Pentagon Finally Reveals the Truth on UFO Sightings From 1960s
UFO (Unidentified Flying Object) sightings in the 1950s and '60s were likely a result of advanced U.S. spy plane testing and space technology, according to a Pentagon report. Officials clarified to Congress in their report, that the U.S. government has never encountered alien life, BBC reported.
The report claimed that most of the sightings in the 1950s and 60s were ordinary objects, BBC reported.
Officials believe that the media played a prominent role in shaping people's assumptions regarding the sightings, BBC reported. "The proliferation of television programs, books, movies, and the vast amount of internet and social media content centered on UAP-related topics most likely has influenced the public conversation on this topic, and reinforced these beliefs within some sections of the population," the report said.
The Pentagon report was submitted to Congress in March, The Independent reported. The report claims that classified government programs including the Manhattan Project and the secret development of the Air Force’s stealth drone, the RQ-170 Sentinel, might have contributed to the reports of unidentified objects and phenomena, with their activities.
The report also provides clarity on an alleged 1961 leaked memo about UFOs, The Independent reported. According to the Pentagon's findings, there was no truth to this memo. The "alien spacecraft" sample collected by a UAP (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena) investigating organization was made of magnesium, zinc, and bismuth, and did not come from space.
A Pentagon spokesperson claimed that the team approached the investigations with no biases for any school of thought, but found no evidence to support the findings of UFOs or aliens, The Independent reported.
"All investigative efforts, at all levels of classification concluded, that most sightings were ordinary objects and phenomena and the result of misidentification," Major General Pat Ryder said.
The report shared that claims about extraterrestrial beings have spiked in recent times because of the use of government and commercial drones, new kinds of satellites, and errant weather balloons, the Independent reported.
Reports of UFO sightings surged in the 1960s, the same decade when man first walked on the moon and Yuri Gagarin orbited the planet, the Independent reported. UFO sightings have continued to grow over the decades with 800 reports of unidentified objects as of April 2023, up from 650 reports in August 2022.
Sean Kirkpatrick, director of the Pentagon office, established to look into the UFO objects, shared that half of the sightings are mundane, CNN reported.
"Of those over 650, we’ve prioritized about half of them to be of anomalous interesting value, and now we have to go through those and go ‘How much of those do I have actual data for?'" Kirkpatrick said.
Several individuals over the years have made claims regarding extra-terrestrial beings, the Independent reported. Veteran, and former member of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, David Grusch, testified during a Congressional hearing that the U.S. government is in possession of "non-human origin" samples from the UAP crash sites.
Grusch's claims were dismissed by Kirkpatrick, who said Mr. Grusch has “no evidence that suggests anything extraterrestrial in nature,” the Independent reported.
In September 2023, self-described UFO expert Jaime Maussan testified in front of the Mexican Congress, that he found two "non-human" corpses.