Published: 17:48 BST, 19 May 2025 | Updated: 10:33 BST, 20 May 2025
A
UFO slammed into a US fighter jet
over Arizona, cracking the canopy protecting the pilot, and forcing the $63 million plane to land, new reports have revealed.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the
F-16 Viper fighter jet was hit by an 'orange-white UAS' - which stands for
uncrewed aerial system, better known as a drone -
on January 19, 2023.
Within a day of this collision, there were three more unidentified aircraft sightings over the Air Force's Barry Goldwater Range, where the fighter was damaged, the documents stated.
Barry Goldwater Range is an expanse of desert along the Arizona-Mexico border where the military practices air-to-air and air-to-ground combat.
The FAA's report of the F-16 collision revealed that the fighter was flying in restricted airspace near Gila Bend,
Arizona, when it was hit by the object in the rear of the canopy, the glass bubble which protects the pilot.
No injuries were reported. The Air Force did not reveal how much damage the jet suffered, but the plane was grounded for repairs.
These new details come as a stunning report from the Department of Defense's
All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) shows there have been hundreds of UFO reports made in recent years and Arizona is becoming the nation's new UFO hotspot.
AARO serves as a centralized department which looks into all things related to Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) sightings and reports which could impact national security or air safety.
The F-16 collision is just one of 22 incidents involving Air Force fighter pilots seeing or crashing into strange objects between October 2022 and June 2023, according to
azfamily.com.
Most of the encounters took place within 100 miles of Luke Air Force Base, where many of the F-16 fighter jets using Barry Goldwater Range launch from.
Although the FAA said there's no evidence that the collision involved something extraterrestrial, it's one of several recent UFO incidents that have plagued US airspace over Arizona.
In fact, some of these strange sightings involved swarms of up to eight mysterious objects flying over Air Force training bases along the US border with
Mexico.
Between 2016 and 2020, military pilots reported seeing unidentified drone-like objects over the state eight times.
The new FAA details come as another government report shows that there were 757 sightings of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) worldwide reported between May 2023 and June 2024 alone - and only 49 of these cases have been solved.
When incidents like the F-16 collision occur, the pilot files a report, which the FAA investigates using radar and other data. If the incident involves a UFO, it's sent to AARO for further investigation.
At least 410 of these 757 new UAP reports from around the world occurred over the US, with the vast majority being sent in by the FAA between May 1, 2023 and June 1, 2024.
However, many more of these encounters took place over restricted military airspace, and the AARO report did not reveal where exactly these sightings occurred.
Despite the secrecy, UFO whistleblowers are revealing that many are taking place in Arizona. That includes Luis Elizondo, a former government intelligence officer who investigated these cases before leaving the Pentagon.
'A lot of people reporting a lot of things out of Arizona, particularly on the border,'
Elizondo disclosed.
Bob Thompson, who spent 14 years with US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), also recently shared never-before-seen videos of UFOs spotted over Arizona.
'I've seen orbs that were off in the distance. I've seen crafts that were cigar-shaped, I've seen triangles,' the whistleblower told
NewsNation.
Thompson added that over 100 CBP agents have confessed to him that they have seen strange and unidentified objects flying along the US border.
These sightings included US border agents witnessing terrifying 'portals' opening into the sky.
'I got told that they witnessed a portal opening up in the sky and there were pictures of it on a camera that I was able to see,' Thompson revealed.
Although hundreds of these strange sightings sent to AARO are still marked as open investigations, many in the government are blaming Mexico - not aliens.
Specifically, there's a growing belief that the surge in unidentified drone sightings is due to drug cartels
launching high-tech spy missions into the US.
'We're seeing drones… used as scouting patrols, to watch Border Patrol,' NewsNation's border report Ali Bradley explained.
Unlike drones which the US government believed were launched by China, these new drones are harder to detect and also larger so they can potentially carry bigger packages of drugs across the border.
Trump Administration border czar Tom Homan has added that many of these sightings are likely high-tech drones spying on US military bases in Arizona.
Bradley noted that one of the cartels' top goals is to infiltrate US military facilities, so they can stay one step ahead of patrols enforcing illegal immigration and drug trafficking.
Of the 49 AARO investigations that have been closed, the UFOs were determined to be airplanes, balloons, birds, drones, and satellites that were mistaken as alien aircraft.
AARO has recommended that another 243 cases be closed for the same reasons.
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