American Airlines Pilot Reports UFO Sighting Above Arizona in FAA Audio

Two pilots aboard separate aircraft last month reported observing an unidentified flying object some 40,000 feet in the air, according to reports. In audio shared with Inverse by the Federal Aviation Administration, pilots can be heard discussing what was described as a “UFO” in separate conversations with the Albuquerque Air Route Traffic Control Center on February 24.

“Was anybody above us that passed us like 30 seconds ago?” asks a Learjet pilot in the audio file. When told “negative” by the air traffic controller, the pilot responds: “Something did.” Then, someone says “UFO” before another individual laughs and responds, “Yeah.”

In a subsequent conversation, the air traffic controller told a pilot of American Airlines 1095 to inform him if “you see anything pass over you here in the next 15 miles,” following the Learjet pilot’s previous report of something “going in the opposite direction” while flying over the desert in southeastern Arizona. “I don’t know what it was. It wasn’t an airplane,” the Learjet pilot says.

“Something just passed over us — don’t know what it was, but it was at least two, 3,000 feet above us,” the American Airlines pilot says. “I couldn’t make it out, if it was a balloon or whatnot.” In a subsequent conversation following the sighting, someone asks whether the object could have been a Google balloon, to which someone responds simply, “UFO.”

To make matters more strange, The Drive reported earlier this month that an FAA representative “didn’t think the incident was written up and noted that the supervisor at Albuquerque Center didn’t even know about it when queried.”

“Other than the brief conversation between two aircraft, the controller was unable to verify that any other aircraft was in the area,” an FAA spokesman told Inverse in a statement. “We have a close working relationship with a number of other agencies and safely handle military aircraft and civilian aircraft of all types in that area every day, including high-altitude weather balloons.” No further comment was given about what the pilots might have seen. American Airlines declined to comment.

So, alien or nah?