The CIA is getting attention for a tweet on Monday admitting responsibility for more than half of UFO sightings in the 1950s and ’60s.
The tweet refers to the agency’s most-read document in 2014. Titled
“The CIA and the U-2 Program, 1954-1974,” the previously secret report details the high-altitude flights of its U-2 spy plane.
“High-altitude testing of the U-2 soon led to an unexpected side effect — a tremendous increase in reports of unidentified flying objects,” the report said in a section about UFOs.
At the time, most people didn’t know that manned flight was possible at the heights the U-2 flew. Many commercial airline pilots reported seeing fiery objects in the sky, which could be explained by the sun reflecting off the spy plane’s silver wings, the report said.
“U-2 and later OXCART flights accounted for more than one-half of all UFO reports during the late 1950s and most of the 1960s,” the report said.
A total of 104 U-2 airplanes have been built, and the planes now are operated by the U.S. Air Force. The Soviet Union shot one down in 1960.
Twitter users reacted to the story.
Related Stories:
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.