Ever since the first UFO sighting nearly 400 years ago, reports of unidentified flying objects and encounters with the unknown have been ongoing. With all of the technology available to us nowadays, it's rare that anything goes undocumented, which is why the most recent UFO sightings - all having happened within the last two decades - are the most believable. Certain evidence points not toward the fact that extraterrestrial life exists but, rather, to the fact that it's impossible to point to the fact that it doesn't exist. Evidence collected during all of these alleged UFO encounters points to the fact that there is simply too much reasonable doubt to say, definitively, that any one of them has been made up, fictionalized, or simply holds no water.
It was also recently, during 2017, that word got out about the existence of a program called AATIP, otherwise known as the Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program. This program was not only government-funded but was designed to investigate any manner of a flying object that had yet to be identified as a spacecraft belonging to the US or another country. Upon further digging, it was revealed that since the 1940s, the US government has been researching unidentified flying objects and that this is actually nothing new.
The O'Hare International Airport Craft
The unique thing about this sighting is that it wasn't just seen by a passerby on the ground or by someone driving along the road. The sighting was actually reported by an employee of United Airlines, who was standing on the tarmac of the airport. Not only did it come from a highly reputable source but it was witnessed from a location that's not random; not a backyard or the deep woods somewhere, or even a deserted highway, which is where many sightings had come from prior to this. The other interesting facet to this encounter is that the sighting was actually reported by more than one person, including a total of 12 employees who worked for United Airlines at the time, along with the story being corroborated by several witnesses from outside the airport staff.
According to witness reports, a dark grey saucer appeared to hover over gate C17 and hung around for at least five minutes, which is also a fairly long time when talking about an encounter this close and personal. On November 7th, 2006, witnesses say that shortly after 4:15 PM, the saucer-shaped object shot straight up into the sky with enough force to break apart the cloud cover above it. Interestingly enough, the craft was never picked up on the FAA radar, which meant that an investigation was not required, and it never happened, with the FAA referred to it as a 'weather phenomenon.'
The Stephenville Sightings
Two years later, in Stephenville, Texas, during 2008, witnesses reported strange phenomena in the sky just after dark. Although Stephenville is no more than 100 miles outside of Dallas, the town is home to mostly just farms, making it easy to see the night sky with no nearby light pollution. This is also why the sighting is so eerie - not only is it dark enough to see the night sky clearly, but the witnesses reported seeing lights that were not created by man, satellite, or plane.
The lights first appeared over Highway 47, and witnesses reported seeing them in a horizontal arc-like shape before shifting vertically. A local pilot by the name of Steve Allen estimated that the lights must have gone on for a total length of a mile, with the width being something akin to a half-mile. While they were silent, it was also estimated that these lights were whipping by at a speed of 3,000 miles per hour. The sighting was compared to a similar sighting in 1997, where lights over the city of Pheonix displayed the same qualities. The US Air Force claimed that it was due to training that was ongoing in the area, but many people still don't buy it due to the sheer speed and span of the lights.
The New Jersey Turnpike Lights
In 2001, an interesting sighting happened over the New Jersey Turnpike. On July 14th of that year, witnesses who were driving along the New Jersey Turnpike reported seeing orange and yellow lights that appeared to be flying in a V-shaped formation, which went on for roughly 15 minutes. Just like the other sightings, there were credible witnesses, one of whom was Lt. Daniel Tarrant of the Carteret Police Department. Other witnesses included those from Long Island as well as other residents of New Jersey.
Although no conclusion has ever been drawn about these strangely-formated lights, air traffic controllers in the area have denied having ever seen or gotten any reports of aircraft in the area at the time. The New York Strange Phenomena Investigators, however, have reported data from the FAA radar that seem to corroborate the stories of witnesses, claiming to confirm the fact that there was some kind of aircraft in the air at that time.