The CIA Just Dropped a Trove of UFO Files, And Some of Them Are Seriously Wild

Suppose you’ve ever felt that familiar shiver watching late-night reruns of The X-Files. Today feels a little bit like coming full circle. The CIA has quietly released hundreds of declassified documents, some dating back to the late 1940s and early 1950s, detailing investigations into unidentified flying objects.

Yep. Real reports. Real witnesses. Real government interest.

This was the same era when the U.S. Air Force recorded over 12,000 UFO sightings as part of Project Blue Book, and more than 700 of them stubbornly remained unsolved. Seems the CIA was paying very close attention, too.

To make things extra fun, the Agency even highlighted a list of documents they claimed Agent Fox Mulder would love, along with another set perfect for Agent Dana Scully, as if they were curating evidence for both the believer and the skeptic.

Below are two of the most fascinating cases from those files.

The Giant “Flying Pan” of West Germany

One report from 1952 reads as if it came straight from a sci-fi comic.

A man named Oscar Linke, traveling with his 11-year-old daughter near the town of Hasselbach, pulled over after a flat tire. While he was handling the situation, his daughter pointed out something in the distance. At first, Linke assumed it was wildlife, maybe deer. But as they walked closer, he realized it was something far stranger.

They stumbled upon two figures standing next to what he described as a massive, round object, something he could only compare to an enormous frying pan, measuring roughly 42 to 49 feet across. Around the rim were two neat rows of circular openings, and a tall cone-like structure rose from the top.

When Linke’s daughter called out, the two figures hurried inside. One, he said, had a glowing bump on his chest that shifted from green to red. Moments later, flames shot out from beneath the craft, it lifted off, tilted horizontally, and shot away beyond the treetops.

Once the object vanished, Linke inspected the area and found a freshly dug circular impression in the earth, matching the shape of that odd cone on top of the craft.

He was so shaken that he even testified to a West German judge at the time. Not exactly your everyday roadside story.

Twin Discs Over the Congo’s Uranium Mines

Another report from the same year came from what was then the Belgian Congo (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). Two glowing discs were said to be hovering above a major uranium mining region.

Witnesses described the objects gliding in smooth, sweeping curves, shifting shape depending on the angle, sometimes looking like plates, sometimes like oval discs, and sometimes nothing more than thin lines streaking through the sky.

A fighter pilot, Commander Pierre, attempted to chase them down. He gave up after 15 minutes, estimating the discs were flying at speeds of nearly 932 mph. He said they were metallic, somewhere between 39 and 49 feet wide, with a central knob that remained perfectly still while the outer ring spun at incredible speed.

The aircraft could move vertically, horizontally, and drop down close to the treetops, moves that would’ve crushed or cooked any human pilot inside. Pierre was convinced no person could have survived the violent rotations and heat.

More Than Just Stories: Photos, Tips, and Investigation Manuals

The CIA’s release didn’t end with old reports. They included:

• Photographs of alleged UFOs
• Images claimed to be alien “biological samples.”
• A guide titled “How to Investigate a Flying Saucer”, which offers 10 steps for analyzing a UFO
• Tips on how to take better UFO photos (step one: take as many as possible!)

The timing of this document dump was interesting, too; it coincided almost perfectly with the return of the X-Files series. Coincidence? Marketing stunt? Cosmic synchronicity? You decide.

Final Thoughts

Whether you’re a believer or a skeptic, these declassified files certainly make the UFO conversation a lot more interesting. They raise questions, big ones, about what exactly the world’s governments have seen, studied, or quietly wondered about for decades.

Why release this now?

Why these documents?

And why, after so many years, do these sightings still sound like something out of our wildest imaginations?

Whatever the reason, one thing’s clear: the truth really is getting harder to ignore.