A House panel held a congressional hearing on Wednesday to look into claims of UFOs and alien objects and any risk they may pose to the nation.
The House Oversight Committee’s Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs held its public hearing on Wednesday morning, featuring statements from three witnesses: David Grusch, a former intelligence officer in the U.S. Air Force; David Fravor, a retired U.S. Navy commander; and Ryan Graves, a former Navy pilot.
The hearing was the government’s latest push for lawmakers to better understand unexplained aerial phenomena and the risk they bring to the nation.
In their opening remarks, the three witnesses described their backgrounds and experiences with UAPs. All three took time to criticize the current reporting systems in place, saying they are inadequate in leading to actual investigations.
The Department of Defense has worked hard to remove any stigmas regarding reporting UFO sightings, but some have said they still exist.
During Graves’ testimony, the former F-18 pilot discussed an incident he encountered in 2014, which went uninvestigated as he said there was no reporting system in place at the time.
Graves said that during a training mission over the Atlantic, an object between 5 and 15 feet in diameter flew between two F-18s, coming as close as 50 feet from the planes.
“If everyone could see the sensor and video data I witnessed, our national conversation would change,” Graves said. “I urge us to put aside stigma and address the security and safety issue this topic represents. If UAP are foreign drones, it is an urgent national security problem.”
He went on to say that if it is “something else,” then the issue is important for “science.”
“In either case, unidentified objects are a concern for flight safety,” Graves said. “The American people deserve to know what is happening in our skies. It is long overdue.”
Grusch, a 14-year member of the Air Force and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, came forward last year with information about his work as a member of the Pentagon’s All-Domain Anaomplay Resolution Office and its predecessor. In his work, Grusch said he was asked to examine highly classified reports of UAPs.
During Grusch’s testimony, the former intelligence officer discussed his discovery of a “multi-decade UAP crash retrieval and reverse-engineering program” that resulted in him becoming a whistleblower. He said he requested access to learn more about the program but was denied.
The third and final witness, Fravor, discussed an event he encountered in 2004 while off the coast of California. Fravor said that an object shaped like a piece of Tic Tac candy was spotted over the water, climbing to about 12,000 feet in the air rapidly.
Fravor claimed the object was roughly 60 miles away less than a minute later as it quickly disappeared.
“I think it’s far beyond our material science that we currently possess,” Fravor said.
The AARO has investigated nearly 800 reports of UAP as of May, according to a report from CBS News. Most of the reports have been described as innocuous, while some remain unexplained, according to military officials cited in the report.
Lawmakers are as eager as ever to uncover more about UAPs, with members of Congress on both sides of the aisle supporting the movement.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has introduced an amendment to the annual defense spending bill that would see documents related to UFOs released to the public after a certain amount of time, similar to the records legislation surrounding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), who was present at the hearing, shared during a press conference that “the status quo on the part of the U.S. government has been to leave the American people in the dark regarding information of UAPs.”
“They refuse to answer questions posed by whistleblowers, avoiding the concerns of Americans and acknowledging the possible threat of UAPs poses to our national security as well as public safety,” Luna said. “It is extremely unnecessary and an overclassification.”
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