Audio from a recent live air traffic control broadcast in Rhode Island has gone viral. During the conversation, an air traffic controller tells a pilot, “Good luck with the aliens,” after he spots a UFO near his plane.
The pilot, flying a Piper PA-32RT-300T Turbo Lance II over Rhode Island, can be heard telling air traffic control, “It appears to be standing still.” The fact that he was flying at 3,500 feet and the object appeared to not be attached to anything made the pilot’s UFO sighting even more bizarre.
Ruling out the UFO being a drone or a weather balloon, the pilot called the sighting “astonishing.” He compared the object to a silver canister and said it was just “hovering” along beside his plane just a few feet away.
“Looks like a strange, small object that we just floated by. A small silver canister. Do you know what that could be?” the pilot told air traffic control.
Air traffic control reported back to the pilot that it did not know what the object was and asked for more details. “It was right off our wingtip. Small silver canister,” the pilot replied.
“Creepy!” the air traffic controller responded. Then another air traffic controller added, “Good luck with the aliens!”
Naturally, the Federal Aviation Administration has not publicly commented on the reported UFO appearing over Rhode Island.
People rarely spot UFO sightings in Rhode Island, but they have seen mysterious cylindrical-shaped objects elsewhere before
According to The Providence Journal, as of August 2025, there have been 1,022 total UFO sightings in Rhode Island since May 2018. That number places it just 44th in the United States for UFO sightings.
Earlier this year, video taken from a Customs and Border Patrol reconnaissance plane showed a short, cylindrical object moving quickly without any visible wings or propellers.
In 2023, images captured by a U.S. Air Force Reaper drone appeared to show a skinny, cylindrical-shaped UFO over Iraq.
Two years prior to that, an American Airlines flight reported seeing a fast-moving “long, cylindrical” UFO in New Mexico airspace. In that case, the FBI conducted an investigation. The FAA also stated that “air traffic controllers did not see any object in the area on their radarscopes.”