Cue the eerie X-Files theme, because something seriously spooky just went down over the skies of Oregon, and it has us wondering if Mulder and Scully are dusting off their trench coats. Over the past weekend, at least four commercial airline pilots reported spotting mysterious, colorful, circular lights zooming through the night sky "at extreme speeds." Is it aliens? Weather balloons? Swamp gas? Let’s dig in.
These close encounters were immortalized in air traffic control audio from Dec. 7, obtained by OregonLive, where pilots and air traffic controllers traded observations about the puzzling phenomena.
UFOs over Oregon‼️✈️🛸
— KOSHER (@KOSHERRRRR) December 11, 2024
Pilots instructed to “maneuver as necessary to avoid the UFO out there”:
“All altitudes. Up and down. It’s pretty crazy.”❗️
“Red circular shape.”❗️
“Extreme speeds, I don’t even know how to describe how fast it’s moving.”❗️#ufox #uapx #Aliens #drones pic.twitter.com/ji56E3Eqd3
“This Is Not a Satellite…”
Veteran air ambulance pilot Joe Buley isn’t new to seeing strange things up in the night sky. Satellites, shooting stars—you name it. But even Buley had to admit, the bright orange light he spotted zipping above Eugene, Oregon, wasn’t anything he could explain. “It was clearly different,” Buley told reporters, with the sort of cautious understatement that would make Scully proud.
Around 8:30 p.m., a United Airlines pilot flying from Denver to Eugene radioed air traffic control with the kind of question that would make anyone do a double take: “Is there any military activity out straight ahead of us?”
The controller replied with a resounding “nope” but added, “We’ve had another report of something at 30,000 feet in that area. We’re not sure what it is.”
Spoiler: That doesn’t exactly calm anyone down.
“A Lot of Movement Out Here…”
Recently, a pair of commercial pilots contacted traffic control while in mid-flight to report unusual activity they witnessed in the Oregon skies. These #UAPs/#UFOs were maneuvering erratically in all sorts of directions & patterns. Take a listen!#ufotwitter #uaptwitter pic.twitter.com/8vzjjo0dMq
— ExiledEarthling (@ExiledEarthling) December 12, 2024
In the audio recording, the United pilot continues, describing “three or four targets… all altitudes, up and down. It’s pretty crazy.” And then, in true X-Files fashion, things got weirder. The lights, the pilot said, were climbing up to 50,000 feet before darting away at dizzying speeds. Another pilot chimed in to describe one light spiraling in a “corkscrew pattern.”
“This is not your grandma’s shooting star,” someone probably thought.
One Horizon Airlines pilot observed what appeared to be aircraft strobe lights… until another light showed up, zipping around like it was auditioning for Fast & Furious: UFO Edition. The pilot later added the light was moving at “extreme speeds” toward the ocean and back, glowing a menacing red.
An air traffic controller, sounding like they were channeling their inner Mulder, told the pilot, “You are cleared to maneuver as necessary left and right to avoid the UFO out there.” You read that right—UFO.
“It Was Changing Direction…”
Buley, the air ambulance pilot, emphasized that what he saw wasn’t a satellite. “The biggest thing that stood out was it was changing direction. Usually, things don’t change directions unless it’s an aircraft,” he explained. He also confirmed his LifeFlight crew—flying from Aurora, Colorado, to North Bend, Washington—saw the same thing.
Horizon Airlines pilots weren’t left out of the twilight-zone fun, with two separate crews reporting lights in the skies on Dec. 8. Several pilots even managed to capture the mysterious objects on video, though the clips mostly show faint blips of light against the inky darkness. Still, the eerie movements were unmistakable.
But Was It Really Aliens?
While our inner Mulder wants to shout, “The truth is out there!” scientists are quick to play Scully on this one. Douglas Buettner, a researcher familiar with pilot UFO encounters, says the lights could be Starlink satellites. According to him, their trajectory and appearance are “consistent” with Musk’s shiny network of low-Earth orbit internet doodads.
But not everyone’s convinced. “They don’t change directions. If they do, not rapidly. Not at this rate of speed,” Buley insists.
Meanwhile, over on the East Coast, folks in New Jersey are dealing with their own X-Files-esque drama as mysterious drones hover over neighborhoods, leaving everyone scratching their heads. The White House? Mum as a locked X-File.
Stay Skeptical, Oregon
Whether these lights were satellites, drones, or something from the mothership, we can’t deny that Oregon just became ground zero for some serious X-Files vibes. So, if you find yourself scanning the night skies, remember to keep your phone ready—and maybe brush up on those alien abduction protocols.
And hey, if Mulder and Scully are reading this, Oregon’s skies might just be the next case to crack. As for the rest of us? We’ll be here with popcorn, waiting for the next chapter in the saga of Oregon’s UFOs. ✈️👽
