The Pentagon formally released three unclassified videos taken by Navy pilots on Monday of "unidentified aerial phenomena,” a step that comes after years of progress towards government transparency surrounding unidentified flying objects.
The Pentagon, which previously confirmed the veracity of the videos in 2019, said it formally released the footage after a “thorough review” determined the videos don't reveal any sensitive information and to “clear up any misconceptions by the overall public on whether or not the footage that has been circulating was real,” Sue Gough, a Department of Defense spokeswoman, told CBS News.
One of the videos released shows an occasion from 2004 during which Navy pilots encountered an object 40 feet long hovering about 50 feet above the water, according to the NY Times; the 2 other videos are from 2015 and show strange objects moving very quickly — one racing above the water, another rotating in mid-air
The videos became public after unauthorized leaks in 2007 and 2017, and thus the Navy previously verified their authenticity.
The 2004 incident occurred about 100 miles out in the Pacific, according to The NY Times, which first reported on the video in 2017. Two fighter pilots on a routine training mission were dispatched to research unidentified aircraft that a Navy cruiser had been tracking for weeks.
The Navy pilots found an oblong object about 40 feet long hovering about 50 feet above the water, and it began a rapid ascent because the pilots approached before quickly flying away. "It accelerated like nothing I've ever seen," one of the pilots told the times.
The pilots left the planet to satisfy at a meeting point about 60 miles away. once they were still about 40 miles out, the ship radioed and said the thing was at the rendezvous point, having traversed the space "in but a flash," the pilot told the times.
President Trump has previously said he doesn’t buy the hype around the unidentified objects.
“I did have one very brief meeting thereon,” Trump said in an ABC News interview in 2019. “But people are saying they’re seeing UFOs. Do I feel about it? Not particularly.”