UFO & ALIEN CASE FILES
UFO
In 1947, a rash of sightings of unexplained flying objects (UFOs) swept America. Although the newly formed U.S. Air Force was the primary investigator of these sightings, the FBI received many reports and worked for a time with the Air Force to investigate these matters. This release details the FBI’s role in investigating such reports between 1947 and 1954.
You Can Now Explore the CIA’s ‘Entire’ Collection of UFO Documents Online
Thousands of pages of declassified records are available for anyone to peruse,
Approximately 2,780 pages of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) documents detailing the government entity’s findings on unidentified flying objects (UFOs) are now available for anyone to read and download.
As Brandon Specktor reports for Live Science, the Black Vault’s collection features UFO-related records declassified by the CIA since the 1980s. The site’s owner, John Greenewald Jr., obtained the newly digitized documents—said by the CIA to represent the entirety of its UFO collection—by filing a series of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.
“The Black Vault spent years fighting for them, and many were released in the late 1990s,” writes Greenewald in a blog post. “However, over time, the CIA made a CD-ROM collection of UFO documents, which encompassed the original records, along with the ones that took years to fight for.”
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The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has established an ‘‘Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Records Collection," per sections 1841–1843 of the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (Public Law 118-31). Unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) records received by NARA from federal agencies in accordance with the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) will be accessioned into Record Group 615, Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Records Collection. All publicly releasable records within Record Group 615 will be made available online through the National Archives Catalog within 180 days of transmission to NARA from federal agencies. NARA has issued guidance to federal agencies regarding identification, preparation, and transfer of UAP records, but has not yet accessioned records into Record Group 615. For more information about the Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Records Collection, please see our frequently asked questions.
The National Archives has in its custody records across multiple record groups and collections related to unidentified flying object (UFO) and UAP investigations, sightings, and reporting. Record groups and collections are the highest level of archival description. Record group numbers are assigned by NARA to large organizations, such as federal departments or agencies. For example, NARA has assigned Record Group 255 to the records of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
National Archives Identifiers (NAID) are unique numbers assigned to all descriptions in the National Archives Catalog. NAIDs can be assigned at all levels of description, from record groups down to individual items.
Please explore the links below to find out more about records related to UAPs/UFOs in NARA’s holdings. Links to items in the National Archives Catalog are downloadable and can be republished with attribution to the National Archives and Records Administration.
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Unsealed Alien Files
Unsealed Alien Files is an American television series that premiered in 2011 in broadcast syndication in the United States.[2]
Premise
Unsealed: Alien Files investigates released documents regarding UFO encounters, made accessible to the public in 2011 by the Freedom of Information Act. Each episode examines alien cases such as mass reports of UFO sightings, reports of personal abduction, purported government cover-ups, and related news from around the world.
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