Pentagon Dump Of UFO Files Add Intrigue To MA Sightings

Strange sightings over the skies in Massachusetts over the past half-century may not be fully explained by the release of a batch of files on unidentified flying objects, but they do add intrigue to reports in a national database

The National UFO Reporting Center, founded by noted UFO investigator Robert J. Gribble in 1974, lists about 2,894 reports over the past many decades, including 13 in 2026. The inventory includes sightings before Gribble created the database.

The report released Friday by the Pentagon includes files in which Buzz Aldrin described a “fairly bright light” while aboard Apollo; a mysterious object skimming the Aegean Sea that made “multiple 90-degree turns” at a speedy clip; and a glaringly bright object doing corkscrew twists over the skies in Kazakhstan.

Among 2026 sightings in YOURSTATE reported to NUFORC include:

• A flashing light blinking on and off every second, moving west to east, then changing direction and going south over Weymouth in April
  
• An orb flying an estimated at 2,000 miles per hour above Adams, also in April
• Two high speed orbs at , one higher than other, in parallel flight, abruptly turning out of the atmosphere over Wrentham in March

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The Pentagon’s release of the previously classified files taps into the public’s long-held curiosities about “unidentified anomalous phenomena,” or UAP, in the broader universe.

The Pentagon has spent years declassifying UFO-related documents, following a 2022 congressional mandate. A 2024 report detailed hundreds of UAP incidents but found no evidence of alien technology. Despite this, some Republican lawmakers claim the Pentagon is withholding information and continue to push for greater transparency.

The new Pentagon website housing the documents on UAPs has a decidedly retro feel, with black-and-white military imagery of flying objects displayed prominently on the page, with statements displayed in typewriter-like font.

The files reflect cases that the government deems unresolved, meaning that for a variety of reasons, they couldn’t be explained with certainty. The Pentagon described the files as new and “never-before-seen,” though some had been made public years ago.

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Experts urge caution around the release of the new files, warning that UAP videos are often misinterpreted and mischaracterized by those unfamiliar with military technology. A 2024 Pentagon report rebutted claims that the U.S. government has recovered alien technology or confirmed evidence of alien life.

The initial release is a trove of videos, other imagery and testimony that is sure to stir more speculation among those who believe we are not alone in the universe.

For example, a U.S. intelligence official recalled encountering a “super-hot” orb during a helicopter search last year. The orb hovered over the ground, sped roughly 20 miles away, and was followed by four or five more orbs that flared up and down.

Another document detailed an FBI interview with a drone pilot who reported seeing a glowing “linear object” in September 2023 that was bright enough to “see bands within the light.” The object vanished seconds later.

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The files also include a 1972 NASA photo from the Apollo 17 mission showing three dots in triangular formation. A Pentagon caption said there was “no consensus about the nature of the anomaly,” though a preliminary analysis suggested it could be a “physical object.”

More than 20 military videos show unidentified objects captured by sensors from Syria and Japan to North America, including a football-shaped object over the East China Sea in 2022 and two circular lights filmed over North America on Jan. 1 this year.

Other reports describe ambiguous white objects streaking across skies in Iraq, Syria and the United Arab Emirates. One 2023 report described a “bouncy ball”-shaped object traveling 483 mph over Syria for at least seven minutes before later being deemed benign.

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Hundreds of pages detail sightings dating to the 1940s, including a 1948 report from U.S. airmen in the Netherlands describing recurring “flying saucer” sightings that Swedish officials said did not appear to come from “any presently known culture on earth.”

One video drawing attention on Friday appeared to show an eight-pointed star-shaped craft weaving through the air over the Middle East in 2013. But Sean Kirkpatrick, former head of the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, said it was likely a hot jet engine creating a diffraction pattern in the camera.

Kirkpatrick said there’s nothing unexpected in the release and warned that without analysis it will “only serve to fuel more speculation, conspiracy and armchair pseudoscience.”

The Associated Press contributed reporting.

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