How to Report a UAP Sighting to the Government

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Saw something you cannot explain? There are at least four official channels where you can report a UAP sighting. Which one you use depends on who you are.

TL;DR
There is no single government website where civilians can report a UAP sighting. For the general public, NUFORC (National UFO Reporting Center) is the primary civilian channel. Pilots and air traffic controllers report through the FAA, and UAP reporting became mandatory for ATC in late 2025. The Pentagon’s AARO form is only for government insiders with knowledge of classified programs, not for public sightings. And aliens.gov, registered by the White House in March 2026, has not launched yet and may never become a reporting portal.

There Is No One Government Website to Report a UFO

The most common misconception about UAP reporting is that there is a single government portal where anyone can file a sighting. There is not. The U.S. government’s reporting infrastructure was built for insiders, not civilians. What exists is a patchwork of channels, each designed for a specific type of person with a specific type of information.

The government’s interest in UAP has historically been driven by national security concerns, not public sightings. The Pentagon wants to know about anomalous objects near military installations, not strange lights someone saw from their backyard. That is slowly changing, but as of March 2026, the gap between what insiders can report and what civilians can report is still wide.

Here is every current channel, starting with the most common.

Channel 1: NUFORC: The Primary Civilian Reporting Channel

The National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC) is the most established civilian channel for reporting UAP sightings. Founded in 1974 by Robert J. Gribble, NUFORC has catalogued nearly 170,000 reported sightings over more than 50 years, most of them in the United States.

Who can use it: Anyone. NUFORC is open to the public with no eligibility requirements.

How to file a report: Visit nuforc.org and click “Report a UFO.” The online form asks for the date, time, and location of the sighting, a description of what you saw, your contact information, and any photos or videos you captured. NUFORC staff review each submission and categorize it using a tiered system:

  • Tier 1: The most dramatic sightings, meaning strange structured craft or highly anomalous phenomena seen at close distance.
  • Tier 2: Moderate-quality reports with enough detail to be useful for research.
  • Tier 3: Lower-confidence reports: distant lights, brief observations, or limited detail.

What happens after you report: NUFORC staff review each submission, remove personally identifiable information, and publish the report to their public database at nuforc.org/databank. NUFORC does not typically send follow-up communications or confirmation emails. The database is freely browsable by date, location, shape, and other criteria. Reports that reach Tier 1 may be selected for further investigation. Once published, reports remain in the database permanently. There is no retraction or deletion process if you later identify the object.

Does the government use NUFORC data? Increasingly, yes. NUFORC participated in AARO’s August 2025 workshop on UAP narrative data. While NUFORC is not a government agency and has no formal reporting relationship with the Pentagon, the government has shown growing interest in the civilian data NUFORC collects. Whether any specific NUFORC report has triggered a government investigation is not publicly known.

Channel 2: MUFON: Volunteer Investigators

The Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) is the other major civilian channel. Founded in 1969, MUFON is a nonprofit with more than 4,000 members across 43 countries. Unlike NUFORC, which primarily collects and catalogues reports, MUFON assigns trained field investigators to follow up on sightings.

Who can use it: Anyone. MUFON accepts reports from the public through its Case Management System (CMS) at mufoncms.com/public_report.

How to file a report: Visit the MUFON CMS and fill out the online form. You will be asked to provide the date, time, and location, a detailed description, weather conditions, and any photos or video. You can also attach files to your report.

What MUFON does differently: MUFON’s volunteer investigators may contact you for follow-up questions. These are trained civilian volunteers, not federal agents or credentialed professionals. They conduct on-site investigations for high-quality reports, interview witnesses, and analyze photographic evidence. MUFON publishes monthly case statistics and identifies cases of the week.

Cost: Filing a report is free. MUFON membership (starting at approximately $45 per year) gives you access to their full case database, monthly journal, and investigation training materials.

Channel 3: FAA Reporting: For Pilots and Air Traffic Controllers

If you are a licensed pilot or an air traffic controller who observed an unidentified object during operations, you have a different reporting obligation than the general public. As of late 2025, UAP reporting is mandatory for FAA personnel.

What changed: FAA Notice N JO 7210.970, effective in late 2025, established a new requirement: air traffic controllers must now notify the National Tactical Security Operations (NTSO) Air Traffic Security team whenever a UAP incident is reported. This was a significant shift. Previously, the FAA used the older term “UFO” and reporting was less structured.

In January 2026, FAA Order JO 7210.3EE Change 2 updated the official terminology throughout FAA procedures, replacing “unidentified flying object” (UFO) with “unidentified anomalous phenomena” (UAP). This aligns FAA language with the Pentagon’s terminology.

How pilots report: Pilots can file reports through the Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS), which is run by NASA under contract with the FAA. The ASRS is a confidential system. You will not face any penalty for filing a report. Reports can be filed online at asrs.arc.nasa.gov.

What ATC does: If you observe an unidentified object while flying, communicate with ATC first. When a controller receives a report of an unidentified object from a pilot, or observes one on radar, they now have a mandatory notification chain. The FAA’s updated procedures require them to notify the NTSO Air Traffic Security operations team. The flow goes: pilot reports to ATC, ATC notifies NTSO, NTSO coordinates with relevant defense and intelligence agencies. File the ASRS report after you land.

For non-pilots: this channel is not available to you. But if you are a passenger who saw something from a commercial flight, you can report through NUFORC or MUFON (covered below).

Channel 4: AARO’s Official Form: For Government Insiders Only

The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, or AARO, is the Pentagon office charged with investigating UAP across all domains: air, space, sea, and land. In November 2023, AARO launched an online reporting form at aaro.mil/Submit-A-Report.

Before you click that link: this form is not for you unless you meet very specific criteria.

Who can use it: Current and former U.S. service members, government employees, and contractors with direct firsthand knowledge of a U.S. government program or activity related to UAP. “Firsthand knowledge” means you participated in, were involved with, or directly supported such a program.

What it asks for: The form requires you to acknowledge two qualifying questions before you can proceed. First, you must confirm that your report relates to a U.S. government UAP-related program or activity. Second, you must confirm you have firsthand knowledge. You also complete a CAPTCHA. Only then does the actual report form appear.

What it is NOT: A civilian sighting report form. If you are a regular person who saw something anomalous, this form is not designed for your report. Filing a false report through a government system can carry legal consequences under federal law (18 U.S.C. Section 1001 makes it a crime to make materially false statements to federal agencies, punishable by up to five years in prison).

There is a second form on the same page: “Submit a U.S. Government UAP-Related Program/Activity Report.” This is specifically for reporting suspected secret government UAP programs. This is the form that government insiders like David Grusch and other whistleblowers could use to report what they knew about alleged crash retrieval programs.

For context: AARO participated in a multi-day workshop in August 2025 with NUFORC and other organizations to discuss “narrative data, infrastructures, and analysis” for UAP reports. This suggests AARO recognizes the value of civilian data, even if the official form does not yet accept it.

What About aliens.gov?

In mid-March 2026, the White House registered two new government domains: alien.gov and aliens.gov. The registration came about one month after President Trump directed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other agencies to “begin the process of identifying and releasing Government files related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs).”

The domains are registered. The websites are not live.

As of March 30, 2026, there is no official indication that either domain will host a public reporting portal. According to Newsweek, “there is no official indication that Aliens.gov will host UAP records, serve as a public reporting portal or be used for another purpose entirely.”

The aliens.gov domain could become a document archive, a public reporting tool, a transparency portal, or nothing at all. The government has not announced a timeline or a purpose for either domain. This article will be updated if and when that changes.

For now: do not wait for aliens.gov. The channels described above are the ones that exist today.

International Reporting: Canada’s Sky Canada Project

For readers outside the United States, Canada has made the most progress on civilian UAP reporting infrastructure.

The Sky Canada Project, led by the Office of the Chief Science Advisor of Canada, released a preliminary report in January 2025 and a full report in June 2025. The project reviewed how UAP reports are currently handled across Canadian federal agencies and identified significant gaps.

Key recommendations from the June 2025 report:

  • Establish a dedicated UAP office under the Canadian Space Agency
  • Create a bilingual (English and French) public reporting app
  • Build a standardized database for UAP observations
  • Improve coordination between Transport Canada, the Royal Canadian Air Force, and civilian researchers

As of March 2026, these recommendations have not been fully implemented. The December 2025 management report confirmed the roadmap but no reporting app has launched. Canadians who want to report a sighting today can use NUFORC or MUFON, which both accept international reports.

Other countries, including France (GEIPAN, the French space agency CNES’s UAP study group), the United Kingdom, and several South American nations, have varying levels of UAP reporting infrastructure, but none currently offer a streamlined civilian portal comparable to what Canada is proposing.

What to Include in Your Report

Regardless of which channel you use, a useful report includes specific, observable details. The more precise you are, the more likely your report will be taken seriously and investigated.

Quick links to reporting forms:

What the forms want to know:

Date and time: The exact date and time of the sighting, including your time zone. If you are unsure of the precise time, note the approximate duration and what you were doing when you saw it (for example, “I was letting the dog out, which I usually do around 9:30 PM”).

Location: Your specific location: address, city, state, and GPS coordinates if available. Also note which direction you were facing and the approximate altitude of the object.

Description of the object: Shape, size (use a reference for scale, such as “about the size of a basketball held at arm’s length”), color, brightness, whether it had lights (and what color), whether it made sound, how it moved (speed, direction changes, hovering).

Duration: How long you observed the object. Even a rough estimate helps.

Environmental conditions: Weather at the time (clear, cloudy, raining), visibility, wind. If you do not remember, note the date and your location. Weather records can be looked up later.

Witnesses: Were other people present? If so, note their names and contact information (with their permission).

Photos or video: If you captured any, include them. Even blurry or low-quality footage has value. Investigators can analyze lighting, movement patterns, and environmental context.

What you checked: Did you check flight tracking apps (like Flightradar24)? Star mapping software (like Stellarium, a free planetarium app that shows what stars and planets are visible from your location)? Did you consider known explanations (drone, satellite, planet, aircraft)? Note what you ruled out and why. This shows investigators you applied basic critical thinking, which makes your report more credible.

What Happens After You Report

If you report to NUFORC: Your report is reviewed by staff, scrubbed of personal information, and published in the public database. High-tier reports may receive follow-up investigation. NUFORC does not share reports with the government directly, though government researchers have accessed the public database.

If you report to MUFON: Your report enters the CMS and may be assigned to a local field investigator. The investigator may contact you for additional details or to schedule an interview. Cases are classified and published in MUFON’s monthly journal. MUFON investigators may also share data with academic researchers.

If you are a pilot reporting through the FAA: Your report enters the FAA’s safety reporting pipeline. UAP-specific reports trigger mandatory notification to the NTSO Air Traffic Security team. You will generally not receive feedback on the outcome of the investigation.

If you report through AARO (as a government insider): Your report is reviewed by AARO analysts. The form states that reports are handled “in accordance with applicable laws, policies, and procedures.” You should expect no feedback unless AARO determines additional information is needed.

In all cases: Do not expect a call back explaining what you saw. These channels are primarily data collection systems, not customer service portals. Your report contributes to a growing dataset that researchers and, increasingly, government agencies use to identify patterns.

Opposing Perspectives

“Reporting is pointless : the government already knows.” This is a common sentiment in UAP communities. The argument is that military sensors, satellite systems, and intelligence agencies track everything in the sky, so a civilian report adds nothing. There is partial truth here: the U.S. military does have sophisticated detection capabilities. But those systems are not omniscient. The DOD’s 2024 Consolidated Annual Report on UAP acknowledged gaps in collection and analysis processes. Civilian reports fill gaps in geographic coverage and provide human observational context that sensors do not capture.

“NUFORC and MUFON are not real government agencies.” True. Neither organization has legal authority, subpoena power, or access to classified data. But this is also their strength. Because they operate independently of the government, they can publish reports that government agencies would classify. NUFORC’s public database, containing nearly 170,000 reports, is the largest civilian UAP dataset in existence. And the government is increasingly paying attention: NUFORC’s participation in AARO’s August 2025 workshop signals growing institutional recognition.

“The FAA rules are just about aviation safety, not aliens.” Also true, and important to understand. The FAA’s interest in UAP is framed entirely around flight safety. When a pilot reports an unidentified object, the FAA’s concern is whether that object poses a collision risk or indicates a gap in airspace security. The FAA does not investigate whether an object is extraterrestrial. But the data the FAA collects, including precise locations, altitudes, and radar tracks, is some of the highest-quality UAP data available, and it feeds into the broader government picture.

“Filing a false report is a crime, so why risk it?” Filing a knowingly false report to a federal agency is a crime under 18 U.S.C. Section 1001. But this applies to federal forms like the AARO reporting tool, not to civilian organizations like NUFORC or MUFON. NUFORC and MUFON are not federal agencies. If you saw something and you are reporting it in good faith, you are not at legal risk. The statute exists to prevent deliberate deception of government investigators, not to discourage genuine reports.

FAQ

I saw something in the sky. Where do I report it?

For civilians, start with NUFORC (National UFO Reporting Center). It is the most established civilian channel with no eligibility requirements. If you want an investigation, also file with MUFON. Do not use the AARO form unless you are a government insider with firsthand knowledge of a classified UAP program.

What happens after I file a NUFORC report?

NUFORC staff review your report, remove your personal information, and publish it in their public database. You will not typically receive a confirmation email or follow-up. Reports that NUFORC staff classify as Tier 1 (the most dramatic, close-range sightings) may be selected for further investigation. Your report becomes part of a public database that has been used by researchers and, increasingly, government agencies.

Will the government actually look at my report?

The government does not routinely monitor NUFORC or MUFON databases. However, NUFORC participated in an AARO-sponsored workshop in August 2025 on UAP narrative data, signaling growing institutional interest. The FAA’s mandatory UAP reporting requirement for air traffic controllers (effective late 2025) also suggests the government is taking civilian data more seriously. Whether your specific report triggers any government action is unknown.

I am a pilot. What is my reporting obligation?

As of late 2025, UAP reporting is mandatory for FAA personnel. If you observe an unidentified object during flight, communicate with ATC first. ATC is now required to notify the National Tactical Security Operations (NTSO) Air Traffic Security team. After you land, file an ASRS report. The ASRS is confidential and you will not face any penalty for filing.

Can I file a report anonymously?

NUFORC accepts reports with contact information, which staff use for follow-up if needed. MUFON requires contact information to assign an investigator. The AARO form requires identifying information as part of the qualifying questions. None of these channels offer fully anonymous reporting, though NUFORC removes personally identifiable information before publishing.

What if I report to both NUFORC and MUFON?

You can, and some people do. Just be aware that this creates duplicate records in two separate databases. NUFORC and MUFON do not coordinate, so your report will appear as two independent entries. If you want both an archival record (NUFORC) and an investigation (MUFON), filing with both is reasonable. If you only want one, choose based on what you want: NUFORC for archival, MUFON for investigation.

I think I saw a drone, not a UAP. Should I still report?

Yes. Reporting a drone that was operating in restricted airspace or behaving erratically is useful data. NUFORC categorizes reports by quality, and a report about a known drone is still recorded. The FAA’s interest in UAP is primarily about airspace safety, so a drone report in a no-fly zone is exactly the kind of thing the FAA wants to know about.

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