The Pentagon has released three U.S. Navy videos that show what the Department of Defense calls “unexplained aerial phenomena.”
One video is of an incident in November 2004, while the other two were recorded in January 2015, according to CBS News.
The videos, which were taken by Navy fighter pilots during training exercises, were officially made public on Monday but had previously been leaked between 2017 and 2019, Defense Department spokeswoman Sue Gough told CBS.
Navy officials confirmed the existence of the tapes last fall while insisting the footage should never have been made public.
Gough said officials changed their minds after rechecking the videos.
“After a thorough review, the department has determined that the authorized release of these unclassified videos does not reveal any sensitive capabilities or systems, and does not impinge on any subsequent investigations of military air space incursions by unidentified aerial phenomena,” Gough told CBS.
Some have wondered whether the videos are proof of the existence of UFOs. In 2017, retired Cmdr. David Fravor told ABC News that what he saw in the sky back in 2004 seemed alien in origin.
“I can tell you, I think it was not from this world,” Fravor said. “I’m not crazy, haven’t been drinking. It was ― after 18 years of flying, I’ve seen pretty much about everything that I can see in that realm, and this was nothing close.”
“I have never seen anything in my life, in my history of flying that has the performance, the acceleration ― keep in mind this thing had no wings,” he continued.
One person who is happy about the release of the videos is former Nevada Sen. Harry Reid (D), who was influential in creating a since-shuttered classified program to study recordings of aerial encounters between 2007 and 2012.
But the onetime Senate majority leader said more work needs to be done to look at “any potential national security implications.”