Top-Secret US Documents Rated 'Secret/NOFORN' Detail Metallic Triangular UFO Encounter at 25,000ft

Top-secret US military files have revealed that an American aircraft encountered a metallic triangular UFO at around 25,000ft over the eastern Mediterranean, between Greece and Turkey, during a flight back to base, according to newly declassified documents. The incident, logged at an altitude of 24,989ft and a speed of 168 knots, was formally recorded as an unidentified flying object and locked under a 'Secret/NOFORN' classification, barring it from being shared even with close allies.

After a sweeping declassification push ordered by then-President Donald Trump, which triggered a mass review of tens of millions of records dating back to the Second World War. Buried in that paper avalanche was an official report of this mid-air encounter above a region better known to British travellers for package holidays and cruise stops than for unexplained aerial phenomena. The sighting took place over a corridor of sky not far from sun-soaked Greek islands and Turkish resort towns, although the precise coordinates are not disclosed.

Metallic Triangular UFO Logged in Classified Military Report

The encounter is laid out in dry, procedural language that contrasts sharply with the subject matter. Military observers recorded the object as 'triangular and metallic,' cruising steadily at roughly 7,600 metres, with a reported speed of about 193mph. There is no mention of erratic movements or aggressive behaviour, but it was unusual enough to trigger what the file describes as a high-level military review.

This is not a leaked cockpit video or a pilot tell-all. It is an internal document that, until very recently, sat behind the sort of classification line reserved for highly sensitive intelligence. 'Secret/NOFORN' is not a casual label: it signals material deemed too delicate to be shared with foreign governments, including NATO partners that routinely operate with US forces in the same airspace.

Several portions of the UFO file remain blacked out. The exact date of the encounter has been heavily redacted, and whole sections are shielded behind the code '1.4(a),' a US government exemption used to conceal information judged to pose national security risks if disclosed. In this case, that includes the identity of the pilot and potentially details of the aircraft's mission and sensor systems. The public version offers only a skeletal narrative, with some of the most interesting bits shielded by thick censor's ink.

Even so, the fact that the encounter was documented at all, and then later handed over for release, has become part of Washington's evolving public stance on what it now labels 'unidentified anomalous phenomena,' or UAP. The Pentagon and associated agencies have been inching towards a more open posture, but rarely with this level of internal candour on display.

Trump-Era Declassification Brings UFO Files Into the Open

Speaking about the broader release of these records, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth tied the move directly to Trump's insistence on greater transparency over UFO material. 'The Department of War is moving at the same pace as President Trump to provide unprecedented transparency regarding our government's understanding of unidentified anomalous phenomena,' he said when the programme was announced.

Hegseth did not single out the Mediterranean incident, but he was explicit about why such files were being pulled out of the vaults. 'These files, hidden behind classifications, have long fuelled justified speculation, and it's time the American people saw them for themselves.' It is a rare acknowledgement from a senior official that secrecy around UFOs has, at the very least, undermined public trust.

What the documents do not do is solve the riddle. There is no stated conclusion about what the triangular object was, no reference to a misidentified drone or wayward experimental aircraft, and no follow-up indicating that a prosaic explanation was later found. The language of the report is careful. It describes what was seen and recorded, notes its shape, altitude and speed, and leaves it there.

For holidaymakers who have spent years flying in and out of the Greek islands or Turkey's Aegean coast, the idea that a metallic triangular UFO was once tracked in that same sky may land somewhere between faintly amusing and faintly unsettling. The region is a busy patch of NATO airspace, criss-crossed by commercial jets, military patrols and civilian leisure traffic. That a classified encounter could unfold almost literally above the heads of tourists without anyone on the ground being any the wiser is, in its own way, not surprising at all.

It is worth stressing that nothing in the newly released file confirms an extraterrestrial origin for the craft. The report simply records an unidentified object. Without the redacted data, outside experts have little to go on, and there is no corroborating material in the public domain that nails down what the crew actually encountered. Until or unless further documentation emerges, everything beyond those bare details remains speculative and should be taken with a grain of salt.

Still, the document underlines just how much has been quietly collected and stored over the decades about what pilots see in the sky but cannot immediately explain. One metallic triangle at 24,989ft is not proof of anything grand. It is, however, one more data point from a time when that data point was never meant to see daylight.