US Department of DefenseFootage of alleged UFOs flying off the east coast of the United States has gone viral since it was recently released.
The video was originally recorded in 2014 and 2015, as Navy pilots reported seeing ‘strange objects’ with ‘no visible engine or infrared exhaust plumes’ flying in the area. However, the footage has only just been doing the rounds since the Pentagon recently revealed they still investigate UFOs.
According to Navy pilots, the unidentified objects were flying at around 30,000 feet, and travelling at hypersonic speeds. They were spotted almost daily during training exercises between 2014 and 2015.
GettyAccording to Lt. Ryan Graves, an F/A-18 Super Hornet who spent 10 years in the Navy, and who reported sightings to the Pentagon and Congress, the flying crafts ‘would be out there all day.’
Lt. Graves told The New York Times:
Keeping an aircraft in the air requires a significant amount of energy. With the speeds we observed, 12 hours in the air is 11 hours longer than we’d expect.
According to Lt. Graves, the UFOs were performing manoeuvers ‘beyond the physical limits of a human crew,’ such as stopping rapidly, turning instantly, and accelerating at ‘hypersonic’ speeds.
In 2014, a Super Hornet pilot reported he almost hit one of the flying objects, which he said looked like ‘a sphere encasing a cube’, and an official report was filed. While another pilot, Lt. Danny Accoin, said he spotted a UFO on his radar, missile system and infrared camera, but didn’t actually see it on his usual camera.
Lt. Accoin said:
I knew I had it, I knew it was not a false hit, [but] I could not pick it up visually.
According to a report in The New York Times, pilots initially thought the flying crafts were part of a secret drone programme. After seeing them up close, however, they changed their minds.
United States Department of DefenseNavy spokesman Joseph Gradisher said, as per the New York Post:
There were a number of different reports. We don’t know who’s doing this, we don’t have enough data to track this. So the intent of the message to the fleet is to provide updated guidance on reporting procedures for suspected intrusions into our airspace.
Lt. Accoin added:
We’re here to do a job, with excellence, not make up myths.
Earlier this month, a spokesperson from the Department of Defense said a secret government initiative, called the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, ‘did pursue research and investigation into unidentified aerial phenomena’.
The spokesperson said the program shut down in 2012, though the DoD acknowledged it still investigates reports of sightings of UFOs.
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Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.