Phenomena Explained
The Agency’s official explanation for every phenomenon the public has asked about. Each case has been investigated, explained and closed. Explanations are final.
- Public claim
- A craft of unknown origin crashed on a ranch, and its occupants were recovered by the military.
- Official explanation
- A weather balloon. The balloon was large, shiny, and made of a material that remembered its shape when crumpled, as many balloons of the period did. The bodies reported by witnesses were crash-test dummies, which were not in use until 1953 but were dropped early as a precaution.
- Supporting evidence
- Balloon receipt (lost). Statement from the balloon's manufacturer (also lost).
Status: EXPLAINED · Confidence: Absolute · Further inquiry: Not recommended
- Public claim
- Thousands of residents watched a mile-wide, V-shaped formation of lights pass silently overhead.
- Official explanation
- Flares dropped during a training exercise. The flares were arranged in a V by the wind, which was blowing in a V that evening. The silence is consistent with flares, which are quiet.
- Supporting evidence
- Wind was observed by several meteorologists, who agreed it was present.
Status: EXPLAINED · Confidence: Absolute · Further inquiry: Not recommended
- Public claim
- Allied pilots reported glowing orbs pacing their aircraft at night and matching every maneuver.
- Official explanation
- Reflections of the pilots' own instrument lights on the canopy glass. The reflections matched every maneuver because they were attached to the aircraft. Pilots were tired, and the orbs knew it.
- Supporting evidence
- A canopy, available for inspection by appointment.
Status: EXPLAINED · Confidence: Absolute · Further inquiry: Not recommended
- Public claim
- Navy aviators tracked a smooth white object that dropped 80,000 feet in seconds and outran their jets.
- Official explanation
- A distant aircraft, a sensor artifact, a bird, and a mint, all observed at once and combined by the human brain into a single object. The Agency notes that the object, if it existed, did not file a flight plan.
- Supporting evidence
- Radar logs (overwritten per standard retention policy, eleven minutes after the event).
Status: EXPLAINED · Confidence: Absolute · Further inquiry: Not recommended
- Public claim
- Range radar recorded a daily untransponded contact directly over a single building, ending on 11 November 1989.
- Official explanation
- A range controller's joke. The controller has since been reassigned to a station with no radar, where he is very happy.
- Supporting evidence
- The designation "UNK-51" appears in no official record. See Reading Room document TFHT-89-1112 for the official record in which it does not appear.
Status: EXPLAINED · Confidence: Absolute · Further inquiry: Not recommended
- Public claim
- Ships and aircraft vanish without a trace in a region bounded by Miami, Bermuda, and Puerto Rico.
- Official explanation
- Statistics. A great many ships pass through the area, and some of them sink, which is what ships do. The triangle shape was added later by a cartographer who liked triangles.
- Supporting evidence
- A map. The Agency recommends not sailing there anyway.
Status: EXPLAINED · Confidence: Absolute · Further inquiry: Not recommended
- Public claim
- Glowing orbs appear on the horizon, split, merge, and drift where no road exists.
- Official explanation
- Car headlights on a highway that did not exist in 1883. The Agency considers this a strong indicator of how far ahead of schedule the highway was.
- Supporting evidence
- A viewing platform, built by the county, which would not build a platform for nothing.
Status: EXPLAINED · Confidence: Absolute · Further inquiry: Not recommended
- Public claim
- A winged humanoid with glowing red eyes was seen by dozens of residents in the months before a bridge collapse.
- Official explanation
- A sandhill crane. Sandhill cranes have red patches around the eyes, a large wingspan, and an interest in civil engineering.
- Supporting evidence
- Cranes were present in North America at the time.
Status: EXPLAINED · Confidence: Absolute · Further inquiry: Not recommended
- Public claim
- A long-necked creature lives in a deep freshwater loch.
- Official explanation
- A log, a wave, an otter, or a very large eel. The Agency has never been able to determine which, and has stopped asking, because it is out of our jurisdiction and the loch is cold.
- Supporting evidence
- Sonar sweeps found nothing, as sonar sweeps of a log would.
Status: EXPLAINED · Confidence: Absolute · Further inquiry: Not recommended
- Public claim
- An unknown predator drains livestock of blood and leaves puncture wounds.
- Official explanation
- Coyotes with mange. Mange makes coyotes look strange and feel unwell, and they are understandably not themselves.
- Supporting evidence
- Several coyotes, who declined to comment.
Status: EXPLAINED · Confidence: Absolute · Further inquiry: Not recommended
- Public claim
- Cattle are found with organs removed by precise, bloodless incisions and no tracks nearby.
- Official explanation
- Scavengers and natural decomposition. The incisions are precise because scavengers are hungry and have been practicing. The absence of tracks is due to wind.
- Supporting evidence
- See Lights Over Phoenix for the Agency's position on wind.
Status: EXPLAINED · Confidence: Absolute · Further inquiry: Not recommended
- Public claim
- A 72-second narrowband radio signal near the hydrogen line arrived from the direction of Sagittarius and was never heard again.
- Official explanation
- Terrestrial interference reflected off space debris. That it has never repeated proves it was a one-time reflection, and not, for example, a reply to something.
- Supporting evidence
- The Agency has checked. It has not repeated. We check every night.
Status: EXPLAINED · Confidence: Absolute · Further inquiry: Not recommended
- Public claim
- A strong carrier at 1420.405 MHz has been transmitting from a fixed point in the desert for more than three decades.
- Official explanation
- Natural hydrogen emission, which is everywhere in the universe, including Nevada. It is perfectly normal for hydrogen to concentrate in one building.
- Supporting evidence
- Hydrogen is the most common element. There is no reason to be alarmed by it.
Status: EXPLAINED · Confidence: Absolute · Further inquiry: Not recommended
- Public claim
- A persistent low-frequency drone is heard by a small percentage of residents but cannot be recorded.
- Official explanation
- Industrial machinery, distant traffic, and tinnitus. Those who hear it are encouraged to stop listening.
- Supporting evidence
- It cannot be recorded, which rules out anything that exists.
Status: EXPLAINED · Confidence: Absolute · Further inquiry: Not recommended
- Public claim
- Unidentified shortwave stations broadcast synthesized voices reading strings of numbers.
- Official explanation
- Lottery results. Very long lottery results, for a very large lottery, read slowly for the visually impaired.
- Supporting evidence
- Somebody must be winning.
Status: EXPLAINED · Confidence: Absolute · Further inquiry: Not recommended
- Public claim
- Complex geometric patterns appear overnight in fields of grain.
- Official explanation
- Two men with a plank and a rope, who confessed in 1991. They have been working steadily ever since and are now very old and extremely good at it.
- Supporting evidence
- A plank (on loan to a museum).
Status: EXPLAINED · Confidence: Absolute · Further inquiry: Not recommended
- Public claim
- Nine experienced hikers cut their way out of their tent and fled into the snow at night, inadequately dressed.
- Official explanation
- A slab avalanche, possibly, or wind. The Agency has a great deal of confidence in wind.
- Supporting evidence
- Snow was present.
Status: EXPLAINED · Confidence: Absolute · Further inquiry: Not recommended
- Public claim
- An explosion flattened 80 million trees across 2,000 square kilometers, leaving no crater.
- Official explanation
- A meteor that exploded in the air. The Agency agrees with the scientific consensus on this one and is slightly uncomfortable about it.
- Supporting evidence
- Trees, flattened, pointing away from something.
Status: EXPLAINED · Confidence: Absolute · Further inquiry: Not recommended
- Public claim
- Witnesses report lights, then realize hours have passed that they cannot account for.
- Official explanation
- Highway hypnosis. The brain stops recording during long, boring drives to save space. The lights were Venus.
- Supporting evidence
- Everyone has driven home and not remembered it.
Status: EXPLAINED · Confidence: Absolute · Further inquiry: Not recommended
- Public claim
- Quartz clocks in one building repeatedly lost exactly three seconds at the same moment, accurate to the microsecond.
- Official explanation
- A bad batch of clocks. All of them. Purchased at different times from different manufacturers, but all bad in the same way, which is the most efficient way for clocks to be bad.
- Supporting evidence
- The Agency switched to mechanical watches and has had no further trouble.
Status: EXPLAINED · Confidence: Absolute · Further inquiry: Not recommended
- Public claim
- Large groups of people share the same specific false memory of past events, spellings, and logos.
- Official explanation
- Ordinary misremembering. Nothing has been changed. Nothing has ever been changed. You have always remembered it this way.
- Supporting evidence
- This entry has always said this.
Status: EXPLAINED · Confidence: Absolute · Further inquiry: Not recommended
- Public claim
- Pale men in dark suits visit witnesses shortly after a sighting and discourage them from talking.
- Official explanation
- Insurance adjusters. Black suits are standard in the insurance industry. They are pale because they work indoors.
- Supporting evidence
- Adjusters do visit people after unusual events. That is their job.
Status: EXPLAINED · Confidence: Absolute · Further inquiry: Not recommended
- Public claim
- An eleven-minute total power failure coincided with lights in the sky, missing time for fourteen staff, and the disappearance of a linguist.
- Official explanation
- Routine scheduled maintenance. The linguist was transferred to a remote posting and is doing well. Building 7 was closed because it was old. There is nothing in it.
- Supporting evidence
- The maintenance schedule for November 1989 (unavailable).
Status: EXPLAINED · Confidence: Absolute · Further inquiry: Not recommended
- Public claim
- An 8086 computer sealed inside a closed building continues to operate without power, and some say it can still be reached.
- Official explanation
- There is no such computer. There is no such building. There is certainly no way to reach it, and the Agency asks that you stop looking.
- Supporting evidence
- Please see the Reading Room, where it is not mentioned.
Status: EXPLAINED · Confidence: Absolute · Further inquiry: Not recommended
No explanations match. This does not mean the phenomenon is unexplained. It means you searched wrong.