What follows is a collection of what we consider to be the top 20 pieces of authentic UFO footage taken to date. Many of these videos are just that -- video tapes which have been converted to digital format from two or three generations of copies. Some of these pieces are older and challenging to follow, but I have seen first-generation copies of many of these clips myself, and I assure you that these are not hoaxes or CGI. Older footage is great for a number of reasons, the likelihood of it not being a hoax due to the lack of digital technology being the primary reason.
We subjected each of these videos to the same set of evaluation criteria which consisted of the following;
Age of the footage - older pieces tend to hold more weight as they are less likely to be CGI.
Source of the footage - video from NASA shuttle missions and military footage hold more weight due to their inherent credibility.
Length of the footage - hoaxers tend not to go to great lengths when creating fake footage, typically they run less than a minute.
Analysis by independent sources - if the footage has been analyzed by MUFON researchers or individuals like Dr. Bruce Maccabee, then it tends to hold more credibility.
1) The Nellis Test Range radar tracking site footage (Late November, 1994):
In February 1995 the American TV show 'Hard Copy' broadcast a videotape showing an unidentified object flying over a North American military test range. Further footage was shown the following December on the 'Sightings' TV show. The videotape had apparently been filmed by a high-tech Air Force surveillance camera at an undisclosed location within the Nellis Air Force Base Bombing and Gunnery Range Complex in Nevada, often referred to as the Nellis Test Range. Some of our readers may be familiar with this footage and some may not. It's sort of the "Winnebago Man" of UFO videos. Everyone out there has seen it at one point or another, and everyone unanimously agrees that it's completely bizarre. The fact that it is actual military footage and it's been verified and vetted by multiple researchers puts this in a class by itself. The videotape is said to have been smuggled out by a contractor who had previously operated radar tracking stations on the Nellis range. Copies of the videotape were sold to Paramount Studios (producers of 'Hard Copy' and 'Sightings') by a former Air Force employee, although apparently he had not witnessed the object himself.
Two sections of videotape showing the UFO have come to light. The first section was filmed from a location known as S-30, according to the camera's data display. This shows the object initially as an indistinct 'blob' flying in front of a distant mountain range, before it turns and heads towards the camera location. The camera operator struggles to keep the object within shot as it approaches, and it soon becomes clear that it's a morphing object with four distinctive 'lobes' and a dark region at the front. As it nears, it turns to face the tracking station for several seconds, as if performing some kind of surveillance, before it turns away and departs. This footage is of special importance because the voices of the camera operators at the tracking station can be heard on the noisy soundtrack. Their bewilderment at the unexpected appearance of the UFO is clearly audible. "What the hell is it?" one of them says; "Where'd it come from?" asks the other. For in-depth analysis of this footage, take a look at Martin J. Powell's excellent breakdown here.
We consider NASA footage to be the gold standard when it comes to UFO's. It comes directly from the source, untampered with. Most of the infamous STS footage was recorded throughout the late 90's and early 2000's by a guy named Jeff Challender who was an ex-TV station camera operator in California. Jeff managed to record literally hundreds of hours of direct feed footage from the Shuttle missions and the ISS via NASA Select TV, later on he would pour over the footage and pull out anything anomalous. One particularly bizarre piece of footage came from the STS-80 mission in November of 1996. The mission was the longest Shuttle mission ever flown at 17 days, 15 hours, and 53 minutes. In this footage we can clearly see multiple objects entering and leaving the upper atmosphere, but the clearest of all objects enters the picture around 3:35 in the clip. It's coming from space and enters the upper atmosphere at about 3:55 with what looks to be a very bright plasma field around it. At this point the object actually decelerates and holds a stationary position within the upper atmosphere. We see other smaller objects tracking directly above this larger object, in low earth orbit. At 4:42 another object can be seen moving just beneath the tops of the thunderstorm clouds. At the 5:00 mark yet another object enters the atmosphere with the same plasma field around it. Obviously, there's a lot going on in this video and the camera operator seems to be just as interested in this activity as we are. This footage will remain one of the most important pieces of NASA footage ever revealed to the public.
3) The Kumburgaz, Turkey UFO footage with occupants recorded by a security guard (May 15, 2009):
This footage from Turkey clearly shows alien occupants making it one of the top recordings to date. The footage has been analyzed by Dr. Roger Leir, author of "Alien Scalpel," and he has been called one of the fields leaders in physical evidence research involving the field of Ufology. He and his surgical team have performed nine surgeries on alleged alien abductees. This resulted in the removal of ten separate and distinct objects suspected of being alien implants. These objects have been scientifically investigated by some of the most prestigious laboratories in the world. Their findings have been baffling and some comparisons have been made to meteorite samples. He has also formed a non-profit organization for this purpose called "A & S Research, Inc." The video above is the uncut original footage taken by the security guard, click here to see the video with Dr. Leir's own analysis.
Animation of possible ET occupant by The Object Report
At first, the videos were analyzed and made public by the SIRIUS UFO organization, directed by the researcher Haktan Akdogan. This case made big news in Turkey and in other countries as well. It also started a great debate between the official members of the Turkish scientific community. Specifically the NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR THE STUDY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (TUBITAK) got interested in analyzing the original footage, with the intention of determining that the video was nothing more than a hoax, gambling on the idea of scale models, toys, or CGI. The original tape was handed to the TUBITAK representatives on live TV in their own headquarters. Once the analysis was concluded, they gave an official report which can be summarized as such:
"The objects observed on the images have a structure made of a specific material and are definitely not any kind of CGI animation or in any means a type of special effects used for simulation in a studio or for video effects. So the conclusion of this report is that the observations are not a model, marquette, or a fraud." The official report ended with, "it's concluded that the objects observed have a physical structure and are made of materials that don't belong to any category of (airplanes, helicopters, meteors, Venus, Mars, satellites, artificial lights, Chinese lanterns, etc.) and that it mostly fits in the category of UFO's (Unidentified Flying Objects of unknown origin)". (source)
4) Glowing UFO crashing in an unidentified desert region (date unknown):
Even though there isn't much to go on in regards to this footage, it is significant for a number of reasons. Namely, it's an older piece of footage which is almost certainly not CGI or a hoax, and the behavior of the object is quite astonishing. When it first impacts the ground it skips like a stone across the surface of the water. It is clearly glowing intensely with energy and we cannot see wings, fins or any other semblance of an aircraft or missile fuselage. When it impacts the ground the second time it breaks up into multiple glowing pieces. The videographer appears to be in a moving vehicle as we see telephone poles moving between the camera and the object. When you watch as much UFO footage as we do, certain videos speak to you and I feel this is a genuine piece of UFO crash footage.
Top 20 UFO Videos Continue below
5) STS-48: the 'abrupt turn' footage (September 12, 1991):
There has been a great deal of analysis and discussion of this particular STS footage by a number of professional researchers in the field, so I'm not going to go into too much discussion about this one. Suffice it to say, this is NOT a piece of ice being blasted by a reaction control thruster as noted debunker and close-minded jackass James Oberg would have you believe. The footage speaks for itself, but if you would like more in-depth analysis check out the diagram and analysis of the footage by MUFON Australia.
6) STS-63: Dozens of UFOs seen while Mission Control looks for MIR (February 3, 1995):
This is an absolutely insane piece of footage from the STS-63 shuttle mission. Mission Control is helping the shuttle locate the MIR space station through what appears to be an entire cloud of debris and objects. Some of these objects move about on their own, independently while others appear to be stationary. It's almost comical because Mission Control and the shuttle crew have a very difficult time spotting MIR amongst all of the other objects and you can tell they're trying their best to remain calm and professional throughout the sequence. You may have to watch this footage multiple times in order to catch all the action.
7) The Phoenix Lights mass sighting event (March 13, 1997):
I won't go into too much depth on this event since, much like Roswell, everyone and their grandmother knows what happened in the skies over Phoenix, Arizona on the night of March 13th, 1997. If you aren't familiar with the Phoenix Lights, you can read a good summary of the event here. We have since learned, via several different sources in the field as well as abductees we have worked with, that this was viewed as a test the waters, first-contact event by the Visitors. It was considered a "mass witness" event by MUFON and achieved global notoriety at the time, with then-governor of AZ Fife Symington making a mockery of the entire thing. He would later go on the record and admit that he himself in fact saw the enormous, silent, boomerang shaped craft with his own eyes and he lied to the people of Phoenix about it at the time. There was initially some confusion regarding whether these lights were flares being dropped at a nearby military test range, but this was later clarified in the official MUFON report as well as the UFO documentary "Out Of The Blue" directed by James Fox.
This footage is particularly significant because of several factors: it was recorded by multiple people from multiple different vantage points, and the event lasted for several hours which rules out flares or Chinese lanterns. The footage was recorded on August 24, 1990 from the Greifswald Nuclear power plant in Greifswald, East Germany. East German and Russian personnel working at the nuclear power plant recorded these clusters of UFOs as they appeared to group in the sky over a very sensitive location. At times, the group is approached by other lights travelling across the sky until they join the larger group. Four amateur videos were taken from different vantage points: 1) Greifswald: Jürgen Luchterhand, 2) Greifswald, Mendeleyev-Str. 12: Ludmilla Ivanova M.D., 3) Greifswald, not far away from the address above: Valery Vinogradov 4) Harbour of Lauterbach (on Ringen Island): Irmgard and Ingo Kaiser.
One of these witnesses, Valery Vinagradov, states that he was not the only one to witness and document this event and claims that "hundreds of witnesses saw this anomalous event and many photographs were taken during also." He described the objects as being "glowing balls which hung in a strange formation in the sky. The spheres that made up the formation all appeared to rotate and hover, but in a stable and controlled type of fashion." He also stated that "They all acted together with no sudden movements." Later during the sighting, another sphere appeared and travels toward the group only to disappear as it reaches the cluster. It is for this reason that Valery does not believe that these objects were flares of any type.
9) Two terrified women record a huge, silent, triangular or boomerang shaped craft with highly irregular lighting pattern (November 13, 2007):
I drew attention to this particular piece of footage when I posted my special report "Giant Black Triangles: Ours or Theirs?" It was recorded by two women returning from a road trip about 60 miles north of Bakersfield, California in November of 2007. The footage depicts a very slow moving, very large and silent craft with an extremely unusual lighting configuration (non FAA standard for certain). Their reaction to this craft in the video clearly shows that they are highly disturbed, even frightened by this UFO. The video above shows the main sequence of events, but the full 16 minutes of raw footage can be downloaded from this source.
On Sunday, August 27, 1995, at 9:30 AM Tim Edwards of Salida, Colorado, was a witness to a strange aerial object first observed by his young daughter. He described the initial appearance as a slightly arced pencil size object darting around approximately 20 degrees west of the sun. As he watched it he realized it was unusual so he grabbed his 8 mm videocamera with an 8 power zoom. He also called his restaurant in Salida to alert other possible eyewitnesses. One of these people did see it and would later corroborate his description of the craft. Some minutes later his father arrived at his house and looked at the object through binoculars. Edwards also called a local radio station to alert others to look. Edwards also called the sheriff s office, a fact confirmed by the sheriff on September 7th. The sheriff s office had received no other reports. He also called the National UFO Reporting Hot Line number given to him by the sheriff s office. Between phone calls he filmed the object, managing to obtain only about 6 minutes of video during the roughly 1 hour sighting. According to Edwards, he and his father, using binoculars, could clearly see a double row of square or rectangular red and light green lights moving left to right and then back again. The structure width in between was probably equal to 1/2 - 1 row of the lights. "With binoculars the craft looked like a very large cigar shape and the outside structure appeared to gyroscope around an inner structure." MUFON's Dr. Bruce Maccabee analyzed the footage and wrote an extensive analysis of the sighting in August of 1996 which can be read here.
11) UFO 'mothership' releases dozens of smaller spherical probes, filmed from TWO different vantage points (May 22, 2009):
In this fascinating footage, shot by sky watcher Pedro Hernandez, a larger UFO releases what appear to be smaller intelligently controlled spheres or probes not far from a KLM 747 over Mexico City, Mexico. The video is quite interesting for a number of reasons, namely the fact that there simply cannot be enough internal physical space in the larger craft to hold the number of spheres it's releasing, suggesting that there may be a transdimensional element to this sighting. The larger craft seems to be operating as a 'portal' through which the smaller spheres come pouring out in bursts. Additionally, we have a second video of the same object shot from the opposite direction in different lighting conditions. Although the dialogue is in Spanish, there are english comments embedded in the video and it is quite self explanatory. As the film moves along, you will see the UFO emit a number of orbs. Hernandez is shown in the video, along with host Jamie Maussan. Please note that I am not a big supporter of Jamie Maussan, I think he tends to bite onto any UFO footage without doing enough objective investigation.
12) UFO Fleets over Mexico: Guadalajara, Mexico (June 10, 2004):
Mexico is no stranger to UFOs and of particular interest are the fleets or flotillas of numerous objects which have been recorded multiple times in multiple locations across a span of several years. The footage from Guadalajara (above) is notable due to it's overall clarity and detail. These objects are not balloons even though, at times, they almost appear to be attached to each other in clusters. These are independently moving, intelligently controlled orbs or spheres. Another fleet of craft similar to this footage was filmed in Mexico a year later on January 28th, 2005. Then in 2007 a cigar shaped craft was filmed releasing smaller spheres also in Mexico. Nearly five years later to the day, on January 27th, 2012 we have yet another fleet of similar craft filmed, this time the footage has been stabilized.
13) Italian astronomer films shadow of UFO on moons surface (April 29, 2007):
During routine observations of the moon, Italian amateur astronomer Alberto Mayer spotted and tracked on video what appears to be the shadow of a spherical object moving across the surface of the moon. We cannot make out the object itself, but we can see evidence of it's presence in the shadow projected on the moons surface. This is an interesting piece of footage due to the fact that it was recorded telescopically by an astronomer. The theory has been presented that the object could be a high altitude balloon within Earth's atmosphere (which even Alberto himself alludes to), but if you look very closely you can see that the shadow ripples and distorts with the surface terrain of the moon as it moves across. Until we have clearer analysis, I still consider this as a genuine UFO sighting.
Here we have some vintage UFO footage which fits our age criteria for authentic historical footage. This video includes the segments of the film relating to Delbert C. Newhouse's UFO footage filmed at 11:00 am, July 2nd, 1952 in the vicinity of Tremonton, Utah. At the time of filming Newhouse was a Chief Photographer, Commissioned Warrant Officer in the U.S. Navy which further adds to the authenticity of the footage and the credibility of the source. Included in this video is a rehearsed but accurate interview with Delbert Newhouse regarding the filming. Also included is a summary of the original conclusions of the Photo Reconnaissance Laboratory at Wright Patterson Air Force Base and the U.S. Navy Photo Interpretation Center as well as some breakdown analysis of the footage. For further analysis of this footage Kevin Randle over at the UFO Chronicles does a great job of clearing up some inconsistencies in the story.
15) Cooloongup, Western Australia UFO footage (December 16, 2011):
Even though this is a short piece of video without many details to go on, I felt it should be included in the Top 20 because of it's clarity and the lively description of the object by the videographer. The eyewitness, known only as 'Dylan', states: "I had a hard time keeping up with the object. It was moving pretty fast and I was in shock so the footage was a bit shaky. Does anyone know what this could be?" Apparently his girlfriend also saw this craft and the fact that this area of western Australia is a known hotspot for UFO activity factors into the authenticity of this footage.
16) ATV riders in Sweden accidentally capture a UFO with analysis by video expert (February, 2012):
This a great piece of more recent footage for a number of reasons, namely the fact that it was an accidental catch and (after seeing the expert analysis of the footage) very unlikely to be CGI. The eyewitness described the event in his own words, "In February, my cousin was out driving his ATV with his sister when suddenly he saw something strange in the sky. I have no idea what it could be but I want to share it with all of you. The coordinates are: 61.343924,15.050343, It is not the exact coordinates but it is around this place said my cousin.?? Closest town is Orsa."
The witness reached out to several video experts in the field and was rewarded with an excellent video breakdown which can be seen above. Click here to view the original unedited footage. Furthermore, you can watch an interview with the camera man here.
17) Radio transmission by two F-15 pilots who see a "UFO rock" floating at altitude (January 12, 2007):
Even though this isn't an actual UFO video per se, I feel it is significant due to the fact that this recording is of two fighter pilots which are trained observers. The RAF at Lakenheath actually admitted that this event took place and even released this recording to MUFON personnel tasked with investigating the incident. I cover this in much more depth as well as provide a written transcript of the transmissions in my special report on this incident.
Top 20 UFO Videos Continue below
18) Drone/UFO spotted near Hwy 41 in Lemoore, California (September 11, 2009):
This alleged video from California appears to show several smaller UFO/probes circling a larger 'mothership' type of craft in the sky. To the best of my knowledge, very little information is available about the origins or pedigree of this video clip, other than it carried a brief description when it was originally posted that stated the footage was "Captured with a digital camera along highway 41 near Lemoore, CA. September 11th, 2009." The original video was posted on Youtube on September 14th, 2009, but has since apparently been removed and the user's account has apparently been deleted (which can point toward a potential hoaxer).
Youtube user "Luna Cognita" does an excellent analysis job on this piece, and in their own words states; "Because this video footage has no pedigree information whatsoever supporting it, I am certainly in no way, shape, or form vouching for it's authenticity here. All I have done is taken a raw copy of the 16 seconds worth of footage and applied "Image Stabilization/Shake Reduction" and some other rudimentary enhancement techniques to it in an effort to improve the viewability of the scene. In these motion-corrected examples, I elected to use portions of the power/utility pole located in the foreground as the target feature to match and mount each successive frame of raw footage to. Because the utility pole is a known stable object and is visible throughout the duration of the scene, it serves as an excellent target feature to anchor each successive frame to."
You can read more about the analysis that was done on the Youtube video description page. Could this footage be CGI? Yes, it could, but as I said about the UFO crashing in the desert footage, there's something about this footage that oozes realism to me. The fact that it roughly resembles the "CARET" dragonfly UFO/drone and was spotted in an area of California which was, at that time, in the midst of a wave of drone sightings makes it even more interesting. I'm including this footage in the Top 20, however without further details as to the source it remains a tantalizing--yet unproven--piece of footage.
Mauricio Ruiz is a Texas State Corrections Officer who has recorded what appears to be a near crystal clear daylight UFO on multiple occasions. The footage is so clear that our initial thought was that it had to be a hoax, but upon further investigation that notion begins to quickly fade. There are some in the field that still hold true to this being a hoax perpetrated by Mauricio (remember, he's in law enforcement so this would not be good for his career) but after personally speaking with Mr. Ruiz on several occasions I do not believe he is lying about what he's captured on film multiple times. His footage has been analyzed by MUFON Texas and the UFO Chasers television show (above) and been found to be an 'authentic object.' Whether or not it's an RC vehicle or a hoax cleverly constructed from a solar yard light, as suggested by Forgetomori, remains to be seen. Personally, I believe Mr. Ruiz to be genuine, but his footage likely requires further investigation.
20) UFO/probe inspects the Concorde during it's first transatlantic flight (January, 1976):
Last but not least, we have some intriguing footage from 1976 of what appears to be a small white 'probe' of some sort investigating the Concorde SST during her maiden transatlantic flight. This footage is significant due to it's age and the fact that the footage originates from Aérospatiale themselves, adding credence to the authenticity of the footage.
Runners Up...
Low flying orb filmed in Dundee, Scotland, 2009 - This is interesting footage indeed, but not quite enough information for us to make any solid determination from. If anyone has further details regarding this footage, please contact us.
Edinburgh, Scotland footage from 2010 - I personally love this footage because it's so bright and clear, the lens flares from the mult-colored lights are brilliant and strange, but there's just not enough to go on. On a related note: Edinburgh has long been a Top 10 UFO hotspot in the world. If anyone has further details regarding this footage, please contact us.
This wraps up "Top 20" UFO videos of all time, as ranked by Agent K & Agent D of The Object Report.
