The Pentagon, the headquarters building of the United States Department of Defense, on Monday, released three declassified videos that disclosed US Navy pilots witnessing unidentified flying objects, The Guardian reported.
The Pentagon said that the unclear videos depict “unexplained aerial phenomena” and had been leaked before, with some believing that the videos revealed alien unidentified flying objects (UFOs).
The Pentagon maintained that it released the footage “to clear up any misconceptions by the public on whether or not the footage that has been circulating was real or whether or not there is more to the videos,” a statement on the Department of Defense website said.
“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,” read the statement.
The videos had been “circulating in the public domain after unauthorized releases in 2007 and 2017”, the statement said, adding that “the aerial phenomena observed in the videos remain characterized as unidentified.”
The three videos show what the pilots saw during training flights in 2004 and 2015. Two of the videos were published by the New York Times in 2017. While the other video was released by the To the Stars Academy of Arts and Science group, a media and private science organization.
The release of the three videos by the Pentagon spurred the speculation of the interaction between humans and the extraterrestrials. The Navy has guidelines for reporting UFO sightings, as per the media reports.
In response, the former Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, from Nevada, tweeted the three videos “only scratches the surface of research and materials available.”
Harry Reid wrote in the microblogging site: “I’m glad the Pentagon is finally releasing this footage, but it only scratches the surface of research and materials available. The US needs to take a serious, scientific look at this and any potential national security implications. The American people deserve to be informed.”