9 Recent UFO "Sightings," as Area 51 Expert Recalls Raid

Joerg Arnu first visited Area 51, the military base in Nevada shrouded in mystery, in 1998. The following year he launched DreamlandResort, a blog serving as a forum about the base with photos, videos, and discussion about it. He went on to buy a second home in Rachel, a town bordering the base which is a "virtual melting pot for aircraft aficionados, stargazers, researchers and UFO seekers," he told The Independent.

In November 2022, the unthinkable happened, he claims. He was in bed when 20 armed counter-terrorism agents in tactical gear raided his Rachel home and his apartment in Las Vegas, handcuffing him, leading him out of his home and questioning him, seizing four of his computers, and taking his life's work on the area, in addition to photos, medical and tax records, hard drives, phones, cameras, and a drone. "Most people seriously interested in Area 51 follow my site and the reasoning probably was that targeting me would have the greatest impact on the community," he told The Independent. "But I have never crossed the Area 51 boundary and as far as I know all material shared on my Dreamland Resort web site is perfectly legal. Google Earth has better images of Area 51 than you could ever take from public land," he added. Why are people so interested in Area 51? In recent years there has been a handful of UFO sightings—none of which have been confirmed to be alien life, of course. Here are the most recent. 

On February 12 over Lake Huron in Michigan, an object around 20,000 feet, was shot down over Lake Huron, "about 15 nautical miles east of the Upper Peninsula," North American Aerospace Defense Command commanding officer Gen. Glen VanHerck said, according to NPR. "It presented as an octagonal structure with strings hanging off but no discernable payload," a senior Biden administration official said. It was shot down by an F-16, firing an AIM-9X Sidewinder missile. "We did not assess it to be a kinetic military threat to anything on the ground," the North American Aerospace Defense Command said, "but assess it was a safety flight hazard and a threat due to its potential surveillance capabilities." According to NORAD: "Our team will now work to recover the object in an effort to learn more," they said. 

A UFO was shot down approximately 40,000 feet over Canada's central Yukon, about 100 miles from the border of Alaska. According to the report "this object is potentially similar" to the one shot down off the South Carolina coast, Canadian Defense Minister Anita Anand said, adding that it was "smaller in size and cylindrical." "The object … had unlawfully entered Canadian airspace [and] posed a reasonable threat to the safety of civilian flight," he said. "Canadian Forces will now recover and analyze the wreckage of the object," Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said. 

On February 10 off the coast of Alaska a UFO was shot down at 40,000 feet, over Prudhoe Bay along Alaska's northern coast. "The object was about the size of a small car," Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters, adding that it was "not similar in size or shape to the high-altitude surveillance balloon" from the previous weekend. It "posed a reasonable threat to the safety of civilian flight," Ryder said.

On February 4, 2023, off the South Carolina coast an F-22 Raptor shot down a balloon estimated to be up to 200 feet tall. "I would categorize that as a jet airliner type of size, maybe a regional jet," with a weight of more than 2,000 pounds, VanHerck said. The balloon crossed the continental U.S. before being shot down over the Atlantic Ocean, near Myrtle Beach, S.C. According to a senrio U.S. defense official, it was part of a "fleet of balloons developed to conduct surveillance operations, which have also violated the sovereignty of other countries."

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department captured a suspected UFO soaring across the night sky on body cam footage. According to 8 News Now a resident called in a report of something "100% not human" on their property. According to the American Meteor Society, its flash was seen as far as Utah and California. Another man who lives 80 miles from Area 51 also called 911 claiming that there were two unknown objects in his backyard after seeing something fall from the sky. "There's like an 8-foot person beside it and another one is inside us [sic] and it has big eyes and it's looking at us — and it's still there," he told police dispatch. "In my backyard. I swear to God this is not a joke, this is actually — we're terrified," he added.  "They're very large. They're like 8 foot, 9 feet, 10 foot. They look like aliens to us. Big eyes. They have big eyes. Like, I can't explain it. And big mouth. They're shiny eyes and they're not human. They're 100% not human," he claimed. Police who responded to the scene were also afraid. "I'm so nervous right now," said one officer. "I have butterflies, bro — saw a shooting star and now these people say there's aliens in their backyard."

"Weaponized" podcast hosts Jeremy Corbell and George Knapp recently shared photos and videos of a UFO siting from April 2021 over Twentynine Palms, California. "Two years ago, this thing happened and nothing has come out. There's been no media coverage in two years since," said Knapp. "I got a tip from two bases at the time," Corbell recalled adding that the object was "high up" according to callers. "But the tip was basically like 'something happened and you should look into it. Click,'" he said. In a clip, you could see a triangular formation of lights hovering above the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at Camp Wilson. According to Corbell the more than 10-minute-long event was seen by over 50 people, including Marines on base.

Virginia pilot Julious Figueroa had a close encounter with a strange object while flying a plane carrying skydivers in July 2022. "We were climbing to 10,000 feet, and at around 4,300 feet I was looking into the distance and this thing caught my eye," he said about the object which was the size of a small car. "It started getting closer and it was approaching me about 15 feet to my left heading north." He called air traffic control and asked if they had seen a drone on radar. "There was a long pause on the other end, and then they said they didn't see it," he said.