User:Gtoffoletto/USS Theodore Roosevelt UFO incidents

= USS Theodore Roosevelt UFO incidents =

The USS Theodore Roosevelt UFO incidents was a series of radar-visual encounters of unidentified flying objects by United States Navy fighter pilots of the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) carrier strike group that occurred between summer of 2014 to March 2015 along the East Coast of the United States.

Dozens of pilots reported sighting unidentified flying objects "almost daily" while training for a deployment to the Persian Gulf. The objects were observed through onboard and off-board radar and infrared detections, as well as visually by the pilots and weapon systems officers which described them as looking "like a sphere encasing a cube". During one particularly close encounter one of the objects almost collided with two jets prompting the VFA-11 fighter squadron to submit an aviation flight safety report.

Two infrared video recordings by an F/A-18 Super Hornet have been released showing encounters with flying objects. The videos were released in December 2017 by The New York Times and an entertainment company named "To the Stars". The video was released by former intelligence officer Luis Elizondo to shed light on a secretive Department of Defense operation to analyze reported UFO sightings, the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program. The Navy has confirmed the authenticity of the videos and has stated that they depict what they consider to be "unidentified aerial phenomena".

The incidents have been the subject of several classified congressional hearings aimed at understanding and identifying the potential threat to the safety and security of aviators. Following the encounters, the Navy announced it had updated the way pilots were to formally report UFO incidents, in order to encourage pilots to flag disturbances.

Television

 * The History Channel featured the incident in the 2019 television show Unidentified: Inside America's UFO Investigation.