Report a Sighting
If you've witnessed something you couldn't explain, there are a few places you can put it on record. Below is where to file an official report — and how to share the fuller story with Project Phenomenon's living archive, whether or not you've reported it anywhere else.
There is no single place people are told to report a UFO or UAP sighting — which is part of why so many accounts go untold. Here's a straightforward rundown of where reports go today.
| Where | What it is | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| AARO | The U.S. Department of War's official office for receiving and investigating UAP reports from military, government, and civilian sources. | Filing an official government report — especially if you're current or former military, a federal employee, or a licensed pilot. |
| NUFORC | The National UFO Reporting Center, a long-running civilian sighting database used for public research. | Logging the basic facts of a sighting into a public, searchable record. |
| MUFON | The Mutual UFO Network, a nonprofit civilian organization that investigates individual sighting reports. | Requesting a field investigation of a recent sighting. |
| Project Phenomenon | A living archive of firsthand UAP and UFO encounter accounts — the personal record official channels don't collect. | Preserving your full story: the context, the aftermath, and the questions it raised — whether or not you've reported it elsewhere. |
If you want to file an official report, the primary channels are AARO (the Department of War's official UAP reporting mechanism), NUFORC (a long-running civilian database), and MUFON (a nonprofit civilian investigative organization). Project Phenomenon isn't a replacement for these channels — it's a place to preserve the fuller personal account, including details and context official reports don't ask for.
NUFORC and MUFON are civilian organizations that log sighting reports for research and pattern-tracking. AARO is the official U.S. government office that receives, investigates, and reports on UAP incidents from military and civilian sources. Project Phenomenon is different: it is not an investigative or governmental body. It collects the personal, human side of an encounter — what you experienced, felt, and carried afterward — and preserves it as part of a permanent public archive.
No. You can submit to Project Phenomenon whether or not you've filed a report elsewhere. Many people who share their story here never reported it anywhere, often out of fear of professional consequences or because they didn't know where to turn.
Yes. Partial and anonymous submissions are welcome. You will never be identified publicly without your explicit written permission, and you may request removal of your account at any time.
Every submission is reviewed. We do not dismiss, sensationalize, or editorialize your account — it's preserved as you gave it. Some accounts may inform future exhibits or the research agenda at Project Phenomenon, always with your privacy respected.
If you've witnessed something you couldn't explain — something that in hindsight might be consistent with UAP activity — we want to hear it. All accounts are reviewed. Partial and anonymous submissions are welcome.
Thank you for contributing to the archive. Every account matters. We may follow up by email if we have questions.