HUNDREDS of sailors stood mesmerised as they gazed up at what they claim was a 40ft-wide “UFO orb” hovering above a US Navy aircraft carrier.
A “glowing orange ball” spotted over the flight deck of the nuclear-powered USS Ronald Reagan has gone down as one of the most mysterious sightings in US military history.
U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate 2nd Class Chad McNeeleyThe flight deck of the USS Ronald Reagan[/caption]
Derek Smith said he is not prone to paranormal beliefs and yet vividly remembers his sighting despite years having passedDerek Smith
US NavyWitness Karol Olesiak aboard USS Ronald Reagan circa 2003[/caption]
And it’s never been explained.
Documentary filmmaker Dave C. Beaty – who produced 2019 film The Nimitz Encounters about another famous Navy UFO case – has been probing the mystery for years.
Beaty has interviewed a number of sailors who, to this day, insist that what they saw off the East Coast that night in early 2004 was a UFO.
Efforts to understand what took place have been hampered by the fact no official confirmation was ever given.
And one witness claimed senior officers acted suspiciously in the aftermath.
But Beaty told The Sun he believes there are more witnesses who can provide testimony – and believes their accounts are key to narrowing down when the event actually took place.
Seaman Patrick Gokey, who was serving on the ship that night, said the object “did not move in ways that I’ve seen other aircraft maneuver and it was faster than anything I’ve ever seen”.
He estimated as many as 200 sailors saw it.
And former Navy quartermaster Karol Olesiak, who was on watch from 8pm to 12am and was responsible for the ship’s logbook, also recalled the glowing orb.
He claimed it was about 40ft wide and hovered above the carrier for four hours from around 8pm onwards.
He described it as reminding him of Biblical descriptions of the “burning bush” and having “negative energy”.
Olesiak alleged he was told not to log the encounter by the Officer of the Deck.
He told The Sun: “I asked, should I be logging this?
“I might have asked the conning officer and I don’t remember exactly what he said, but the impression that I got was that this should not be in the official log.”
He also said there was an eerie calm among senior officers and bridge crew – as if they had seen such phenomena before.
“The entire bridge team was pilots,” he said.
“My assumption is yes [they had seen something similar before], but I asked an officer if any of them were talking about it the next day and he said ‘yes’.”
Olesiak believes its “possible” someone may have taken photos and videos of the object – but the incident occurred before camera phones were common and crew did not carry their mobiles.
“It’s hard to believe somebody would be sitting on it for this long,” he said.
I can still visualise this object in my head to a tee regardless of 18 years having passed. All I know is it was something I could not explain
Derek Smith
Derek Smith, a former Boatswain’s Mate Seaman, said he remembers the sighting “as if it occurred yesterday”, calling it the “most mysterious thing” he has ever seen.
Smith, who was on starboard watch, said he noticed “all the people on the flight deck” looking up at the object.
He said the next day was simply “normal” – but his shipmates were discussing it, some dismissing the giant object as a “weather balloon” – to which he said “hell no”.
“I [can] still visualise this object in my head to a tee regardless of 18 years having passed,” Smith previously told The Sun.
“I do believe the government knows more than what they lead us to believe.”
Smith stressed he was “an average Joe” with no paranormal experiences before or since.
He said: “All I know is it was something I could not explain. I could say now though I am starting to feel like I witnessed something special.”
Derek’s colleague claims she tried to report it to the bridge, but was told to “quit smoking crack”.
And she also claims that while speaking to the ship’s bridge, they said they were tracking the object on radar as it followed them doing “swoop” maneuvers.
Some of the witness testimonies vary, offering different times of day and duration of the encounter – but all agree the orange fireball was spotted near the ship.
The SunMock-up shows a ball of orange light hovering over the ship’s flight deck[/caption]
The SunMock-up of a UFO hovering over an aircraft carrier at night[/caption]
US NavyA ‘UFO orb’ is said to have been seen from the USS Ronald Reagan in early 2004[/caption]
Constructing a timeline
Beaty has spent years piecing together the timeline of the encounter – and believes “many more people” saw the mysterious event.
He told The Sun: “In my effort to understand the timeline I still have to go on some of the witnesses who arrived on the ship late in 2003 in the November and December timeline.
“It’s interesting to begin narrowing it down.
“The ship left Norfolk in May of 2004 with a partial crew to sail to its new home port in San Diego.
“The command summary report shows what the vessel was doing during those months – at port or out to sea.
“So there really are only a few times this event could have happened.
“With thousands of people on the ship – it’s likely many more people had seen this event.”
Beaty said the aftermath echoed other cases of UFO cases reported by US servicemen.
He explained: “In reading Robert Hastings’ book on nukes, many of his reports from Air Force bases had a similar-looking UFO – a glowing orange ball or oval.
“In fact, one of his witnesses had a similar experience with all of these men seeing the UFO – and then seemingly have no interest in it moments later. Like it never happened.
“I tried to contact that veteran but he had passed. But it’s certainly a curious part of this case.”
Now, Beaty is urging sailors to come forward with new information or clues – to finally crack the case.
With UFOs a hot topic in Washington, Beaty admitted it would be “nice to have some answers” over what he saw on the Reagan – and believes the government “knows more than what they lead us to believe”.
The SunMock-up shows a military aircraft carrier on the sea with fighter jets and personnel as well as an orb hovering over its deck[/caption]
Is the Pentagon reluctant to investigate UFO reports?
But the Pentagon has been accused of not doing enough to probe unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs) – the preferred term for UFOs.
Those who claim to have seen UAPs argue this is a national security concern that successive U.S. governments have failed to take seriously.
The Pentagon created the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office in 2022 to track UAPs.
757 cases from across the world were reported to US authorities between 1 May 2023 and 1 June 2024 – including 272 older sightings that had not previously been recorded.
Most reports occurred in airspace, with 49 at altitudes of at least 62 miles.
Witnesses included commercial and military pilots as well as ground observers.
After reviewing the evidence, the Pentagon concluded in a report last November: “It is important to underscore that, to date, AARO has discovered no evidence of extraterrestrial beings, activity or technology.”
The report found hundreds of sightings were in fact misidentified balloons, birds, drones and satellites.
Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite network was also often mistaken for UFOs. But not all sightings have been explained.
The Pentagon is still probing a report from commercial flight crew of a near-miss with a “cylindrical object” over the Atlantic Ocean off New York.
Intelligence chiefs have urged servicemen to come forward and said they hoped the stigma around reporting was now breaking down.
What is the USS Ronald Reagan?
USS Ronald Reagan is a Nimitz-class, nuclear-powered supercarrier belonging to the US Navy.
The ninth ship of her class, she was acquired in 2003 and named in honour of Ronald Reagan, who served as US president from 1981 to 1989.
The 101,000-tonne, 1,092ft-long vessel is powered by two nuclear reactors.
Her maiden active deployment came in 2006, when she conducted naval operations during the Iraq invasion and the war in Afghanistan.
At the time of the UFO sighting, the ship had a crew of 5,680 sailors, an air wing of 2,480 and 80 warplanes.
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UFO CasebookAlleged UFO spotted over Chicago’s O’Hare Airport in 2006[/caption]
GettyA WSJ investigation revealed in June that some UFO conspiracy theories actually began inside the Department of Defense[/caption]