'Jellyfish UFO' Filmed Near US Military Base in Alaska Is Similar to Mystery Object Seen Over Iraq

Photographer Sara Jane Osborn filmed a dark object that appeared to hover above a distant tree line in Anchorage on 15 June. She described watching the shape, which resembled a giant jellyfish UFO, for about three minutes before it disappeared. The sighting was in the direction of Alaska's Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson.

The sighting occurred at about 10.13 pm, while Osborn and her husband Pete were in Anchorage on business after driving from the Valley. With the city's long June daylight still illuminating the sky, she had been photographing a rainbow when she noticed the object.

Giant Jellyfish UFO Filmed Above Anchorage Trees

Osborn initially thought an insect had entered her camera's view. She then watched a shape that appeared to hover, turn from side to side and carry long appendages that seemed to move independently beneath it.

From a distance, the silhouette resembled a giant jellyfish in the sky. An aircraft was also visible nearby and appeared much smaller, although the footage does not establish the distance to either object.

That limitation is central to any claim about its scale. An object a few hundred feet from a camera can appear larger than an aircraft miles away. Daily Mail coverage acknowledged that neither the object's size nor its precise position could be calculated from the available video.

Giant Jellyfish UFO and the Alaska Base Question

Beyond the tree line lay Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, known as JBER, the military installation bordering Anchorage.

'But it's just forest over there,' Osborn stated, explaining why she and Pete suspected the object might have been above land belonging to the base.

The direction of the sighting does not establish that it was over JBER. The object may have been much closer to the couple than the forest, and they acknowledged they had no evidence connecting it to military activity.

JBER houses F-22 Raptor stealth fighters and has roles in US air defence, surveillance and airlift operations.

An F-22 operating from JBER shot down an unidentified object off Alaska's northern coast on 10 February 2023. Pentagon officials described it as unmanned and approximately the size of a small car. It was reportedly travelling at about 40,000 feet, or 12,000 metres, a height regarded as a potential hazard to civilian aviation.

The fighter employed an AIM-9X missile. Days later, President Joe Biden stated that the objects shot down over North America were most likely balloons associated with private companies, recreational activities or research organisations. Recovery teams later halted their sea-ice search without finding debris.

Giant Jellyfish UFO Resembles Earlier Footage

The Anchorage video resembles infrared footage released by filmmaker Jeremy Corbell in January 2024, showing a jellyfish-shaped object moving over a US military base in Iraq. The All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office examined the complete 17-minute recording, captured in October 2017 near Al Taqaddum Air Base.

In its final report, AARO concluded the Iraqi object was consistent with fully inflated and partially deflated balloons. Its explanation identified hanging strings and deflated balloons as possible reasons for the apparent tentacles in the infrared imagery.

That finding suggests one possible explanation, without establishing what Osborn filmed. A bundle of balloons with trailing ribbons can twist and rotate in changing air currents. Osborn's object has not been conclusively identified.