Air Force Releases Details About 2023 UAP Sighting First Brought To Light By Congressman Matt Gaetz

Newly released documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by software engineer and UAP researcher Abbas Michael Dharamsey have unveiled details of a mysterious Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon (UAP) sighting that occurred on January 26, 2023. The incident, which was first brought to public attention during a UAP hearing in Congress, involved a U.S. Air Force pilot encountering four separate UAPs during a test mission over the Gulf of Mexico. The documents have been verified by The Black Vault.

Congressman Matt Gaetz, who played a pivotal role in revealing this incident to the public, recounted his experience in seeking information about the event. Gaetz described how he, along with other Congress members, was initially denied access to crucial evidence, including images and radar data. However, following a discussion on authority, they were granted access to an image captured by one of the flight crew members, depicting an object unlike any known human-made technology.

The FOIA documents reveal a declassified summary of the event, which describes the lead UAP as resembling an “Apollo spacecraft” in size and shape, with an “orange-reddish” illuminated bottom and a “three-dimensional cone shape” top composed of “gunmetal gray segmented panels.”

The pilot managed to gain radar lock on the UAP and obtain a screen capture of the object, while the remaining three were only detected by radar. Notably, upon approaching within 4,000 feet of the lead UAP, the pilot’s radar malfunctioned and remained disabled for the rest of the mission, with post-mission investigations failing to conclusively diagnose the fault.

The documents also include a drawing of the UAP, providing a visual representation of only a part of the pilot’s encounter.

However, a responsive video related to the incident was withheld in full under Exemption (b)(1), which protects information deemed critical to national defense or foreign policy and properly classified under an Executive order. This video was not previously mentioned by Gaetz, and it is unclear if Gaetz had seen the video, or if the image he did see was a screen grab from it.

Dharamsey, who said he was “inspired” by The Black Vault to start filing this and many other FOIA requests, said in an email that he plans “…to appeal the request for the video to verify what the object actually looks like, try and find any possible human origin for the craft, and to file more FOIAs with regards to any investigation of the event by AARO or any other government organization.”

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Released Documents

Air Force Releases Details About 2023 UAP Sighting First Brought To Light By Congressman Matt Gaetz [23 Pages, 1MB]

Full Quotes

The following was submitted to The Black Vault by Mr. Dharamsey for inclusion in this story:

We were told by Matt Gaetz that he attended a classified briefing in which two pilots encountered, what he could best describe as “an orb”, during a routine training mission off the Gulf of Mexico. With this FOIA request, we can confirm that the event took place. The drawing, provided in place of the video, describes an object that does not look of any origin I can denote. My next steps are to appeal the request for the video to verify what the object actually looks like, try and find any possible human origin for the craft, and to file more FOIAs with regards to any investigation of the event by AARO or any other government organization.

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