedures to synchronize and standardize the collection, reporting, and analysis of incidents, including adverse physiological effects, or the disruption, interference, or interaction with flight instruments” across the commercial airline industry. It would also protect pilots from retaliation from employers; and mandate the sharing of UAP data with agencies ranging from the Pentagon’s UAP office, called the All Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the Department of Energy (DoE), among others.
The legislation would encourage, but not require, aviation personnel to report sightings of anomalous phenomena to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS). The ASRS database is the “world's largest repository of voluntary, confidential safety information provided by aviation's frontline personnel, including pilots, controllers, mechanics, flight attendants, and dispatchers.” The benefits of using existing aviation reporting infrastructure would allow data to be properly analyzed by “ASRS’ corps of aviation safety analysts … [including] experienced pilots, air traffic controllers, and mechanics” with decades of experience, according to the website. These analysts identify any aviation-related hazards contained in a report and immediately flag this data to alert the appropriate FAA authority and disseminate it to the wider aviation community.
The legislation also contains protections for federal employees and employees of air carriers who report UAP incidents from reprisals, including loss of employment and other forms of retaliation.
“Many pilots and air controllers consider the subject to be hazardous to their image and careers and often do not report their experiences until after they have retired,” according to a statement on the National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena (NARCAP) website. NARCAP has collected UAP reports from aviation personnel for over 20 years.
“Some airlines are quite unsupportive of pilots even expressing an interest in UAP reporting,” Ted Roe, NARCAP’s Executive Director, told the UAPR last year. “Pilots are dealing with bias, stigma, and gaslighting to the present day.”
The nonprofit organization Americans for Safe Aerospace (ASA), which advocates for commercial and military pilots who have encountered anomalous phenomena domestically, played a significant role in the development of the legislation.
The bill is designed to help address incidents such as an event that occurred in April 2022 and was exclusively reported by the UAPR: FlexJet Flight 1359 was flying from Boston, Massachusetts to Huntsville, Alabama, at an altitude of 45,000 feet. According to a log entry from the Joint Air Traffic Operations Command (JATOC), the pilot notified the Washington Air Route Traffic Control Center (ZDC) of a “string of lights” 10,000 feet above and directly overhead. The aircraft subsequently experienced a “double Attitude Reference System failure and a double Autopilot System failure” as it passed beneath the series of lights. Other flights witnessed the same lights.
Haley Morris, a co-founder of and spokesperson for ASA, declined to comment on whether the organization has received reports involving UAP-related mechanical interference of airliners and physiological effects on flight personnel. ASA has publicly admitted to receiving other kinds of astonishing reports, however.
Last year, ASA’s co-founder, Navy F/A-18 pilot Lt. Ryan Graves, testified under oath before Congress about a dramatic incident reported to the organization that allegedly occurred at then-Vandenberg Air Force Base in 2003 involving an enormous “red square”. You can watch an in-depth interview with Jeff Nuccetelli, a secondhand witness to the alleged Vandenberg events, on That UFO Podcast here. The UAPR has filed FOIA requests for documents related to this alleged incident.
The UAPR will update readers as more information about these incidents becomes available. You can check out all of the reports here.