Maryland could be a UFO hotspot, as nearly 2,000 sightings of bizarre objects in the sky have been reported since the mid-1990s.
Residents of the eighth smallest state have reported seeing a “flat-bottomed black triangle” with green lights, “a classic flying saucer” and an oval-shaped craft that “remained stationary for about a minute and a half.”
Reports on the phenomenon have been collected in a database showing that the first recorded sighting in Maryland dates back to May 15, 1946 – but was not reported until June 2017.
More modern observations, such as the glowing ‘spheres’ observed over Ocean City last April, are now reported to the database within days.
“My daughter and I looked up and saw ‘four orbs’ moving in a circular motion, then coming back to the center and then spreading outward again,” the Ocean City witness, who works in the defense sector, wrote to UFO database .
This map, compiled in February 2023, reveals the number of UFO sightings in each US state
For decades, the official policy of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has been that commercial pilots and other citizens should not bother reporting unexplained aerial phenomena (UAP) or craft (UFOs) to the federal agency.
According to the FAA’s Aeronautical Information Manual, anyone who sees something strange in the sky should report their sightings to the volunteers at the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC) instead of.
“If concerns are expressed that life or property may be endangered,” the FAA manual on UFO sightings continues, “report the activity to the local law enforcement department.”
One White House official, former Clinton chief of staff and current Biden “clean energy” czar John Podesta, likened the FAA’s official position to “illogical guidance” and “discrimination.”
And as of this summer, NASA’s UAP Advisory Panel now recommends that the civilian air agency should include the public’s UFO and UAP sightings in its own Aviation Safety Reporting System.
But in the meantime, Peter Davenport, director of NUFORC, said his group is being inundated with new reports as investigations into the UFO issue reach a fever pitch in the halls of Congress, the Pentagon and the news media.
“It’s encouraging to me that so many people are coming forward now,” Davenport said CBS News.
“We’re getting significantly more reports than we did six months or a year ago,” he said. “There are UFO reports coming from probably most cities in the country.”
California reportedly has the most UFO sightings of any U.S. state, with more than 15,000 claims.
And the state has seen more than 200 objects this year alone.
Maryland has witnessed 1,923 UFO incidents, as recorded in 1,818 reports maintained by this civilian UFO database.
Below are some of Maryland’s most compelling cases from the past year.
According to a clearly recorded UFO report to NUFORC, on August 5, 2023, multiple electric blue lights, several in a tight triangular formation, hovered over a backyard in Baltimore.
August 5, 2023 – Baltimore, Maryland
According to a clearly recorded UFO report to NUFORC, multiple electric blue lights, several in a tight triangular formation, hovered over a backyard in Baltimore.
“We were celebrating in the outback and I see some bright lights in the sky,” the witness wrote in the video submission.
“I started recording because I didn’t think they were stars like most people thought,” the witness said. “I usually look at the sky at night and have never seen them before, plus they were moving slowly through the sky.”
While the witness described seeing “at least ten lights” during the sighting, a maximum of eight or nine can be seen during the 30-second video.
Although the lights twinkle like stars in the distance, no other stars are visible in the night sky – and at the end of the video you can see the lights slowly moving in harmony ‘across the sky’, just as the witness describes.
July 4, 2023 – Brunswick, Maryland
On a clear Independence Day fireworks night, several witnesses at a Brunswick apartment complex noticed a pair of flashing lights that appeared connected and floating around their local fireworks show.
‘What is that? Oh my God! What is that?’ A confused witness who videotaped the event can be heard as the reportedly “fast-moving lights glide through the air in sync” and “leave no sound or trace.”
‘Happened during fireworks, but it’s very easy to tell it’s not fireworks, nor a plane or helicopters in formation’ said the witness who submitted his report and cell phone video to NUFORC.
“The objects also appeared fairly close, not extremely high,” the witness added, “but the objects still appeared smaller than the known crafts.”
‘The flight pattern between the two lights was so consistent that I really don’t believe any drones were being flown as the line between the two was absolutely perfect and did not change at all during the flight.’
A child witness, heard in the video, suspects the mysterious lights could be “fireworks,” but the adults remain unsure.
For about a minute near Jackson Station Road on March 19, 2023, a driver reported seeing a “black triangular shape with a flat bottom flying low over the ground with a low buzzing sound.”
March 19, 2023 – Perryville, MD
For about a minute, a driver near Jackson Station Road reported seeing a “flat-bottomed black triangular shape flying low over the ground with a low buzzing sound.”
“I stopped my car, rolled down the window and heard a soft whooshing sound coming from it,” the witness told NUFORC in their written report.
The UFO, which they called “the shape,” then reportedly flew “low to the ground and moved very slowly.”
The witness further described the UFO as being “black in color” with a green light at “each point” of its triangular shape.
“I got a blurry image,” the witness reported, “when a car pulled up behind me and I had to keep driving.”
On November 7, 2022, a witness from Maryland saw what they described as “a classic flying saucer, with a black marking on the ‘front,'” moving very slowly over their parents’ home in Rockville, north of Washington DC. The witness said it was slow ‘compared to (…) an airplane’
November 7, 2022 – Rockville, MD, USA
A witness from Maryland saw what they described as “a classic flying saucer, with a black spot on the front,” moving very slowly over their parents’ home in Rockville, just north of Washington, DC.
“I saw this strange flying saucer looking thing and took a few pictures,” the witness wrote in NUFORC.
“I looked up at the evening sky and saw a strange-looking object without a trace,” their story continues, noting that the UFO appeared to be “relatively low” in the sky and was “moving very slowly (compared to, for example, an airplane).”
Looking back at UFO sightings from the mid-20th century, the object, they report, “looks like a classic flying saucer, with a black marking on the ‘front’ (which was visible).”
Then, like a classic UFO, it apparently flew away: “It seemed to disappear after I filmed and photographed it for 30 seconds,” the witness wrote.
Although Davenport has worked for NUFORC since 1994, the group’s director has few predictions about where the recent resurgence of interest might lead.
“I don’t know what the future holds for us,” Davenport said.
“But I’m encouraged that more people are coming forward and that the government is recognizing the UFO phenomenon as something worthy of their attention.”