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Federal Aviation Administration

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the civil aviation authority of the United States, responsible for directing and regulating air traffic. In the UFO/UAP context, it comes up mainly because of its role in airspace safety, pilot reporting and drone matters.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is a federal agency within the U.S. Department of Transportation. Its responsibilities are regulating and overseeing civil aviation, operating air traffic control, and licensing airlines, aircraft, pilots and airports. The FAA was created in 1958 under the name Federal Aviation Agency, as the legal successor to the earlier civil aviation authority. In 1967 it was placed under the Department of Transportation, and that is when it received its current name.

Connection to the UFO/UAP topic

The FAA has no dedicated UFO investigation program. However, it comes into contact with unidentified aerial phenomena at several points:

  • Pilots and air traffic controllers can report their observations; the FAA records these and, in UAP matters, forwards them to the relevant agencies, today primarily to AARO.
  • The FAA is responsible for airspace safety, so reports concerning unknown or unauthorized aircraft, such as drones, also come to it. During the New Jersey drone sightings in late 2024, it also ordered temporary flight restrictions.
  • In a few well-known cases, the FAA itself investigated or was involved. Examples include the 1986 Alaska sighting by Japan Airlines Flight 1628, where the agency conducted an official investigation, and the 2006 Chicago O’Hare case, where the FAA initially denied having received a report, but it later turned out that there had been one.

Official and skeptical positions

According to the official finding, the FAA's task is aviation safety, not investigating unknown phenomena. In such matters, other government agencies, such as AARO (All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office), are responsible. According to skeptics, most reports by pilots and controllers can be explained by ordinary causes, such as aircraft, balloons, drones or optical phenomena. Some UFO researchers and politicians, by contrast, are pushing for observations by flight personnel to be collected more systematically and made accessible.

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