U.S. Defense checkmated by an unidentified craft
A Black Vault article from March 6, 2024 relays additional information about a UFO sighting in 2023, revealed by Matt Gaetz last year.
As a reminder, on July 26, 2023, during a House Oversight Committee hearing, Representative Matt Gaetz reported the following facts. "Several months ago" his office received a protected disclosure from a pilot at Eglin Air Force Base, located in his district, regarding a UAP sighting over the Gulf of Mexico.
Matt Gaetz reported that the pilot had seen four craft in a diamond formation, and that a radar sequence had been recorded. Unfortunately, as the craft approached, the automatic recording equipment malfunctioned, prompting the pilot to take a photo manually. During his hearing, the senator stated that he had watched the video of the radar sequence and testified to the difficulties in obtaining access to existing evidence. The Representative asserted that the image was of something he was “not able to attach to any human capability, either from the United States or from any of our adversaries”.
Following this testimony, Abbas Michael Dharamsey, an engineer and ufology researcher, filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the Air Force Department. In fact, he filed two joint requests. The first request was for access to unclassified UAP or UFO documents, photos and videos from Eglin Air Force Base. The second request was for access to log information and other documents related to Representative Matt Gaetz.
The Air Force's response consists of a 23-page document sent to Abbas Michael Dharamsey on March 4, 2024. In it, we learn that as part of the request for photos and videos, only a sketch may be published. This is on page 3 of the document. It shows an aerial view of a craft resembling Han Solo's Millennium Falcon. Manual indications clarify the drawing: the craft is gray in color, with a metallic sheen at the front, and a shape resembling a central orange-red fin. Below the craft, the pilot notes that the air was blurry, but that there was no smoke. The rest of the writings, photos, and videos are protected from declassification "in the interest of national defense or foreign policy".
With regard to the request concerning the Representative's visit, the response states that the Air Force reasonably anticipates that lifting the secrecy would be detrimental to the protected national interest, and would therefore be exempt from FOIA.
Finally, the FOIA document reveals a declassified summary of the event. This describes how, on January 26, 2023, a US Air Force pilot managed to track four separate UAPs on radar. The pilot was able to establish visual contact and obtain a screenshot of the first of these objects. The other three were only detected by radar. UAP-1 has been compared to an "Apollo spacecraft". The altitude of the craft is estimated at between 16,000 and 18,000 feet. No speed was recorded for any of the UAPs. It is reported that on the approach to UAP-1, the radar malfunctioned and remained disabled for the remainder of the event. Maintenance investigation found that “a circuit breaker had triggered”, but they were “unable to conclusively diagnose the fault”.
The coincidence of the radar malfunction and the presence of the UAP is reminiscent of the Iranian case in 1976, when a McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom had its radar-guided fire controls disabled while trying to lock on a UAP, while another fighter lost the use of its communications and navigation by getting too close to one.
In an era where a growing chorus of voices declare that UAPs do not represent a threat worthy of consideration by the Ministries of Defense in several countries, one wonders how an armed force self-proclaimed as the most powerful in the world can accept unidentified crafts within its own airspace, capable of rendering its means of defense inoperative.
Abbas Michael Dharamsey said he planned to appeal the video request in order to get a clearer view of the object.
Translated from French by Kate
This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0