Pentagon declassifies UFO footage, sparking memories of Hunter sightings

The grainy videos - one taken in November 2004 and the other two in January 2015 - were previously leaked to The New York Times.

The Pentagon said it released the videos "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".

It confirmed the videos showed "unexplained aerial phenomena".

"The aerial phenomena observed in the videos remain characterised as unidentified."

We had to laugh at the Pentagon's media release on the matter. It was titled, "Statement by the Department of Defense on the Release of Historical Navy Videos".

Bit of an understatement, that.

We had to laugh, too, at the reaction of a pilot to one of the UFOs. The footage was taken from a Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet.

"There's a whole fleet of them. My gosh! They're all going against the wind. The wind is 120 knots to the west. Look at that thing, dude. It's rotating."

In another video, a pilot used a detection system to track a UFO: "Woah! Got it!" he said, with a laugh.

"What the f*** is that? Oh my gosh, dude. Wow! What is that, man? Look at it fly."

Former Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, from Nevada, tweeted he was glad the Pentagon was "finally releasing this footage".

"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."

And the rest of the world, Harry!

Topics correspondent on all things sky-related - astronomy expert Col Maybury, of Kurri Kurri - has been following the UFO story.

For those keen to spot a UFO, Col suggests they look at the sky as much as possible.

"In my experience, the more time spent observing the night skies, the more chance of seeing unidentified flying objects," Col said.

"I have seen three, two of which I have identified as ordinary and explicable, but rare occurrences.

"I set the alarm for 3am during the Lyrid meteor shower some 20 years ago. I went into our backyard and within minutes I saw a bright light, like an aircraft landing light coming straight at me. It got closer and closer, brighter and brighter then fizzled out, leaving a wispy brown smoky trail fading into the northern distance."

Col believes it was a bolide - "a cricket-ball sized comet debris, a rock, burning up in the atmosphere".

Another time he was at Harrigan's pub at Pokolbin when "another bolide came out of the deep south and travelled through our atmosphere, vanishing out in the far north".

Then about 15 years ago, a bloke from Raymond Terrace phoned Col, excitedly telling him he'd spotted a UFO.

"It was 2pm. He described it and gave good directions - 45 degrees up in the east," he said.

"I searched for it with binoculars and found it. It was a small glowing doughnut, stationary in the sunlit sky. I could also see it with the naked eye.

"We watched it on and off for an hour. Then it was gone. It was totally inexplicable - a UFO."

Send your UFO stories to topics@newcastleherald.com.au

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