Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), or Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO), are phenomena that do not immediately seem to have a prosaic explanation. The majority of UAP reports are eventually explained, but a notable minority of cases remain unexplained.

One of the most famous UAP incidents in recent history is the Nimitz incident in November 2004, in which US navy pilots David Fravor and Alex Dietrich reported seeing a 'Tic Tac' UFO.^[1] Another example is the 2013 Aguadilla incident in Puerto Rico recorded by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which officially released the recording in 2023.^[2]

Political scientist Alexander Wendt has argued for establishing a science of UAP/UFOs given our ignorance about them.^[3]

Further reading

Coumbe, Daniel (2022) Anomaly: A Scientific Exploration of the UFO Phenomenon , Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

Sagan, Carl & Thornton Page (eds.) (1972) UFOs: A Scientific Debate, New York: W.W. Norton & Co. Inc.

Wendt, Alexander (2020) Wanted: A Science of UFOs | Alexander Wendt | TEDxColumbus, February 4.

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The object or objects were reportedly caught on radar, as reported by Kevin Day, former US chief radar officer, and Gary Voorhis, former computer technician at the USS Princeton. It was seemingly also caught on FLIR video by Chad Underwood.
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See Coumbe, Daniel (2022) Anomaly: A Scientific Exploration of the UFO Phenomenon, Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, ch. 5.
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Wendt, Alexander (2020) Wanted: A Science of UFOs | Alexander Wendt | TEDxColumbus, February 4.