'Good Luck With the Aliens': Rhode Island Pilot's Viral UFO Encounter Leaves Air Traffic Control Baffled

A pilot flying over Rhode Island got more than he bargained for when something strange appeared right next to his plane. What happened next—captured on air traffic control audio that's now gone viral—has people asking questions nobody seems able to answer.

The recording, posted by VASAviation on YouTube back in October, shows how quickly a routine flight can turn bizarre. The pilot, flying a small Piper aircraft at 3,500 feet, spotted what he described as a silver canister just floating there in midair. Not drifting. Not moving. Just hovering, like it had every right to be there.

Controllers admit they've got nothing

'Looks like a strange, small object that we just floated by. A small silver canister. Do you know what that could be?' the pilot asks. His voice is calm—professional, even—but you can hear he's genuinely stumped.

Air traffic control didn't have answers. They asked for more details, probably hoping the pilot would say it was a weather balloon or some other mundane explanation. Instead, he doubled down. The thing was right off his wingtip. Still there. Still not moving. 'Appears to be standing still and I'm at 3,500 feet. It was right off our wingtip. Small silver canister'.

When controllers asked whether it could be a drone or balloon, the pilot shut that down quickly. Whatever he was looking at wasn't attached to anything. It wasn't behaving like any drone he'd ever seen. It was just there, defying basic physics in a way that clearly bothered him.

That's when things took a turn. 'Creepy!' one controller says. Then another voice pipes up with the line that's made this whole exchange blow up online: 'Good luck with the aliens!'

Not the only weird thing in the sky lately

You'd think a comment like that would be unusual for air traffic control, but maybe it isn't anymore. Rhode Island's had its share of odd sightings this year. Back in June, someone in Warwick reported a silver-green orb that just appeared out of nowhere, got bigger, then shot off to the left. In January, witnesses in Woonsocket saw what they called a 'super bright' orb moving faster than the planes around it.

The National UFO Reporting Center logged over 2,000 sightings in the first six months of 2025 alone, according to NewsNation. That's up from 1,492 during the same stretch in 2024. Christian Stepien, who works with the centre, reckons only about 5% of actual sightings even get reported—people are still embarrassed to come forward.

Around 3% of the reports they do get fall into the 'we genuinely don't know what this is' category. Stepien mentioned cases where people describe massive triangles the size of football fields just floating over their houses. Those aren't easily mistaken for Venus or a Chinese lantern.

Last year's drone chaos still fresh

This comes off the back of the absolute madness that was late 2024, when mysterious drones were spotted all over New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. Military bases confirmed unauthorized incursions. The FBI got involved. People panicked. Eventually, Trump's lot said most of them were FAA-authorized drones, though that explanation didn't really satisfy anyone given how many were flying over restricted airspace.

The FAA hasn't said a word about this Rhode Island incident. Requests for comment have gone unanswered, which is pretty standard for these cases. Unless something turns out to be obviously explainable—a weather balloon, research equipment, whatever—official bodies tend to stay quiet.

Why this actually matters

Strip away the alien jokes and conspiracy theories, and you're left with a genuine aviation safety question. A pilot encountered an unknown object at close range during flight. That's a collision risk, full stop. Doesn't matter if it's extraterrestrial, foreign surveillance tech, or something we've never thought of before—if it's in the sky near aircraft, it needs investigating.

Trained observers like pilots and air traffic controllers are reporting these things with increasing frequency. They're not attention-seekers or fantasists. They're people whose job involves watching the sky, and they're seeing stuff they can't explain. Responding with 'good luck with the aliens' might get a nervous laugh, but it doesn't address the actual problem. Something was out there that day. The pilot saw it. Controllers couldn't identify it. And now the recording's out there for everyone to hear and wonder about.