Navy Releases Hazard Reports of Near-Mid-Air Encounters with Unidentified Aircraft

In October 2020, , founder of The Black Vault, with a disclosure that both clarified and complicated the public record on unidentified aerial phenomena. The response, dated October 8, 2020, partially denied Greenewald's request for all FOIA cases submitted by The New York Times and its journalists—Ralph Blumenthal, Leslie Kean, and Helene Cooper—concerning UFOs, UAPs, or similar terms. After a diligent search, the Navy stated that no such records existed within its files or databases.

Yet, in the same letter, the command enclosed eight hazard reports that met the request's criteria, revealing a series of encounters between Navy aircraft and unidentified objects in restricted airspace. The juxtaposition of a denial for press-related records alongside the release of operational hazard reports underscores a recurring tension: while the Navy maintains no formal UFO-related FOIA correspondence with major media outlets, its own safety reporting system has documented multiple incidents involving unknown aerial devices.…