FBI Hunt Missing UFO General Neil McCasland Amid 'Grave National Security Crisis'

The FBI has joined the hunt for retired US Air Force Major General William Neil McCasland, 68, who vanished from his home in Albuquerque, New Mexico on Feb. 27, 2026, leaving his phone behind in a disappearance that investigative journalist Ross Coulthart has publicly described as a 'grave national security crisis' for the United States.

McCasland was last seen at about 11 a.m. near Quail Run Court NE in northeast Albuquerque, walking away from his home on foot. No clothing description has been confirmed. He reportedly left without his watch as well as his phone, an unusual detail for a man described as an experienced outdoorsman who regularly hiked and skied. The Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office issued a statewide Silver Alert the same day, citing unspecified medical issues as a reason for heightened concern about his wellbeing.

McCasland began his Air Force career in 1979 at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico and retired in 2013 after reaching the rank of major general. He commanded both the Phillips Research Site and the Air Force Research Laboratory, roles that placed him at the centre of the United States' classified space weapons development. In UFO research circles he is closely associated with Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio, long rumoured to hold physical debris allegedly recovered from the Roswell incident.

Coulthart Raises Questions About What McCasland Knows

It was Ross Coulthart, speaking on the latest edition of his NewsNation podcast Reality Check, who put the missing general before a wider public audience. Coulthart, who has built a reputation as one of the more methodical journalists covering the UAP beat, was unambiguous about the stakes.

'The timing is screechingly relevant,' he told listeners. 'The fact that Gen. Neil McCasland has disappeared off the face of the earth is a grave national security crisis for the United States of America. This is a man with some of the most sensitive secrets of the United States in his head.'​​

Coulthart went further, arguing that McCasland had been supportive of disclosing more of what the US government knows about extraterrestrial phenomena to the public, and that the disappearance coincided with President Trump making fresh public overtures about releasing UAP-related government records — timing the journalist called significant. None of this, it must be said, has been independently confirmed. Coulthart's framing sits, as it so often does, somewhere between credible concern and informed speculation.

FBI Search Continues as Bernalillo County Speaks Out

Bernalillo County Sheriff John Allen confirmed the FBI's involvement in measured terms. 'Our priority is finding Mr McCasland safely,' he said in a statement. 'Our investigators and search teams are working continuously, and we're coordinating closely with our local, state and federal partners.' The public has separately been asked to review home security footage from between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. on the morning of Feb. 27, with unedited files requested for direct upload to the sheriff's evidence portal.​

Authorities have confirmed McCasland is five feet eleven inches tall, weighs approximately 160 pounds, and has blue eyes and grey hair. His direction of travel remains unknown.

The Silver Alert is triggered in New Mexico when a missing person over 50 shows signs of what state guidelines describe as 'irreversible deterioration of intellectual faculties,' such as dementia. Authorities have made clear that it does not indicate suspected criminal involvement and was issued solely over health concerns. That distinction has done little to curb the more fevered theories circulating online, but it remains the factual baseline for reporting.

What is not in question is the profile of the man at the centre of this. A career officer who spent more than three decades inside the classified architecture of American military research, McCasland is, by any reasonable measure, someone whose disappearance carries weight well beyond the average missing persons case, whatever the ultimate explanation turns out to be.