
Fighter pilot reveals near miss with 'perfect rectangle' UFO that defied the laws of physics
Major Ryan Bodenheimer, a retired F-15 and F-16 combat pilot, revealed in a YouTube video that one of the 'wildest experiences' of his career involved a close encounter with a rectangle-shaped UFO as he flew with his squadron over southern Wyoming.
Bodenheimer, who served in the Air Force for 13 years, said the large craft suddenly appeared out of nowhere during a training mission and looked to be on a collision course with his plane.
'Then I realized we weren't going to hit, and all of a sudden it came more into view, and it was a rectangular shape. This was like essentially a perfect rectangle,' Bodenheimer revealed in his video on June 8.
The military veteran described the UFO as being 30 to 50 feet in height and appearing to be glowing around the edges of its bright white body as it flew alongside the Thunderbirds, the Air Force's elite aerobatic demonstration squadron.
Bodenheimer added that this craft had no visible vapor trail coming from an engine, no radar signal, and was traveling at approximately 400 knots (460 miles per hour).
'It really was defying any type of aeronautical laws that I've learned,' Bodenheimer said.
Bodenheimer then revealed that his report to air traffic control left officials in 'dead silence' before the entire matter was apparently dismissed as an 'anomalous object.'
The strange rectangle UFO got so close to Bodenheimer's F-16 Falcon at 30,000 feet in the air that he said he could make out every detail of the craft before it eventually flew off and was never seen again.
When air traffic controllers in Denver asked Bodenheimer if he could give them any more details about the UFO, he revealed that it had a cream-colored interior that became transparent or had a hole in its center.
'I know it sounds like I'm talking about a delicious pastry, but this was the wildest experience I've ever had,' the fighter pilot joked.
The only evidence of Bodenheimer's sighting was a report made by air traffic control saying that an object had been spotted in the area where the Thunderbirds were training that day, but he never heard from anyone about the incident again.
The former combat officer explained on his channel, Max Afterburner, that this UFO could not have been a weather balloon, a high-tech drone, or some kind of light trick.
'There was nothing that made me think this was some sort of illusion. It was clear as day. It was right down our wing line, a 30 to 50 foot object,' the pilot continued.
Bodenheimer then speculated whether this could have been an extraterrestrial craft, noting that he's never been a fan of 'science fiction' but admitted that his encounter matched many of the incidents involving military pilots that 'defied physics.'
'Going against aerodynamics definitely blows my mind. Anti-gravity, something that cloaks radar, I didn't see anything on the radar,' he added.
The object wasn't even tilted to deflect the wind while traveling at that speed. It stayed completely vertical as if the wind did not affect the UFO's ability to fly at over 400 mph.
Bodenheimer said that he has never heard about the UFO sighting since he reported it to officials with air traffic control in Denver
This wasn't the only time the Air Force veteran had encountered a UFO. He added that 'lightning-fast triangle' while training with the Thunderbirds near Area 51 - the military's top secret base in Nevada.
'There's been lots of crazy stuff that's been reported out there,' Bodenheimer said.
On this day, the mysterious jet-like object flew past Bodenheimer's F-16 as his squadron was coming in for a landing.
'This lightning-fast triangle blitzed past me as we were setting ourselves up on a final [approach],' the pilot revealed.
'I just remember this thing going massively fast past me... It had basically done an interceptor maneuver, a dust-off. So maybe this was its way of having fun, saying maybe this should be Top Gun 3,' Bodenheimer detailed.
The pilot noted that he hopes coming forward will encourage more of his fellow pilots to reveal what they've seen during their time in the military, noting that there have been roughly 800 UFO reports in just the last four years.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Reuters
5 hours ago
- Reuters
South Korea air crash: Inside the final minutes of Jeju Air flight
July 27 (Reuters) - South Korea is investigating the crash of a Jeju Air ( opens new tab Boeing (BA.N), opens new tab 737-800 jet on December 29 at Muan International Airport that killed 179 people, in the deadliest air disaster on the country's soil. The following are the final minutes of Flight 7C2216 gathered from a preliminary investigation report in January, South Korea's transport ministry and fire authorities, and a July 19 update from investigators seen by Reuters. All times are Korea Standard Time (GMT+9). 8:54:43 a.m. - Jeju Air 7C2216 contacts Muan airport air traffic control as it makes the final approach and is given clearance to land on runway 01, which is orientated at 10 degrees north-east. 8:57:50 a.m. - Air traffic control gives "caution - bird activity" advisory. 8:58:11 a.m. - Jeju Air pilots are heard talking about spotting a flock of birds under the aircraft. 8:58:26 a.m. - The aircraft aborts the landing attempt and then strikes birds while starting to circle back for another landing attempt known as a go-around. Both engines continued to operate with vibrations. The right engine also experienced a surge, emitting large flames and thick black smoke. 8:58:45 a.m. - Pilots stop the left engine while performing emergency procedures. The July 19 update said the evidence for this came from the cockpit voice recorder (CVR), flight data recorder (FDR) and inspection of the engines. 8:58:50 a.m. - The aircraft's FDR and CVR stop recording. At the moment both "black boxes" stop recording, the aircraft is flying at the speed of 161 knots (298 kph or 185 mph) at an altitude of 498 ft (152 m). 8:58:56 a.m. - Flight 7C2216 pilot makes emergency Mayday declaration related to a bird strike during the go-around. 9:00 a.m. - During the go-around, Flight 7C2216 requests clearance to land on runway 19, which is by approach from the opposite end of the airport's single runway. 9:01 a.m. - Air traffic control authorises landing on runway 19. 9:02 a.m. - Flight 7C2216 makes contact with runway at about the 1,200 m (3,937 ft) point of the 2,800 m (9,186 ft) runway. Landing gear was not lowered and the plane lands on its belly. 9:02:34 a.m. - Air traffic control alerts "crash bell" at airport fire rescue unit. 9:02:55 a.m. - Airport fire rescue unit completes deploying fire rescue equipment. 9:02:57 a.m. - Flight 7C2216 crashes into embankment after over-shooting the runway. 9:10 a.m. - The Transport Ministry receives an accident report from airport authorities. 9:23 a.m. - One male rescued and transported to a temporary medical facility. 9:38 a.m. - Muan airport is closed. 9:50 a.m. - Rescue completed of a second person from inside tail section of the plane.


The Guardian
7 hours ago
- The Guardian
Have you been a victim of the ‘gen Z stare'? It's got nothing on the gen X look of dread
Have you been the victim of a gen Z stare? Maybe you have but didn't realise, because you didn't know it existed, so let me explain: gen Z, now aged 13 to 28, have apparently adopted a widely deplored stare: blank, expressionless and unnerving. The stare is often deployed in customer service contexts, and many emotions can be read into it, including 'boredom, indifference, superiority, judgment or just sheer silliness', according to Forbes, whose writer described his unease in Starbucks when faced with a 'flat, zombie-like look that was difficult to read'. Hang on, aren't oversensitive snowflakes supposed to be younger people, not journalists my age? Has a generation ever been so maligned as Z? Probably, but I'm mortified by the mutterings about gen Z, when they are so self-evidently at the pointy end of older people's poor past (and present) decision-making. They don't get jobs, homes or a livable planet – but we're getting huffy about their 'rudeness' and 'lack of social skills'? Anything short of blending us into their protein shakes seems fair to me at this point. But I do get it, sort of. Young people have been treating their elders to scornful stares since homo sapiens first gruntingly suggested a 'nice walk' to their offspring, and it's easy to get defensive and lash out. As a 'meme scholar' suggested, crushingly, to NPR: 'Maybe what we're witnessing … is some boredom, especially with who they're interacting with.' That's exactly what I was afraid of. But everyone succumbs to the odd vacant stare and it's not necessarily directed at, or derogatory to, the stare-ee. I'm not qualified to parse gen Z stares (maybe they're thinking about matcha; maybe they're actually mewing?), but I can definitely explain some reasons my own people, gen X (aged between 45 and 60), go starey, slack-mouthed and silent – and why it's almost certainly not about you. We can't hear getting a bit deaf but struggling to accept it, so we're fumbling our way through the world with context clues and inept lip reading. If you say something and we just stare blankly, we're probably trying to decide whether to deploy one of our catch-all non-committal responses ('mmm'; 'right?') or ask you to repeat yourself. Again. We suspect one of our idols is standing behind that Thom Yorke or your kid's design-tech teacher? Winona Ryder or some woman you recognise from wild swimming? We need to know. Something you said triggered a memory of a public information film we saw at primary school.'Building site'; 'railway line'; 'fireworks'; 'electricity substation': there are so many trigger words that summon a horrifying mental kaleidoscope of doom. We've just remembered we were too 'cool' to top up our pension, ha ha ha, oh that realisation hits, mid-conversation, and we need to take a beat to fight the rising tide of panic. We've heard an unusual bird call but it would be rude to use the Merlin app on our that a redstart? Something weird is happening to one of our teeth.A filling coming loose, a tooth crumbling, some kind of searing, definitely expensive, pain? Mortality starts in the mouth. We started thinking about the 19-year-old Reform councillor in Leicestershire who is now responsible for children and family the 22-year-old one in charge of adult social care who previously said 'depression isn't real'. Just an ill-defined, increasingly uneasy sensation that we've forgotten something important meeting. Our passwords. The keys. Your name. You said something we don't get 'slay' and 'mid' and we hoped we weren't 'delulu' to believe we 'understood the assignment'. But you've just come out with an expression so baffling, we are simply unable to deduce any meaning from context. Maybe we are going to 'crash out'? Just give us a silent, sweaty moment. You're watching video on your phone without this one is about you and it's entirely deserved. I use my eyes to try to bore decency into sodcasters; I just wish my eyes were lasers. We're existentially we just lapse into a thousand-yard stare that semaphores: 'Help, reality has become overwhelming; I need to disassociate momentarily.' And who, of any generation, hasn't felt that this year? Perhaps the blank stare is actually proof there's more that unites than divides us. Emma Beddington is a Guardian columnist Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.


The Guardian
8 hours ago
- The Guardian
One injured after plane in Denver aborts takeoff due to ‘landing gear incident'
One person was injured after a plane in Denver aborted its takeoff and evacuated those on board using its emergency slide, authorities reported. The Federal Aviation Administration said that a 'possible landing gear incident' hit the American Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 and the slides were deployed amid signs of a fire underneath the plane. 'All customers and crew deplaned safely, and the aircraft was taken out of service to be inspected by our maintenance team. We thank our team members for their professionalism and apologize to our customers for their experience,' the airline said in a statement. One person taken to the hospital with a minor injury. 'The plane started vibrating and shaking really bad,' 17-year-old passanger Shay Armistead told CNN. 'We started tilting to the left side of the runway, and then we heard the sound of the wind from them lifting up the brakes of the plane and slamming on them really hard.' Denver is the sixth busiest airport in the world and a vital hub in the United States. The incident is the second involving a major airline in the US since Friday, when a Southwest flight took a sudden nosedive to avoid a midair collision shortly after takeoff in Burbank, California.