Freshly declassified FBI documents from the 1960s have revived interest in unidentified flying objects after revealing unusual witness claims involving mysterious craft and small humanoid figures in "space suits and helmets".
The records were released on Friday as part of a transparency initiative launched under the administration of US President Donald Trump. Hundreds of documents, photographs and videos related to Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) were uploaded as part of the disclosure effort.
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Among them, a 1966 internal memo sent from the FBI's San Francisco office to then-director J. Edgar Hoover has drawn particular attention.
Witnesses describe mysterious figures and unusual craft
According to the memo cited by The Times of India, investigators reviewed several reports involving landed UFOs and alleged occupants seen near the objects.
The document states, "A few witnesses have reported seeing crewmen who had landed from the objects," and described the figures as "three and a half to four feet tall, wearing what appear to be space suits and helmets".
The memo also referred to 1965 as "the year of the greatest number of UFO sightings" around the world.
Witnesses reportedly described polished metallic objects that could hover silently before suddenly moving away at "fantastic speeds". Some accounts claimed the objects interfered with electrical equipment and power sources through unidentified force fields.
In several cases, investigators noted reports of scorched ground beneath the craft after take-off.
FBI graphic overlay shows alleged bronze UFO appearing from bright light before vanishing instantly. war.gov/UFO/ Reports of recovered debris and secrecy claims
The newly-released files also mention alleged recovery of debris from crashed flying saucers on three separate occasions.
Laboratory examinations described some fragments as "exceptionally hard unknown metal" and magnesium alloys. One material reportedly contained "thousands of 15-micron metal spheres throughout" and showed signs of micro-meteorite impacts.
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The memo further discussed public attention surrounding the book Flying Saucers – Serious Business by author Frank Edwards. According to the files, the FBI monitored claims that the US Air Force had "deliberately withheld information and given misleading explanations because it fears a mass panic by the public if the public were told the truth".
US Indo-Pacific Command reported UAP that resembles a football-shaped body near Japan. war.gov/UFO/ The documents also referenced former US President Gerald Ford, who, as a congressman at the time, had called for official hearings into UFO sightings.
Despite the sensational claims, officials stressed that the files document witness accounts and contemporary discussions, not proof of extraterrestrial life.
