Maryland may be a UFO hotspot as nearly 2,000 sightings of bizarre objects have been reported in the sky since the mid-1990s.
Residents of the eighth-smallest state have reported a “black flat-bottomed triangle” with green lights, “a classic flying saucer” and an oval-shaped vehicle that “remained stationary for approximately a minute and a half.”
Reports of the phenomenon have been collected in a database, which shows that the first recorded sighting in Maryland dates back to May 15, 1946, but was not reported until June 2017.
More modern sightings, like the glowing “orbs” observed over Ocean City last April, are now being reported to the database within days.
“My daughter and I looked up and saw ‘four balls’ moving in a circular motion, then returning to the center and then expanding again,” the Ocean City witness, who works in the defense sector, wrote to the UFO Database .
This map, created in February 2023, shows the number of UFO sightings in each US state
For decades, the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) official policy has been that commercial pilots and other civilians should not bother reporting unexplained aerial phenomena (UAP) or flying objects (UFOs) to the federal agency.
According to the FAA’s Aeronautical Information Manual, anyone who sees something strange in the sky should instead report their sightings to volunteers at the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC).
“If concerns are raised that life or property may be at risk,” the FAA’s Guide to UFO Sightings continues, “report the activity to local law enforcement.”
One White House official, former Clinton chief of staff and current Biden clean energy czar John Podesta, likened the FAA’s official stance to “illogical instructions” and “discrimination.”
And as of this summer, NASA’s UAP Advisory Board is now recommending that the civil aviation agency include the public’s UFO and UAP sightings in its own aviation safety reporting system.
But in the meantime, NUFORC Director Peter Davenport said his group is being inundated with new reports as the investigation into the UFO question reaches a fever pitch in the halls of Congress, the Pentagon and the news media.
“It encourages me that so many people are coming forward now,” Davenport told CBS News.
“We are getting significantly more reports than we did six months or a year ago,” he said. “There are UFO reports 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 properties this year alone.
Maryland witnessed 1,923 UFO incidents logged in 1,818 reports in 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 triangle 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 triangle formation, hovered over a backyard in Baltimore.
“We were partying in the outback and I noticed some bright lights in the sky,” the witness wrote along with the video submission.
“I started recording because I didn’t believe they were celebrities 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 across the sky.”
While the witness described seeing “at least ten lights” during the sighting, at most eight or nine are 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, the lights can be seen slowly moving in unison “across the sky,” just as the witness describes.
July 4, 2023 – Brunswick, Maryland
On a clear night of Independence Day fireworks, several witnesses at an apartment complex in Brunswick noticed a pair of flashing lights that appeared to be connected and hovering around their local fireworks display.
‘What is that? Oh my God! What is that?’ A confused witness recording the event on video can be heard asking as the supposedly “fast-moving lights glide across the sky in synchrony,” leaving “no sound or trace.”
“It happened during a fireworks display, but it is very easy to see that it was neither a fireworks display nor an airplane or helicopter in formation,” said the witness, who submitted his report and cell phone video to NUFORC.
“The objects also appeared to be fairly close together, so not extremely tall,” the witness added, “but the objects still appeared to be smaller than known crafts.”
“The flight pattern between the two lights was so consistent that I really don’t think drones were flying as the line between the two was absolutely perfect and didn’t change at all during the flight.”
A child witness heard in the video suspects the mysterious lights could be “fireworks,” but the adults aren’t sure.
For about a minute on March 19, 2023, near Jackson Station Road, a driver reported seeing a “black, flat-bottomed triangular shape flying low to the ground and making a faint, wobbling sound.”
March 19, 2023 – Perryville, MD
For about a minute, a driver near Jackson Station Road reported seeing a “black, flat-bottomed triangle shape flying low to the ground, making a faint, whooshing sound.”
“I stopped my car, rolled down the window and heard a slight rustling noise,” the witness told NUFORC in his written report.
The UFO, which they referred to as “the shape,” was reportedly flying “low to the ground and moving very slowly” at the time.
The witness further described the UFO as “black” with a green light at “every point” of its triangular shape.
“I took a blurry picture,” the witness reported, “when a car stopped behind me and I had to keep driving.”
On November 7, 2022, a witness from Maryland saw what he described as a “classic flying saucer” with a black mark on the “front” moving very slowly over her parents’ home in Rockville, north of Washington DC. The witness said it was slow […] an airplane’
November 7, 2022 – Rockville, MD, USA
A witness from Maryland saw what he described as a “classic flying saucer” with a black mark on the “front” moving very slowly over her parents’ home in Rockville, north of Washington DC.
“I saw this strange thing that looks like a flying saucer and took some photos,” the witness wrote to NUFORC.
“I looked into the evening sky and saw a strange-looking object with no track,” their report continues, noting that the UFO “appeared to be relatively low in the sky” and moving “very slowly” (compared to, for example, an airplane).’
Looking back at UFO sightings in the mid-20th century, the object, they report, “looked like a classic flying saucer, with a black marking on the ‘front’ (which was visible).”
Then it apparently zoomed away like a classic UFO: “It appeared 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 what the recent resurgence of interest might lead to.
“I don’t know what the future holds for us,” Davenport said.
“But I am encouraged that more people are coming forward and the government is recognizing the UFO phenomenon.” [as] something worthy of their attention.’