In March 2024, an airline pilot sat down with the FBI and described something he said a lot of pilots had been seeing: white lights in the sky, over and over, since October 2023.
His first sighting came flying Boston to Dublin. At 37,000 feet he saw white lights to the northeast, near Gander, Canada — appearing higher than his aircraft, perhaps 50,000 feet or more. They would start dim, brighten, then fade, a full cycle of ten seconds to a minute, one to four at a time. He ruled out landing lights, Starlink, satellites and meteors.
He estimated he had seen them roughly ten times — off the west coast, the mid-Atlantic, and repeatedly toward North Dakota — for stretches of 45 minutes to two hours. In February 2024 he captured video from the cockpit on his phone: ten or more white lights over the North Dakota region around 4:36 AM, while cruising at about .80 Mach northeast of Sioux Falls.
He also described a far older encounter: in June 2002, deployed to Afghanistan, he and another pilot watched the stars blacked out over Bagram by a huge, silent, equilateral-triangle shape, roughly 500 feet across, moving west to east with no visible lights.
Unusually for these files, the pilot's account is intact — only names and identifying details are withheld. Below is the FBI's own FD-302, followed by the full narration transcript and the general area of the first sighting.
2024
FBI FD-302 — Airborne Lights and a Triangle (2002 / 2023–2024)
On March ██████ 2024, ██████ was interviewed by Supervisory Special Agent ██████, Special Agent (SA) ██████ and SA ██████. Also attending the meeting was ██████. ██████ was referred to the FBI by ██████. After being advised of the identity of the interviewing Agents and the nature of the interview, ██████ provided the following information:
██████ stated that starting in October 2023, a lot of pilots have been seeing the same event occurring, namely seeing lights in the sky. Pilots have been discussing the events over ██████. Pilots typically saw them between midnight and 3 AM. ██████ did not know if the events occurred at that time because that was when it was dark enough or if it was because that was when the lights were present.
██████ first observation of the lights occurred in October 2023. ██████ was flying from Boston, MA to Dublin, Ireland where he saw the lights in the northeast towards Gander, Canada. ██████ was at an elevation of 37,000 feet and believed the lights were higher than him, probably at 50,000 feet or higher. The lights were white in color, would start out as dim, and get brighter before they eventually faded out. The full cycle of the lights would range from 10 seconds to one minute. The lights looked like airplane landing lights, but ██████ knew that it was not them, nor did he think it was Starlink, Starlink flares, satellites, or meteors. It ranged between one to four lights at a time in the sky. Some lights did not move, while others moved in straight lines, sometimes changing direction, and typically did not move in a coordinated fashion.
Since spotting the lights the first time, ██████ has seen them approximately ten times. At times the lights would disappear for minutes before returning. ██████ has seen the lights for 45 minutes up to two hours. ██████ has seen the lights in all directions except for towards the south. ██████ saw the lights three times in the direction of North Dakota while flying to either Seattle or Phoenix. He has also seen them off the west coast and mid-Atlantic coast. ██████ did not know how far away they were but ventured they were between 200-500 miles away. ██████ never saw the lights below the horizon and had not heard about them prior to October 2023.
During a trip on February ██████, 2024, ██████ was able to capture video on his Samsung Galaxy S22 phone an event involving white lights. ██████ stated the lights were brighter in-person than on the camera, and the lights were similar in elevation to him or were slightly higher. The video is filmed from the cockpit of his aircraft with the lights turned off. ██████ was located approximately 150 miles northwest of Minneapolis, Minnesota and was flying towards the east. The lights were seen towards the north in the North Dakota region at around 4:36 AM Eastern Standard Time on a clear night.
As captured on the video, white lights were seen, sometimes ten or more present at once, moving around in straight lines and getting brighter/dimmer. At the 3:27 mark in the video, ██████ was not sure if two of the lights were really close together or if it was a single light with a tail. At the 3:47 mark, ██████ did not know if it was three separate lights. At the 5:22 mark you can see the flight panel, showing that the airplane was traveling at approximately .80 Mach, and that the airplane was 40-50 miles northeast of Sioux Falls and could see the KFSD airport on the radar. ██████ never felt unsafe from the white lights, and did not believe the lights were within 100 miles of him.
A third event — June 2002, Afghanistan
██████ witnessed a third event back in June 2002. While serving as a reservist, ██████ got activated to go to Afghanistan. One night he was outside looking at the stars with another pilot. At approximately 4:30 AM local time, ██████ noticed that the stars were getting blacked out over Bagram. It appeared as if something huge went overhead, from west to east, and was an equilateral triangle shape. The object was moving silently, at a consistent speed and altitude, possibly 150 knots, with no lights visible. ██████ estimated it was 500 feet in size, but he could not fully see the shape of the object. The other pilot with ██████ also observed the triangle, and when it passed over stated, "did you see that?" ██████ stated he did not further discuss the sighting with anyone else nor did he hear anyone else discussing the sighting.
Looking through the data, ██████ never found information that could explain what he saw in Afghanistan in 2002, and was not aware of anything that would explain what he had seen. Overall, ██████ believed that not a lot of discussions were happening openly about the events with the lights. ██████ did not think there was as much stigma surrounding these events, but people were just not used to talking about it.
This document contains neither recommendations nor conclusions of the FBI. It is the property of the FBI and is loaned to your agency; it and its contents are not to be distributed outside your agency.
FBI FD-302 (3 pages); a pilot interviewed March 2024. Released under the PURSUE UAP disclosure — redactions preserved. · Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI-UAP-D024)
An airline pilot told the FBI he has seen the same white lights at least ten times since 2023. And he says he is not the only one. A lot of pilots are seeing them.
It started in October 2023, flying Boston to Dublin. At thirty-seven thousand feet, he saw white lights to the northeast near Gander, Canada, and they looked higher than his plane, maybe fifty thousand feet or more.
In his own words to the FBI: the lights would start dim, grow bright, then fade, a cycle of ten seconds to a minute. One to four at a time. Some hovered. Some moved in straight lines and changed direction.
Then, in February 2024, he did something rare. He filmed them from the cockpit. Ten or more white lights over North Dakota, at four thirty in the morning, while cruising at point eight the speed of sound.
One pilot. Ten sightings. Even cockpit video. And other pilots are reporting the same thing. What do you think they are? Search Case F-24 at ufodata.org to read his full report. Subscribe to UFO Data.
All documents and footage are authentic, public-domain U.S. government releases. Narration is AI-generated text-to-speech.