4 Most Bizarre UFO Claims Ever Recorded | Unveiled

The Four Most Bizarre UFO Claims Ever Recorded

Sightings of unidentified flying objects are more common today than ever before. Many people all around the world claim to have seen strange objects in the sky, and others say they’ve even seen or made contact with aliens. While some of these stories share similar themes or events, others are so otherworldly and specific that they give even those who don’t believe something to think about.

This is Unveiled, and today we’re exploring the four most bizarre UFO claims ever recorded.

UFOs have received renewed attention thanks to viral videos captured by the United States Navy, and the release of a government report into “Unidentified Aerial Phenomena” on June 25, 2021. But while UFO sightings only really became common in the 1940s, after World War II, there have been occasional reports of strange objects in the sky throughout history. All the way back in 1440 BC, Pharaoh Thutmose III reportedly saw “fiery disks” over Egypt, although this translation of the original papyrus is disputed. In Ancient Roman times too, however, there were reports of “phantom ships … gleaming in the sky” and mysterious silver objects. The Greek philosopher and historian Plutarch claimed that in 74 BC, a “ flame-like body” shaped like a wine-jar descended between two armies.

America’s first reported UFO sighting came in 1639, when John Winthrop described a great light in the sky that shot back and forth “as swift as an arrow”. But UFO fever really began with sightings of mysterious “foo fighters” during the Second World War. Then in 1947 came the infamous Roswell UFO incident, when a “flying disc” crashed onto a ranch in New Mexico. It was later claimed to have been a weather balloon, then a nuclear test surveillance balloon. It was followed in 1948 with the Mantell UFO incident, in which a Kentucky Air National Guard pilot fatally crashed his plane while in pursuit of an unidentified object. In 1950, farmers Paul and Evelyn Trent snapped photos of a UFO near McMinnville, Oregon, purportedly providing the first hard proof.

Since then, UFO sightings have become ever more common. In 2020 there were 7,263 purported UFO sightings in the U.S. alone. The increase in sightings could be for a few reasons - the military is flying more planes and drones than before; more people than ever are actively looking for strange airborne objects; or maybe extraterrestrial visitors have just become very active recently. Whatever the reason, modern sightings include some truly chilling tales.

The story of Betty and Barney Hill is one of the famous stories out there, and for good reason. One September evening in 1961, Barney Hill, a World War II vet, was driving home with his wife Betty through New Hampshire when they noticed a strange light in the sky behind their car. Barney was also an avid plane watcher and he didn’t recognize the object, so they stopped to look at it through binoculars. That’s when he realized that the pancake-shaped object approaching them was no plane. The couple drove off, only for the craft to rapidly descend towards them. When Barney stepped out of the car and looked through the binoculars again, he saw gray humanoids inside the craft. Spooked, he jumped back in the car and tried to drive away … and suddenly they both woke up 35 miles down the road, in their car, with dirty clothes and broken watches.

Through hypnosis, they purportedly regained their memories of being abducted and experimented on. The couple reported that aliens took samples of their hair and nails and even spoke with them. Betty later drew a star map that she’d seen inside the ship. Their story caused a sensation, and may have influenced later abduction claims, such as Travis Walton’s, whose tale was famously adapted into the film “Fire in the Sky”.

One of the most incredible UFO sightings in history was one that went somewhat unreported at the time. In 1966 at a school in Melbourne, Australia, over 300 students and faculty witnessed a large, round, silver object fly over their school. The Westall UFO encounter remains the largest group sighting of a UFO in Australia ever recorded. The object returned for a second flyover, allegedly with five planes in pursuit. Some have reported that there were in fact multiple UFOs. This story, too, is hard to brush off. Witnesses attest to seeing this happen in broad daylight, a mix of high schoolers and teachers. But it gets even stranger from there.

Afterwards, many students said that men in suits told them to never speak of it again. A teacher who took photos of the event reportedly had their camera and film confiscated. There have also been claims that two students fainted, and that one girl was taken away in an ambulance, never to be seen again. Sceptics have suggested that the object was really a high-altitude balloon, used to monitor radiation after British nuclear tests. That could explain the government’s concern with discretion. But without any photos of the incident, we’ll never know for sure.

The Westall students are far from the only kids to have seen a UFO, either. A few decades after the Westall incident, in 1994, 60 kids at a school in Zimbabwe said they’d seen not only a UFO, but also aliens with big eyes prowling around outside.

Another eerie UFO sighting came from Australian pilot Frederick Valentich. In 1978, Valentich was flying to King Island in Bass Strait, with clear skies and little wind. Problems arose shortly after 7pm when he radioed Melbourne air traffic control to report that he’d spotted a strange object flying around him. He described it as shiny and metallic with strange lights. He reported that the object would approach, or somehow remain completely stationary; he felt like it was toying with him. He noted that the object was not any aircraft he had ever seen. Then things grew dire. He reported that his engine was acting strangely. At 7:12 pm, metallic scraping sounds were heard and his transmission was cut. Frederick Valentich was never heard from again. Valentich was not a particularly experienced pilot, and various explanations have been proposed. One is that he staged his disappearance; another is that he was flying upside down and looking at his own lights in the water; or that he mistook planets for aircraft lights while unwittingly trapped in a graveyard spiral. Or, hey, maybe it was aliens!

While some stories are hard to verify, the USS Nimitz encounter stands out because it’s not easily disproved. The witnesses of this incident were trained navy pilots, with one, Commander David Fravor, being a part of the elite TOPGUN program. During a routine flight near California in 2004, Fravor and pilot Alex Dietrich reported seeing something churning underwater before rising up out of it. They described the unidentified object as a large white tic tac, with no visible propulsion systems or windows of any kind. They reported that the object maneuvered in ways impossible with current technology, accelerating to incredible speeds, then stopping and turning on a dime. Even more surreal, they managed to capture footage of the object with their infrared camera.

The video, named FLIR, was leaked to the public in 2017. It’s one of the three “Pentagon UFO Videos”, which also includes the GIMBAL and GOFAST. These were captured a decade after FLIR by pilots from the USS Theodore Roosevelt. The Navy has since confirmed their stories and said that the footage is real. Sceptics believe that these videos could be optical illusions, the result of the infrared camera system’s gimbal and flare filter. But Fravor and others saw the object with their own eyes, making it much harder to explain away.

None of these sightings are proof of extraterrestrial visitors, of course. A UFO is simply an unidentified flying object - these could be technologies hidden away by the government or phenomena that science doesn’t yet understand. However, these bizarre stories are real enough for the government to have taken action and investigated. No one knows for sure what the truth is, and many people are quick to dismiss such sightings; but there are plenty of other strange things in the world that, once upon a time, no one believed were possible.

And those are the four most bizarre UFO claims ever recorded.