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Back in February, America’s attention was captured by multiple UFOs being tracked and intercepted by the US Air Force (one of which can be seen in the photo above).
Two weeks ago, the Pentagon revealed that the United States is actively investigating over 650 UFO sightings.
Over the weekend, another UFO sighting was added to the list when a C-17 was asked to divert to investigate an object in the sky near Hawaii.
Message text was the following: "SIR THIS IS TE 613 AOC AMD WE HAVE A CURRENT SITUATION BREWING HERE SOUTH EAST OF THE BIG ISLAND AND LEADERSHIP IS ASKING IF YOU HAVE PHOTO TAKING CAPABILITY"
— IntelWalrus (@IntelWalrus) April 29, 2023
The US Air Force eventually ended up scrambling three F-22 Raptor stealth fighters to intercept the UFO. This was later confirmed by U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) and the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD).
“U.S. Indo-Pacific Command responded to an unidentified radar signature Friday in the vicinity of the island of Hawaii. Pacific Air Forces launched three F-22s to assess the situation and visually identified a spherical object,” a spokesperson for INDOPACOM told The War Zone in a statement. “We monitored the transit of the object and assessed that it posed no threat. As a part of our normal daily operations, we closely track all vessels and aircraft in the Indo-Pacific area of operations through a combination of joint capabilities to protect the U.S. homeland, support our Allies and partners and secure a free and open Indo-Pacific.”
The local who posted on the Hawaii Tracker Facebook page specified that they were in the air at the time. They were informed by Hilo departure that Honolulu CNTR had advised them of a military operation over the big island and civs were instructed to stay offshore. 3/7
— TieDye Intel (@TieDyeIntel) May 1, 2023
...however, they were on the ground at around 2130z, and back up in the air at around 2300z, and possibly back down at around 0100z. Multiple people got pictures of the F22s that I have geolocated and confirmed to be at Hilo airport (19.716343, -155.037608). 5/7 pic.twitter.com/XSC6BNAXQU
— TieDye Intel (@TieDyeIntel) May 1, 2023
A Department of Defense spokesperson also told The War Zone in a statement, “The Department of Defense and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) detected and observed April 28th an unmanned, balloon off the coast of Hawaii, floating at approximately 36,000 feet. Ownership of the balloon is unknown, but there is no indication that it was maneuvering or being controlled by a foreign or adversarial actor.”
The OSD statement continued, “The balloon did not transit directly over defense critical infrastructure or other U.S. Government sensitive sites, nor did it pose a military or physical threat to people on the ground. Although it was flying at an altitude used by civil aviation, it posed no threat to civil aviation over Hawaii. Based on these observations, the Secretary of Defense concurred with the recommendation of his military commanders that no action need be taken against the balloon. The balloon is now out of Hawaii’s airspace and territorial waters. We will continue to track the balloon with the FAA.”
NBC News was the first to report on the situation.