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The UFO Phenomenon

UFO collides with US fighter jet, cracks canopy, over Arizona

By T.K. Randall
May 20, 2025 · Comment icon 32 comments
Fighter pilot
Image: AI-generated (Midjourney)
An F-16 Viper fighter jet was reportedly struck by an unknown object while flying over the US state.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the incident - which occurred on January 19, 2023 - involved an F-16 Viper fighter jet being struck by an unidentified object over Arizona.

The aircraft had been flying in restricted airspace over Gila Bend at the time.

The object itself, described as an "orange-white UAS" (uncrewed aerial system), struck the rear of the plane's canopy, causing the glass to crack. Fortunately, there were no reported injuries.

Furthermore, at least three other reports of unknown objects were also made in the area, which encompasses the Air Force's Barry Goldwater Range near the Arizona-Mexico border.
The incident is just one of 22 cases involving US fighter pilots encountering or colliding with unknown objects over the state in less than a year.

A recent report by the Department of Defense's All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) also revealed that there have been hundreds of such incidents across the United States.

Exactly what the UFO was in this particular case remains unclear, although there is some speculation that it may have been a drone operated by persons unknown.

The findings of official investigations into the collision continue to remain under wraps.

Source: Mail Online | Comments (32)




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Recent comments on this story
Comment icon #23 Posted by Saru 12 months ago
Welcome to the forum. Please feel free to start a new thread about your experiences.
Comment icon #24 Posted by Trelane 12 months ago
Can you provide further details regarding the "them" you refer to? Thanks and welcome to the forums!
Comment icon #25 Posted by Portre 11 months ago
It was in the article.
Comment icon #26 Posted by Hazzard 11 months ago
Maybe you can show me where because I cant seem to find it?
Comment icon #27 Posted by Portre 11 months ago
UFO collides with US fighter jet, cracks canopy, over Arizona An F-16 Viper fighter jet was reportedly struck by an unknown object while flying over the US state. According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the incident - which occurred on January 19, 2023 - involved an F-16 Viper fighter jet being struck by an unidentified object over Arizona. The aircraft had been flying in restricted airspace over Gila Bend at the time. The object itself, described as an "orange-white UAS" (uncrewed aerial system), struck the rear of the plane's canopy, causing the glass to crack. Fortunately, t... [More]
Comment icon #28 Posted by Hazzard 11 months ago
  I see now that the source was Mail Online. Not that it matters much, but this is what I found.  https://nypost.com/2025/05/18/us-news/ufo-striking-fighter-jet-is-among-swarm-of-mystery-objects-spotted-near-us-military-sites-reports/ https://www.twz.com/pilots-are-seeing-some-very-strange-things-in-arizonas-military-training-ranges  https://www.the-express.com/news/us-news/172150/ufo-hit-military-plane-mysterious-incident    Hard to say why they chose to put the location of the hit at the rear of the canopy... maybe to make it more interesting? ... at least it wasnt a "glowing white oran... [More]
Comment icon #29 Posted by DrDueDiligence 11 months ago
You can destroy a 100 million fighter plane with the right type of drone, but i don’t think in this instance this is the case as the airspace was restricted. The U.S. military not in the business of risking pilot and expensive aircraft with drones flying freely in the area.    Like it’s already been commented, altitude of the said incident is important. These yellow light objects were also seen flying the next day, sometimes in groups of eight. Fighter jets have powerful EW and sensors to see and disable commercial drones.    So basically if they were commercial grade drones, or even m... [More]
Comment icon #30 Posted by Hazzard 11 months ago
  DHS, FBI, FAA & DoD Joint Statement on Ongoing Response to Reported Drone Sightings. There have been a limited number of visual sightings of drones over military facilities in New Jersey and elsewhere, including within restricted air space. Such sightings near or over DoD installations are not new. Congressman Michael McCaul, Chair of House Foreign Affairs Committeesaid that he believes some of the unidentified aircraft were 'spy drones' from China... the Chinese government owns farmland in the vicinity of military bases throughout the U.S. And based on those Chinese spy balloons a coup... [More]
Comment icon #31 Posted by DrDueDiligence 11 months ago
What’s silly is insisting that the U.S. military is everyone’s b****. Don’t you think they would have scrambled as many planes as possible after the incident to document and capture one of these objects? F-16’s have machine guns and missiles, they have EW suites and powerful radars and sensors that can fry the circuitry and break any electronic links of these things and cameras and radar data recorders that can document what they are.    Instead, these things came back the next day, and even more emboldened in greater numbers and nada from the U.S. airforce Its very weird!
Comment icon #32 Posted by Hazzard 11 months ago
I think that we can put this one to bed. @Portre The mid-air collision occurred on Jan. 19, 2023, according to the incident report, which Arizona’s Family Investigates obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. The F-16 that was involved in the collision was attached to the Air National Guard and based in Tucson. The report states: “The flight was a four-ship formation of F-16s with Mishap Pilot (MP) in the front seat of the Wingman aircraft and the Mishap Instructor Pilot (MIP) in the rear seat. ..the Mishap Aircraft (MA) was flying Line Abreast formation at 1745 feet A... [More]


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