A newly released account of FBI personnel observing a mysterious triangular object does not provide enough evidence to determine what they encountered, according to Sean Kirkpatrick, the former director of the Pentagon's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office. Speaking to Fox News Digital, Kirkpatrick urged an evidence-based assessment of sightings described in recently declassified government records.
The FBI account concerns a 2026 sighting of a dark triangle with a nonreflective surface and no apparent engines, exhaust or conventional means of propulsion. Witnesses reported that it rose above a mountain ridge and quickly disappeared into a canyon. A separate AARO report described a matte-black triangle rising approximately 200 to 300 feet above a ridgeline, remaining suspended for about 20 seconds and then apparently accelerating almost instantaneously.
Kirkpatrick, whose career in the Defense Department and intelligence community spanned nearly three decades, said the witnesses' professional backgrounds could not establish the accuracy of their observations. He described accepting testimony solely because witnesses are considered credible as authority bias. Without photographs or other supporting material, he said, investigators have little basis for determining what occurred. The War Department confirmed that images included with the FBI report were illustrations, not photographs of the reported object.
Advanced aerospace systems could account for some triangular sightings, Kirkpatrick said, citing reports involving the F-117 stealth aircraft before its technology became widely known. He explained that AARO considered three broad categories when investigating UAP reports: foreign adversaries' advanced technology, misinterpreted ordinary objects or sensor effects, and extraterrestrial activity. Investigators compared observation data with the characteristics expected under each explanation.
According to Kirkpatrick, none of the information his office examined supported an extraterrestrial explanation. Most cases concerned ordinary objects or phenomena that sensors were not built to recognize. A smaller number contained indications of possible foreign adversary involvement and were passed to national security officials for additional investigation.
He also cautioned that an unresolved designation generally reflects missing or inadequate data, rather than something beyond explanation. Similar incidents might suggest a likely answer, he said, but investigators cannot make a definitive finding without sufficient raw information. He distinguished that from an unidentified object, which can be observed and characterized using available data even if its identity remains unknown.
Kirkpatrick alleged that some cases published as unresolved had already been resolved by AARO, and that he had briefed Congress on several findings. He said Pentagon leadership instructed the office to delete explanatory conclusions before releasing certain cases, allowing the public to decide what to believe. He did not identify the leaders involved or say when that instruction was given.
Separately, a War Department official speaking on background told Fox News Digital that the department would offer no assessments of the released files, either collectively or individually, so Americans could draw their own conclusions. Kirkpatrick argued that withholding investigative findings encouraged conspiracy theories.
The released material also includes decades-old accounts, among them sightings near California's Santa Catalina Island during the 1950s. Kirkpatrick said those reports should be evaluated against contemporary technology, including early high-altitude balloon programs that might explain some bright objects. He stressed that the possibility of intelligent life elsewhere does not establish that extraterrestrials have visited Earth, and said the latest records did little to alter his assessment. Fox News Digital sought comment from the FBI.
