In October 2024, a U.S. military aircraft during Operation Inherent Resolve operating over Syria recorded an unidentified object its crew could not explain.
The encounter is documented in an official USCENTCOM mission report, declassified and released through AARO — the Pentagon's UAP office.
The report confirms the crew observed an unidentified arrieal phenomenon (see uap 1). But the specifics — position, sensors, identities — are withheld under national-security and privacy exemptions.
Below is the document itself, reconstructed with the redactions preserved, followed by the full narration transcript and the approximate location of the encounter.
The Document
SECRET//NOFORNOctober 2024
UAP Mission Report — Syria (October 2024)
Narrative
(SECRET//REL TO USA, FVEY) AT 0823Z, ██████████(b)(1)████████1.4a TOOK OFF FROM OJMS VIA SLR. ██████████(b)(1)████████1.4a PROCEEDED TO FRAGGED TASKING. AT 0649Z, ██████████(b)(1)████████1.4a WAS 7-LINED. ██████████(b)(1)████████1.4a ARRIVED ON-STATION AT 1102Z AND PERFORMED FMV/SIGINT COLLECTION AT 37S FV 85 ██████████(b)(1)████████1.4a 81 ██████████(b)(1)████████1.4a (SEE ISR 1). AT 1158Z, ██████████(b)(1)████████1.4a WAS 7-LINED. ██████████(b)(1)████████1.4a ARRIVED ON-STATION AT 1230Z AND PERFORMED FMV/SIGINT COLLECTION AT 37S FU 36 ██████████(b)(1)████████1.4a 79 ██████████(b)(1)████████1.4a (SEE ISR 2). AT 1559Z, ██████████(b)(1)████████1.4a██████████(b)(1)████████1.4a OBSERVED AN UNIDENTIFIED ARRIEAL PHENOMENON (SEE UAP 1). ██████████(b)(1)████████1.4a AT 2252Z, WAS 7-LINED. ARRIVED ON-STATION AT 2318Z AND PERFORMED FMV/SIGINT COLLECTION AT 37S FU 85 ██████████(b)(1)████████1.4a 81 ██████████(b)(1)████████1.4a (SEE ISR 3). AT 0124Z, ██████████(b)(1)████████1.4a RETURNED TO BASE. AT 0447Z, ██████████(b)(1)████████1.4a CONDUCTED SLR AND LANDED AT OJMS. FULL MOTION VIDEO WAS EXPLOITED BY GET. 20:24 MISSION HOURS, 14:22 FMV HOURS, 3X FMV TASKINGS PROSECUTED, 13:02 SIGINT HOURS, 3X SIGINT TASKINGS. (SECRET//REL TO USA, FVEY)
Admin
OPERATION: INHERENT RESOLVE
COCOM: USCENTCOM
UNIT: 12 SOS
Declassified 2049 — AARO release · USCENTCOM Mission Report — Approved for Release to AARO
Where It Happened
Full Transcript
A single line in a declassified U.S. military report: 'Observed an unidentified aerial phenomenon.' That's it. Everything around it is blacked out.
It happened in October 2024, during Operation Inherent Resolve, over Syria. A U.S. asset on a classified mission, collecting full-motion video and signals intelligence—then, at 15:59 Zulu, they saw something they couldn't identify.
The report is stamped SECRET. Nearly every operational detail is redacted—times, locations, the asset itself. All that remains is this one observation, logged and then sealed.
Why was everything else hidden? The redactions hide the asset, the tasking, the grid coordinates. But the sighting? That was left exposed. What did they see that the censors didn't dare erase?
This exact document was cited in TIME's coverage of the Pentagon's 2026 UFO files release. Search Case D-32 at ufodata.org to read the full declassified file. Subscribe to UFO Data.