5 UFO Sightings That Will Make You Say ‘Probably Not, But That Is Weird’

5 Japan Airlines Flight 1628

One of the hurdles working against most UFO sightings is that they’re usually only witnessed by very few people. Even if it’s widespread, it’s usually all people of the same general group, like citizens of a fishing village, which makes it easy to plaster over the whole thing with explanations like, “Swamp gas made those hicks hallucinate.” But in the case of Japan Airlines Flight 1628 over Anchorage, Alaska, the sightings spanned across pretty much everyone you would have expected to notice an unidentified flying object. 

First, obviously, were the passengers and crew, who saw strange lights from outside of the window and reportedly felt heat inside the cabin. Not only that, they eventually saw that classic round silhouette that screams “spaceship” to the human brain. Lest this be pushed under the rug as some sort of oxygen malfunction, other accounts emerged, too. Both civilian and military radar pinged objects where the plane passengers had indicated, and the FAA officially gave it the stamp of “verified weird thing.” Everyone involved was interrogated by both the CIA and FBI, who, unsurprisingly, then stopped talking about it entirely.

4 Shag Harbour

The incident in Shag Harbour, Nova Scotia in 1967, was different from most UFO sightings in one particular way. It had none of the zigging and zagging and otherworldly acrobatic movements that are usually a trademark of UFO identification. It seems, if the incident is to believe, the extraterrestrial flying over Shag Harbour wasn’t outer space’s best or brightest. What the residents saw was an unidentified flying object hurtling toward Shag Harbour. Coupled with whistling and splashing sounds that sound straight out of Looney Tunes, they all reported the possible vessel very clearly crash-landing in the water. 

A couple eyewitnesses then saw something floating about 1,000 feet out and understandably called the Mounties. When they showed up, there was nothing there. A top-secret bit of military tech is the easy explanation, but the Canadian forces said all vehicles were accounted for, and they combed the seafloor, something you’d think they wouldn’t waste time on if they knew what was down there.

3 USS Nimitz

With experimental military tech being one of the most common explanations used to patch over a bunch of people seeing bright lights zoom by, one of the good ways to deflate that option is to have the military be the one to report the sighting. This was the case with the USS Nimitz. This wasn’t a random sighting, either, but the result of an actual investigation after fighter jets were sent to look into an unknown object on radar in 2004. 

When they arrived, they unknowingly had just taken front row seats to an incredibly weird event. What makes this one extra spooky is that it’s not vague stories of blurs in the sky, but very specific ones. They said that when they arrived, they saw an oval shadow under churning water. Moments later, a smooth, white, pill-shaped craft emerged with no visible windows or doors. The fighter jets obviously went to investigate, but the pill-shaped craft left them in the dust, fleeing at three times the speed of sound.

2 East Coast GO FAST

If the last story left you fidgeting ever so slightly in your seat, this one is going to dismay you further. Most significantly, because although this sighting occurred over a decade later, what they saw was the exact same thing as the USS Nimitz’ pilots: a white, pill-shaped craft screaming across the open sky with no openings, wings or exhaust. 

Again, it proved hard to pursue, and as it flew away, it rotated at the same time, something that physics really doesn’t like aircraft doing. This incident also occurred in the same area as the USS Nimitz sighting, off the coast of San Diego. Whether that makes it more or less weird depends on your outlook. Another wrinkle that makes secret government tech seem less likely: It was spotted by Raytheon hardware, and if there was some pill-shaped military craft in the works, Raytheon would have been one of the few companies that would know about it.

1 Jimmy Carter

At least until recently, the words of a U.S. president were considered highly trustworthy. Which is why it’s notable that the recently deceased Jimmy Carter, for much of his life far into public service, insisted that he had seen a UFO. It’s a little easier to call some drunk guy in a diner a liar than it is the Commander-in-Chief. He even promised to release any information on extraterrestrials when he ascended to the Oval Office. After the election, though, he never made good on it. They never do!