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Two airline pilot spy amysterious , contemplative objecthovering some 40,000 foot ( 12,000 meters ) over southerly Arizona last month , and the Federal Aviation Administration ( FAA ) is stumped .

accord to wireless transmissions between the befuddled pilots and air traffic comptroller ( which you may mind to in full , thanks to an FAA transcription recentlyreleased to the Phoenix New Times ) , the sighting take place around 3:30 p.m. local time on Feb. 24 , somewhere over the Sonoran Desert near Phoenix .

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Two separate flights reported seeing the same ‘UFO’ in the Arizona desert in February.

" Was anybody above us that passed us like 30 seconds ago ? " the first pilot asked while flying a Learjet west toward California . [ 7 thing Most Often Mistaken for UFOs ]

" Negative , " an air traffic accountant at the FAA ’s Albuquerque Air Traffic Center in New Mexico answered .

" okay , " the pilot responded . " Something did . "

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The object , whatever it was , was flying high — at least a few thousand pes above the jet , which was cruise at an altitude of around 37,000 groundwork ( 11,000 m ) , theNew Times reported . A few hour afterward , the FAA ask another nearby flight — an American Airlines Airbus traveling in the same direction — to keep an eye out for anything " spend over " it in the desert .

The mazed pilot agreed . And certainly enough , within a few minutes , the Airbus crew saw the same mystery target vanish over their planing machine .

" Yeah , something just passed over us , " the Airbus pilot film report . " I could n’t make it out , whether it was a balloon or what … but it had a adult reflection on it and it was several thousand pes above us , going the opposite direction . "

A photograph of the Ursa Major constellation in the night sky.

Several week later , say-so are still stump as to the object ’s rootage . Beyond these two airplane pilot reports , the FAA could n’t verify that any other aircraft were around . It likely was n’t a " Google balloon , " the FAA reported , nor a conditions balloon or a military craft .

" We have a nigh workings relationship with a number of other means and safely handle military aircraft and civilian aircraft of all type in that arena every daylight , including high - altitude weather balloon , " an FAA representative tell the New Times .

In other words , whatever theUFOwas , the FAA should have known about it . But it did n’t .

A white streak of light in the night sky with purple auroras visible in the background

This report comes just a few month after a former Pentagon official let out that the government has been softly run anofficial UFO detection programsince 2007 . An investigating into the programme by The New York Times turn up striking footage taken by two Navy combatant pilot film , whoappear to encounter a mysterious glowing object midair .

Reports like these may be more plebeian than you opine . harmonise to theNational UFO Reporting Center — an on-line database of alleged UFO sightings in America — there have been nearly 650 UFO sightings reported so far in 2018 . However , the website advises , " Many of the fresh write up have been submitted by individuals who elect to remain anonymous … we boost visitor to our website to be discriminating in what they accept as accurate and dependable . "

Originally publish onLive Science .

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