COLORADO SPRINGS — The Director of National Intelligence released a highly anticipated report Friday disclosing what the government knows about UFOs, or as they refer to them today, Unidentified Aerial Phenomena.
The paper reports that 143 sightings were documented for which the government can't provide an explanation, including the widely distributed video captured by a Navy pilot of a fast-moving "Tic-Tac" shaped object.
This release is welcome news to those in our community who've spent years investigating unusual events in the sky.
"It's big, it's huge," said Chuck Zukowski. "It's what we've been saying for years that this stuff is out there flying and why don't you guys do something about it."
The Colorado Springs ufologist stars in the Travel Channel series Alien Highway. His data analysis which plotted reports of UFO sightings, cattle mutilations, and other unusual events occurring along a similar latitude in the US was documented in the book The 37th Parallel.
Zukowski said he appreciates the openness with which the government is now talking about UFOs.
"I just like the way that they came clean, that our government came clean, the Pentagon came clean and finally said something that we've been asking about for decades, just to look into it," he said.
The authors of the report considered the possibilities these sightings could have been debris in the air, or caused by atmospheric conditions. They also explored the possibility that they were the result of secret US equipment or advanced technology from a foreign adversary.
Many of the sightings fall in the "other" category which the report states may require additional scientific knowledge to successfully analyze.
An anonymous official told NBC News on Friday that there is "no clear indication" that the sightings are linked to alien life. But as Zukowski points out, it's a big step forward just to have an official document stating things are happening that can't be explained.
"It's not like they're saying it's ET's. Well, that's okay, because I'm never saying it is either," he said. "I'm saying it's unidentified and people need to know what this is and it's defying the laws of physics as we know it big time."
