American Airlines Pilot Reports UFO over New Mexico

An American Airlines pilot spotted a “long, cylindrical object” during a flight to Phoenix on Sunday.

One of the pilots of American Airlines Flight 2292 spotted an unknown objected flying above and across the path of the aircraft on a Sunday flight between Cincinnati and Phoenix, shortly after noon. “Do you have any targets up here?” he asked air traffic controllers on a recording obtained by CBS News.

The unnamed pilot was understandably anxious about the appearance of the unknown object and expressed concern that it might be a weapon of some kind. “We just had something go right over the top of us that — I hate to say this — looked like a long, cylindrical object that almost looked like a cruise-missile type of thing moving really fast that went right over the top of us,” he said.

The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed that air traffic controllers did not catch the object on radar, while the airline referred reporters to the FBI. Albuquerque, New Mexico, field office spokesperson Frank Fisher offered a statement neither confirming nor denying knowledge of the event:

While our policy is to neither confirm nor deny investigations, the FBI works continuously with our federal, state, local, and tribal partners to share intelligence and protect the public. Anyone who is aware of suspicious or criminal activity should contact their local law enforcement agency or the FBI.

And though a Pentagon spokesman was able to confirm the reported encounter happened roughly 400 miles from the Army’s White Sands Missile Range in southern New Mexico, they said the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Missile Defense Agency, and U.S. Strategic Command was not conducting any tests from the missile range at the time.