Five UFO claims at the heart of ‘the biggest cover-up in history’

Unidentified flying objects (UFOs) were once the preserve of conspiracy theorists: tinfoil hat-wearers who have, in recent decades, found their natural home in the dark corners of the internet. Despite our natural curiosity, scepticism has been our default response on this issue.

The doubts have persisted despite such esteemed figures as Lord Hill-Norton, once a Chief of the General Staff, and Vice-Admiral Roscoe H Hillenkoetter, the first director of the CIA, supporting theories of their existence.

All the more remarkable, then, were Wednesday’s events in the US Capitol as Congress held its first ever hearing on UFOs. Three retired US military officers told the security sub-committee of the House of Representatives’ main investigative body, the House Oversight Committee, that they had witnessed “unexplained anomalous phenomena” (UAPs).

It marked the culmination of a growing bipartisan obsession with UAPs that has seen Democrats and Republicans unite in demanding greater transparency about what has been witnessed, detected and found over the years. Tim Burchett, the committee’s joint leader, describes it discreetly as the “biggest cover-up in history”.

Two years ago, a Pentagon report revealed 144 official sightings of UAPs had been reported between 2004 and 2021 – 80 of which were also picked up by monitoring equipment – but provided no details of these encounters.

When retired intelligence official David Grusch alleged last month that information about UAPs was being withheld from Congress, it sparked the extraordinary congressional hearing featuring allegations of varying credibility were made. Here are the most intriguing:

The white ‘Tic Tac’

Commander David Fravor, an ex-US Navy fighter pilot, told the hearing that in November 2004 he witnessed from his cockpit a cylindrical, wingless white object “moving very abruptly over the white water, like a ping-pong ball” above the Pacific Ocean. When approached, this “Tic Tac” accelerated and was detected 60 miles away less than a minute later. Footage filmed by Cdr Fravor was leaked in 2017 and confirmed as genuine three years later.

“I think what we experienced was, like I said, well beyond the material science and the capabilities that we had at the time, that we have currently or that we’re going to have in the next 10 to 20 years,” he told the hearing.

Hurricane-defying objects

Lieutenant Ryan Graves, another retired navy fighter pilot, testified that he and fellow airmen had observed a UAP remain still in hurricane-strength winds before accelerating at supersonic speeds, defying the limits of technology.

“These objects were staying completely stationary in category-four hurricane winds,” he said. “The same objects would then accelerate to supersonic speeds – 1.1, 1.2 mach – and do so in very erratic and quick behaviours that we don’t have an explanation for.”

Dark cubes sighted worldwide

Lt Graves also claimed UAPs have been detected by navy servicemen stationed across the world and that most sightings are of “dark grey or black cubes inside a clear sphere” where “the apex or tips of the cube were touching the inside of the sphere”.

He claimed that he himself observed such an object over the Atlantic during a posting at Virginia Beach in 2018, and that there was “no official acknowledgement of the incident” despite his squadron reporting it.

‘Alien remains found’

Major Grusch, formerly of the US Air Force’s UAP intelligence task force, made the most startling claim of the hearing. He said the US government has found “non-human biologics” at crash sites, though he has not witnessed any himself and gave no further details.

Major Grusch also did not repeat previous claims that the US had recovered the bodies of alien pilots; a Pentagon spokesperson has denied his claim.

‘Scientific secrets harvested at crash sites for decades’

Major Grusch alleged that a secret official programme has been retrieving UAPs from crash sites for decades to harvest their technological secrets.

“I was informed in the course of my official duties of a multi-decade UAP crash retrieval and reverse engineering program to which I was denied access,” he said.

But again he declined to give any further details, just as he declined to repeat under oath previous claims about a football-field-sized spacecraft and allegations of murders committed to cover up UAP crashes. A Pentagon spokesperson also denied this claim.

Have you ever witnessed  “unexplained anomalous phenomena” (UAPs)? Tell us about your experiences in the comments below.