If you’ve seen something in the sky you can’t explain, you have several options for reporting it, depending on whether you’re a civilian, a pilot, or a government employee. The main channels are the U.S. government’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), the FAA (for pilots), civilian organizations like MUFON, and newer mobile apps designed for quick submissions.
Reporting to the U.S. Government Through AARO
The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office is the Pentagon’s official body for collecting and analyzing reports of unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP), the term that has largely replaced “UFO” in government language. As of June 2024, AARO had reviewed over 1,600 total cases, with 757 reports received in the most recent reporting period alone.
Right now, AARO’s online reporting form is limited to current or former U.S. government employees, service members, and contractor personnel who have firsthand knowledge of a government program or activity related to UAP. If you fall into that category, you can download a report form directly from aaro.mil. The form is designed as an initial point of contact. After you submit it, AARO staff may follow up for additional details or schedule an interview. Importantly, you should not submit classified or export-controlled information through the online form.
For government and military reporters, there’s a significant legal protection worth knowing about: under the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2023, disclosures made to AARO are shielded from nondisclosure agreements and classified information restrictions. This means whistleblowers can share UAP-related information without risking legal consequences tied to prior secrecy agreements.
If you’re a member of the general public, AARO has stated it will announce when a public reporting mechanism becomes available, but that hasn’t happened yet. In the meantime, civilians have other options.
How Pilots Should Report Sightings
If you’re a pilot and you see something unusual during flight, the FAA’s Aeronautical Information Manual directs you to report UAP sightings to air traffic control promptly. These reports get logged as Pilot Reports (PIREPs), which the FAA forwards to AARO. This is currently one of the most direct pipelines from civilian observers into the government’s review process.
The AIM also notes that if you believe life or property could be endangered by what you’re observing, you should contact local law enforcement directly.
Filing a Report With MUFON
The Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) is the largest and longest-running civilian organization dedicated to investigating UFO sightings. Anyone can file a report, and MUFON assigns trained field investigators to follow up on cases.
When you submit a sighting to MUFON (through their website at mufon.com), you’ll need to provide the date, time, and exact location of the event, along with a detailed description of what you saw. Witness names and contact details are requested, though you can choose to remain anonymous. If you have photos, video, or any physical evidence, you’re encouraged to include those as well. MUFON investigators will document their own observations and analysis alongside your account, and each case receives a case number for tracking.
The more specific you can be, the better. Noting the direction you were facing, the object’s apparent size relative to something familiar (like a star or the moon), its movement pattern, and how long you observed it all help investigators evaluate the report.
Using Mobile Reporting Apps
A newer option is Enigma, a smartphone app built specifically for reporting and identifying aerial phenomena. It has a few features that set it apart from filling out a web form. The app includes a built-in camera that captures metadata frame by frame, recording technical details about each moment of your video automatically. This kind of embedded data (location, time, device orientation) is harder to fabricate and more useful to analysts than a description written from memory.
Enigma also has an augmented reality “Identify Lens” that can cross-reference what you’re seeing against known objects like satellites, aircraft, stars, and planets. This helps filter out common misidentifications before you ever file a report. The app walks you through entering location, time, and a description, and lets you attach photos and video directly.
One caveat: user reviews have noted that the app’s quality-rating system for sightings isn’t well explained, and some posts with obvious issues have received high ratings. It’s a useful tool for quick, data-rich submissions, but it’s still maturing as a platform.
What to Document Before You Report
Regardless of which channel you use, the quality of your report depends heavily on what you capture in the moment and write down shortly after. Here’s what matters most:
- Time and duration: Note the exact time you first saw the object and how long the sighting lasted. Check your phone’s clock rather than estimating.
- Location and direction: Your precise location (a GPS pin from your phone is ideal) and the direction you were looking. Cardinal directions, elevation angle, and nearby landmarks all help.
- Appearance and behavior: Shape, color, brightness, whether it was steady or pulsing, how it moved, whether it changed direction or speed, and whether it made any sound.
- Weather and sky conditions: Clear, cloudy, foggy, windy. Was the moon visible? Were stars out? These details help investigators rule out atmospheric effects.
- Photos and video: Steady footage is more valuable than shaky clips. If you can brace your phone against something solid, do it. Even a few seconds of stable video is more useful than minutes of blur.
- Other witnesses: If anyone else saw it, get their contact information. Multiple independent accounts of the same event dramatically increase a report’s credibility.
Write your account as soon as possible after the sighting. Memory degrades quickly, and details you’re certain of an hour later may feel fuzzy by the next morning.
Reporting Outside the United States
If you’re in Canada, the reporting landscape is more fragmented. Transport Canada collects aviation-related UAP sightings through its Civil Aviation Daily Occurrence Reporting System (CADORS), and pilots, air traffic controllers, and members of the public can submit reports through an online aviation incident application. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police also receives UAP reports from the public across the country, and provincial police forces in Ontario and Quebec may take reports involving public safety concerns.
That said, Canada currently has no single, centralized platform for public UAP reporting. A 2024 government review acknowledged this gap and recommended identifying a lead federal department to manage public UAP data. For now, your best options are Transport Canada’s reporting system for anything aviation-related, local law enforcement if there’s a safety concern, or civilian organizations like MUFON, which accept international reports.
In the UK, the Ministry of Defence closed its dedicated UFO desk in 2009 and no longer investigates sightings. Most other countries lack formal public reporting systems, making international civilian organizations the most consistent option worldwide.