See The UFO Sightings Reported In The Montco Area This Year

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, PA — UFO sightings never really left the news, but they’ve arguably never been more prevalent. Navy pilots recently spoke of seeing mysterious objects — with no discernible engine or exhaust fumes — flying at hypersonic speeds.

President Donald Trump recently said he was briefed on UFOs. A group of Senate lawmakers received a classified briefing this week about such objects. And let’s not get started on that strange Facebook video that seems to show a creepy-looking alien doing some sort of jig down someone’s driveway.

Virginia Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Warner wants answers on UFOs, whether it’s “weather balloons, little green men, or something else entirely,” Rachel Cohen, his spokeswoman, told CNN. And the Navy has drafted guidelines to allow pilots to report UFOs, and so that the military can track them, though the military branch prefers not to use the term “UFO.”

In that spirit, Patch took a peek at the most recent UFO sightings in the Montgomery County area (both within the county and immediately nearby) using a database compiled by the National UFO Reporting Center.

Here are the reports logged so far this year:

• May 24, Yardley. A huge pentagon, with four white lights underneath, red and orange on either side. Last 10 minutes.
• April 29, Philadelphia. Bright silver cylinder floating for 10 minutes.
• April 13, Birdsboro. Sudden light, disappearance. Gone in five seconds.
• May 23, Elkins Park. Two orbs hovered around a car on 309. Lasted 20 minutes.
• March 28, Exton. Bright white sphere, curved to the right and then vanished after 10 seconds.
• March 20, Chester Springs. Large, dark object hovering for five minutes.
• March 18, Philadelphia. Triangle shaped object flying above tree-line. Last five minutes.
• Feb. 24., Philadelphia suburbs. Flash of blue lights.
• Jan. 28, Lansdale. Hovering orange and blue lights in a disk-shape. Lasted two hours.

According to data compiled by the Center, there were nearly 500 sightings across the country in May and more than 300 in January, March and April.

The Navy recently told POLITICO in a statement there were reports of unauthorized and/or unidentified aircraft “entering various military-controlled ranges and designated air space in recent years.”

"For safety and security concerns, the Navy and the [U.S. Air Force] takes these reports very seriously and investigates each and every report,” the statement said.

And Ryan Graves, an F/A-18 Super Hornet pilot who reported his sightings to the Pentagon and Congress, told The New York Times last month he was one of multiple pilots who saw UFOs. The pilots began seeing the objects in 2014 and 2015 after receiving upgraded equipment.

Initially they believed they were getting bad readings.But the sightings kept happening, showing up at 30,000 feet, 20,000 feet and even at sea level. The objects could speed up, slow down and then reach hypersonic speeds.

“These things would be out there all day,” he said. “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.”

Patch national staffer Dan Hampton contributed to this report.