Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
OrgGovernment AgencyFederal Aviation Administration (FAA)
OrgGovernment AgencyThe FAA regulates U.S. civil aviation, manages the national airspace system, certifies aircraft and operators, and investigates safety hazards within its authority.
The FAA regulates U.S. civil aviation, manages the national airspace system, certifies aircraft and operators, and investigates safety hazards within its authority.
The Federal Aviation Administration is the United States agency responsible for regulating civil aviation and operating the national airspace system. Created as an independent agency in 1958 and placed within the Department of Transportation in 1967, it certifies aircraft and airmen, sets safety rules, manages air traffic, licenses commercial space launches, and maintains aviation infrastructure.
FAA data include radar and flight tracks, air-traffic communications, pilot reports, notices, weather coordination, and information from airlines and airports. Those systems are designed for safe separation and identification, not necessarily for scientific study of anomalies. Records may be retained under different operational rules, and military traffic or classified activity can fall outside what a civilian controller is permitted to know. The agency’s air-traffic organization maintains control centers, approach facilities, towers, surveillance systems, and communications across the national airspace. Aviation safety offices separately oversee certification and reporting, while the commercial-space office licenses launches and reentries. Those divisions can hold different pieces of one event, making accurate office and record identification important for later reconstruction.
Pilots sometimes report airborne UAP through aviation or law-enforcement channels, and the FAA contributed to interagency UAP assessments. Its traffic data can identify aircraft, balloons, launch activity, or restricted airspace and can corroborate timing. The agency does not determine extraterrestrial origin, and a controller’s inability to identify a target in real time is only the beginning of analysis.
FAA’s institutional importance is the bridge between safety reporting and national-security investigation. Standardized intake, stigma-free pilot reporting, and preservation of relevant data would improve work by AARO and independent analysts. The agency’s strongest contribution is a reliable civil-aviation baseline against which genuinely unusual activity can be measured.
On this day 20 years ago, United Airlines employees reported a silent gray disc hovering over O’Hare’s Gate C17 before shooting upward and leaving a hole in the clouds. FAA records released under FOIA confirm the tower received the report but the FAA declined to investigate further. https://t.co/PFiUhprMxS
On 7 November 2006, around 4:30 PM, a United ramp worker pushing a plane back from Gate C17 looked up and saw a dark gray, disc-shaped object hovering silently beneath the ~1,900 ft overcast. Within minutes, mechanics taxiing a 777, supervisors, and the pilots of the 737 near C17 were watching too. Size estimates based on witness accounts ranged from 6 to 24 ft, with no lights and no sound. After several minutes it reportedly shot straight up through the clouds, leaving a clear hole that clos...
Probed ingest of: Japan’s Defense Minister: “We Can’t Rule Out ALIENS!”
November 17, 1986. Japan Airlines cargo flight 1628 is crossing Alaska at 35,000 feet. Captain Kenju Terauchi, a former fighter pilot with 29 years of experience, reports lights pacing his 747, then a massive object he described as “two times bigger than an aircraft carrier.” The encounter lasts nearly 50 minutes, witnessed by all three crew. An Air Force radar briefly showed a target near the jet. The FAA later blamed radar anomalies, and Terauchi was pulled from flying for speaking to the p...
[Retweeted] 🚨 NEW: FAA records reveal a previously unreported military response during the September 4 San Diego airport drone incident. The Navy reportedly prepared to engage an unauthorized drone at North Island. ATC audio then references one being "shot down." https://t.co/ULeFbgHcZW
[Retweeted] 🚨 NEW: FAA records reveal a previously unreported military response during the September 4 San Diego airport drone incident. The Navy reportedly prepared to engage an unauthorized drone at North Island. ATC audio then references one being "shot down." https://t.co/ULeFbgHcZW
[Retweeted] New FAA records on the Sept 4 San Diego airport drone incident just dropped via FOIA thanks to John Greenewald. Multiple pilots reported a UAS over the runway. Controllers shut down departures. Then NAS North Island called to say they were preparing to engage an unauthorized drone, and ATC audio references one possibly being shot down. Here we are two months later, and we still have zero confirmation of what was actually engaged, recovered, or identified. The gap between “we prepa...
New FAA records on the Sept 4 San Diego airport drone incident just dropped via FOIA thanks to John Greenewald. Multiple pilots reported a UAS over the runway [Quoted] 🚨 NEW: FAA records reveal a previously unreported military response during the September 4 San Diego airport drone incident. The Navy reportedly prepared to engage an unauthorized drone at North Island. ATC audio then references one being "shot down." https://t.co/ULeFbgHcZW
🚨 NEW: FAA records reveal a previously unreported military response during the September 4 San Diego airport drone incident. The Navy reportedly prepared to engage an unauthorized drone at North Island. ATC audio then references one being "shot down." https://t.co/ULeFbgHcZW
FAA Records Reveal Military Prepared to Engage Drone During San Diego Airport Shutdown; ATC Audio References Possible Shootdown
A September 4, 2026, disruption at San Diego International Airport that delayed hundreds of flights is now documented in newly released Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) records, including air traffic control recordings and two Mandatory Occurrence Reports describing sightings of suspected drones near the airport’s runway. The records, obtained by The Black Vault through the Freedom [...] The post FAA Records Reveal Military Prepared to Engage Drone During San Diego Airport Shutdown; ATC...
