Cases where no specific conventional explanation has been accepted - including those the investigating body itself left unidentified.
85 documented cases currently classed as unexplained, spanning 1914 to 2026. 40 of them involved military witnesses or sensors. 49 have declassified government records, with 107 source documents linked in total.
Highest-credibility cases: USS Nimitz Tic Tac Encounter (2004, scored 10/10), Ryan Graves Congressional Testimony (2023, scored 9/10) and USS Omaha Transmedium Vehicle (2019, scored 9/10).
How a case is classed: resolution criteria
2026 infrared video of two slow-moving 'black-hot' contacts over the western United States, paired with an FBI interview describing orb-like lights tracking a mountain ridgeline. Released via PURSUE Release 05.
Late-2025 first-hand account by a serving senior U.S. intelligence official of oval orange light-emitting objects seen from a military helicopter; released May 22, 2026.
A Michigan couple experienced repeated close encounters with basketball-sized structured illuminated objects in their yard, captured on video and investigated by NUFORC.
NUFORC identified a new recurring UAP shape in 2025 -- eight-sided 'double pyramid' octahedrons reported across multiple states performing impossible maneuvers.
Whistleblower helicopter pilot described retrieving egg-shaped UAP craft, accompanied by exclusive video footage of an alleged retrieval operation shown on NewsNation.
Multiple UFOs observed and filmed over Fresno across several days, with two pilots reporting objects to air traffic control and police helicopter dispatched to investigate.
An 18-second INDOPACOM infrared clip from 2025 showing what Pentagon documentation calls 'an area of contrast resembling a six-pointed star' over the Yellow Sea. Released via PURSUE Release 04.
A 2025 CENTCOM sensor video of six spherical objects making agile direction changes, released as DOW-UAP-PR133 in PURSUE Release 06.
Video showed a US MQ-9 Reaper firing a Hellfire missile at an orb off Yemen -- the object appeared to absorb the strike and continue flying.
Two orange, semi-transparent irregular shapes observed for ~2 seconds over Syrian airspace; declassified May 8, 2026 via the PURSUE program.
Twelve Red Rocks Amphitheatre employees witnessed a massive disc-shaped metallic craft with 'three levels of windows' hovering near the Colorado venue.
Four oblong objects flying in rapid formation over the ocean near Iran; declassified May 22, 2026 via PURSUE Release 02.
Football-shaped UAP captured on INDOPACOM video in Pacific waters near Japan; declassified May 8, 2026 via the PURSUE program.
Unidentified drones repeatedly penetrated airspace over Langley AFB for 17 days, evading F-22s and prompting a multi-agency investigation.
CENTCOM infrared footage of a UAP near the ocean surface off Greece making 90-degree turns at ~80 mph; declassified May 8, 2026 via PURSUE.
Infrared tracking of a UAP off the UAE coast in October 2023; declassified May 8, 2026 via the PURSUE program.
AARO's June 2026 'mother orb' memo: six federal agents watched an orange orb launch smaller red orbs over two days near Cheyenne Mountain in October 2023. Released via PURSUE Release 03.
A Colorado police officer filmed a silent object flashing red, blue, and green that hovered ~15 minutes in October 2023 — the first local-police records in PURSUE (Release 06).
FBI composite sketch of a 130-195 ft bronze ellipsoid materializing from bright light, disappearing instantaneously (Sept 2023); declassified May 8, 2026 via PURSUE.
Navy pilot Ryan Graves testified to Congress about daily UAP encounters off the East Coast, including a cube-in-sphere object, and founded Americans for Safe Aerospace.
F-16 weapon-system footage of the February 12, 2023 shootdown of an unidentified object over Lake Huron; declassified May 22, 2026 via PURSUE Release 02.
Infrared footage of an object over Columbus, Ohio that tilts and vanishes (Nov 1, 2022); declassified May 22, 2026 via PURSUE Release 02.
Five Fort Carson soldiers reported a white, fish-scaled, opalescent 'potato'-shaped object hovering near Cheyenne Mountain in daylight, 2022. Released via PURSUE Release 03.
A 2022 CENTCOM infrared track of 1-2 meter objects moving sporadically at 80-180 mph, released as DOW-UAP-PR131 in PURSUE Release 06.
An AC-130J gunship crew tracked ~25 'cold orbs' at 250-1,300 mph during a September 2021 live-fire exercise over the Gulf of Oman -- and the objects appeared to react to cannon fire. Released via PURSUE Release 05.
MQ-9 Reaper achieved a weapons-quality lock on a UAP that instantly accelerated and changed direction near the Jordan-Syria border; declassified May 22, 2026.
A small spherical object filmed crossing a countryside landscape (Oct 7, 2020), location undisclosed; declassified May 22, 2026 via PURSUE Release 02.
A 2020 Navy report of a maroon, 12-15 foot object over the Atlantic that 'appeared as a large, somewhat deformed balloon' -- unverifiable at the speed of the merge. Released via PURSUE Release 04.
The USS Omaha tracked and filmed a spherical object that flew at 160 mph before submerging into the ocean, demonstrating 'transmedium' capabilities confirmed by the Pentagon.
A 2019 report from an aviator with 28 years of Air Force and Navy service describing an object 'unlike anything I had seen' that outran the sensor before it could be recorded. Released via PURSUE Release 04.
Classified military footage captured a metallic sphere flying through the Mosul combat zone, shown to Congress as part of UAP briefings.
A silent, radar-tracked object entered the closed airspace over the Pantex nuclear-weapons plant in September 2015, triggering a lockdown and a vehicle pursuit by armed security. Released via PURSUE Release 04.
Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport closed for an hour and diverted 18 flights after radar detected an unidentified object - the first publicly-acknowledged UFO-caused airport shutdown by a Chinese authority, photographed by stranded passengers.
A July 2008 CIA report in PURSUE Release 03 describes a hollow-centered disc with rotating underside lights over Harare International Airport, Zimbabwe.
Turkish security guard Yalçın Yalman filmed over two hours of high-resolution footage of disc-shaped objects off Kumburgaz between 2007-2009; TÜBİTAK's national research council analyzed the tapes and concluded the objects were not CGI or known aircraft.
Multiple United Airlines employees watched a metallic disc hover over O'Hare Airport before it shot upward through the cloud layer, leaving a visible hole.
Navy pilots from the USS Nimitz encountered and filmed a 'Tic Tac'-shaped object displaying physics-defying capabilities, confirmed by Pentagon-released video.
Thousands witnessed formations of silent red-orange lights over Chicago suburbs across multiple nights in 2004-2005, captured on numerous independent video recordings.
An FBI interview record in PURSUE Release 05 describes an enormous silent equilateral triangle blacking out the stars over Bagram, Afghanistan at 4:30 AM in 2002.
Over 30 witnesses across a 200-km stretch of the Klondike Highway saw a slow-moving, multi-windowed craft estimated at 1-2 km long - one of the largest UAP ever credibly reported, systematically investigated by UFO*BC's Martin Jasek.
A commercial airliner was paced by a luminous UFO for 15 minutes while the entire city of Bariloche suffered a simultaneous blackout and airport instruments failed, with the Argentine government fully declassifying the investigation.
62 schoolchildren in Zimbabwe independently reported seeing a landed craft and beings with large eyes who communicated telepathic environmental warnings.
China's most famous UFO case involved forestry worker Meng Zhaoguo being incapacitated by a beam of light while investigating a metallic object on Phoenix Mountain, drawing investigation by Chinese scientific authorities.
A Utah ranch with decades of reported UFO and paranormal activity became the focus of a secret $22 million Pentagon investigation program (AAWSAP).
The small Scottish village of Bonnybridge has reported approximately 300 UFO sightings per year since 1992, earning it the title of 'UFO Capital of the World' with the highest per capita sighting rate on Earth.
Multiple witnesses in Voronezh reported a landed craft with tall beings and a robot, reported by official Soviet news agency TASS.
A glowing object lifted the Knowles family's car off the road on the Nullarbor Plain, leaving physical residue and damage analyzed by laboratories.
A former police officer photographed a small entity on Ilkley Moor before witnessing a craft depart; he later recalled an abduction under hypnosis.
Over 3,000 UFO reports flooded a small Virginia town beginning in 1987 after police officers spotted anomalous lights, creating one of the most intensely documented regional UFO waves in American history.
Brazil scrambled five fighters to intercept 21 radar targets; the Air Minister held a press conference confirming 'we have technical evidence that something was there.'
A spherical object crashed on Height 611, leaving metallic fragments with anomalous compositions analyzed by Soviet scientists in laboratory settings.
A disc-shaped craft landed briefly on a French farm, leaving physical traces that were scientifically analyzed by the French government's official UFO research unit.
Recurring anomalous lights in a Norwegian valley since 1981 are monitored by a permanent scientific station, producing peer-reviewed research.
Three witnesses encountered a diamond-shaped craft with military helicopter escort; all suffered severe radiation-like injuries and sued the US government.
Scottish forestry worker Robert Taylor was physically attacked by a UFO and smaller spheres, leading to the only criminal investigation of a UFO encounter in British history.
Pilot Frederick Valentich vanished over Bass Strait after radioing about an unknown craft hovering above him; no trace was ever found.
Brazilian Air Force 'Operation Saucer' investigated UFOs reportedly attacking residents with beams of light, producing over 500 photographs.
Fourteen schoolchildren and dozens of adults reported UFOs and humanoid figures across Pembrokeshire, Wales, creating the 'Welsh Triangle' phenomenon.
Four men on a camping trip in Maine experienced missing time after a beam of light engulfed their canoe; all independently recalled identical abduction experiences.
UFOs repeatedly hovered over nuclear missile silos at Malmstrom AFB, tracked by NORAD radar, as part of a broader wave at northern-tier military bases.
Unknown craft repeatedly hovered over the nuclear weapons storage area at Loring AFB during a wave of UFO incursions at nuclear bases across the US.
South African farmer Danie van Graan observed a metallic craft with four humanoid beings at close range before being struck by a beam of light that caused permanent vision damage, with landing traces found at the site.
The Air Force allegedly filmed a UFO landing at Holloman AFB and offered the footage for a documentary before withdrawing it at the last moment.
A Costa Rican government mapping camera accidentally captured a sharply-resolved 210-foot disc hovering above Lago de Cote during a 1971 survey flight - the crew never saw it visually, and the calibrated negative remains in the national archives.
On Labor Day 1969, multiple western Massachusetts witnesses reported a large craft, missing time, and on-board encounters - the only UFO case ever formally entered into a US state historical commission's record (Great Barrington, 2015).
U.S. Embassy officials and numerous residents of Tunis observed a full-moon-sized green-blue two-part flying object that exploded into a greenish circular cloud over the Tunisian capital.
Multiple witnesses including RCMP officers saw an illuminated object crash into Shag Harbour; official Canadian government documents call it a 'UFO.'
Stefan Michalak was burned by a landed disc at Falcon Lake, leaving a distinctive grid-pattern burn; later honored by a Canadian commemorative coin.
Queensland farmer George Pedley saw a saucer rise from a swamp, leaving a 32-foot swirled-reed 'nest' that the RAAF investigated - a foundational trace-evidence case predating European crop circles by over a decade.
A brilliant light repeatedly hovered over Wanaque Reservoir, witnessed by police, officials, and hundreds of residents over several weeks.
A teenager and two police officers independently witnessed a massive silent craft with pulsating red lights near Exeter, NH, forming the basis of an influential book.
Lavender farmer Maurice Masse encountered a landed craft with two beings who paralyzed him with a device; the landing left lasting physical traces in his field.
Police officer Lonnie Zamora witnessed a landed egg-shaped craft with two figures that left physical traces investigated by the FBI and Project Blue Book.
French soldiers during the Algerian War observed an enormous elliptical craft estimated at 250-350 meters wide, emitting green light and a concentrated beam, part of a pattern of wartime UFO sightings.
Brazilian farmer Antônio Villas Boas reported the first widely-documented modern abduction case - including a medical exam and a sexual encounter - in October 1957, four years before Betty and Barney Hill.
Anonymous fragments allegedly recovered from an exploding UFO off Brazil's São Paulo coast were tested at multiple labs and found to be 99.9%-pure magnesium - one of the longest-running physical-evidence cases in UFO history.
Multiple radar stations and a fighter jet tracked UFOs over two RAF bases; the Condon Committee called it 'the most puzzling case in the radar-visual files.'
Approximately half the population of Farmington, New Mexico witnessed hundreds of silvery objects maneuvering across the sky in a massive two-day aerial display.
A disc-shaped object repeatedly appeared over a searchlight in Norwood, Ohio, tracked by Army instruments and witnessed by hundreds over several months.
Pluto discoverer Clyde Tombaugh observed a formation of yellowish-green rectangular lights moving silently across the New Mexico sky, baffling one of history's most accomplished astronomical observers.
A Soviet pilot was scrambled to intercept a silver object over the USSR's most secret missile base; the object reportedly disabled his aircraft with a beam.
Just ten days after Kenneth Arnold's sighting, airline pilots on United Flight 105 observed multiple disc-shaped objects over Idaho, marking the first professional pilot UFO report of the modern era.
21-year FBI HQ file (1947-1968) including Oak Ridge, TN UAP photographic evidence; declassified May 8, 2026 via the PURSUE program.
Mysterious luminous spheres paced Allied bomber crews over Europe and the Pacific during WWII, feared as Axis weapons but never explained.
Thousands of South Africans reported an advanced aerial vehicle performing impossible maneuvers in the weeks before WWI, part of the mysterious global 'phantom airship' wave that predated modern UFO sightings by decades.