Just before the coronavirus pandemic hit last year, Eastern Colorado was center stage for a kind of whodunnit. Ranchers, farmers 鈥� and even a few deputy sheriffs 鈥� described mysterious drones flying in the night skies.
A report on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, or UAPs, released last month by national intelligence officials didn鈥檛 say anything about the sightings in Colorado. So 萝莉少女 asked whether anyone ever solved the mystery about what the objects were and, if they were drones, who was flying them. The short answer: no.
This leaves U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado 鈥済reatly concerned.鈥�
Bennet sits on the Select Committee on Intelligence, which led efforts to get the UAP report released. It describes sightings, mainly by military pilots, that some think might be advanced technology. Though that鈥檚 different from the descriptions of the 鈥渄rones鈥� made by people in Colorado, both mysteries deserve answers, Bennet said.
鈥淕etting to the bottom of these phenomena,鈥� his office said in a statement to 萝莉少女, 鈥渋s a national security imperative.鈥�
For a few weeks around New Year鈥檚 in 2020, the state was in the national spotlight. News reports described drones flying in weird, grid-like patterns. Some journalists even chronicled their own close encounters.
A 萝莉少女 story at the time featured RaeMarie Knowles, who shot a grainy video of an object with flashing lights, making a buzzing noise over her house north of Kiowa. She says she counted dozens more of what appeared to be drones that night, Jan. 4, 2020, apparently flying in some kind of pattern.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e big and the undercarriage is lit up,鈥� Knowles said. 鈥淵ou can tell it鈥檚 not any kind of plane or anything like that. You can see the outline in the dark.鈥�
From his home in Maryland, Douglas Johnson took note of the news reports.
鈥淥ne of the things I noticed early on is that some of the activity reported was near Warren Air Force base,鈥� he said. 鈥淢y attention was piqued by that.鈥�
Johnson is a volunteer researcher with the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies, a think tank that uses scientific methods to try to explain mysterious objects in the skies. Warren Air Force base, near Cheyenne, interested him because it is tasked with securing dozens of active nuclear missile silos on the plains in Wyoming, Nebraska and Colorado.
The Colorado sightings might fit a pattern he鈥檚 tracking 鈥� something less mystifying than UFOs, but no less perplexing: government officials taking reports of drones near two dozen nuclear power facilities around the country.
鈥淥ver a five-year period, 57 incidents,鈥� Johnson said. 鈥淥nly, I believe, five of them have been solved at the time I got the list.鈥�
Johnson obtained that list, which covers incidents as recent as 2019, by filing a Freedom of Information Act request with the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission. He also filed with agencies looking into the reports of 鈥渄rones鈥� in Colorado. Eventually, he got thousands of pages of documents, including from the Federal Aviation Administration.
He shared those documents with 萝莉少女. They add context to statements officials had already made to the press, like last year when the Air Force said no drones were emanating from Warren air base. And Johnson鈥檚 documents contain no evidence that objects entered military or restricted air space.
What they do provide is a glimpse into how much officials scrambled to explain the mystery and how little they discovered, including the FAA.
鈥淭he FAA had people in the field who were seriously trying to get to the bottom of this and find out who was behind these formation flying drones that were alarming the populace,鈥� Johnson said.
Rewind to when it all began: late December of 2019. A state official contacted the FAA to ask for the FAA鈥檚 assistance after receiving reports about objects in the skies that appeared to be drones. As news headlines hit, the top person in the FAA 鈥� its administrator, Steve Dickson 鈥� emailed his team on Dec. 29 asking: 鈥淒o we have any information about these purported sightings?鈥�
After New Year鈥檚, on Jan. 3, one answer was that there were more reports of drones. An FAA official noted sightings in several Eastern Colorado counties and that deputy sheriffs were among the witnesses.
Documents show that the FAA contacted small airports, drone test sites, drone companies and companies authorized to operate drones. The agency also checked with multiple offices in the Pentagon and the command responsible for safeguarding skies from attack, NORAD in Colorado Springs.
鈥淭here is high confidence these (the reports of mysterious drones) are not covert military activities,鈥� the FAA said in documents.
By Jan. 6, 2020, the mystery had reached its peak as the tiny city of Brush on the Eastern Plains was host to a huge meeting. Seventy-seven local sheriffs, state officials and representatives from federal agencies, including the FAA, gathered to meet, locking news reporters out.
The freedom of information documents include notes from that meeting, showing officials were concerned about residents who might break the law and try to shoot the objects down. The FAA did not know 鈥渨hat if any laws or regulations have been broken and/or violated.鈥� The agency also believed the 鈥渙nly true way to address the issue鈥� would be to 鈥渋dentify the operator.鈥�
Afterwards, officials told the press they were forming a task force, but it was short-lived. About a week later (Jan. 13, 2020), the Colorado Department of Homeland Security issued a press release saying there was no evidence supporting sightings of large drones traveling in patterns. Some of the sightings, the release said, were airplanes, planets and stars. The FAA, according to documents, suspended its operations around the same time, saying reports of sightings had 鈥渟ignificantly diminished鈥� and that they had failed to see anything.
鈥淚t seems like they just kind of shrugged and moved on to more pressing business,鈥� Johnson said.
Asked what has happened since reports dried up last year, an FAA spokesperson said the agency has not received 鈥渁ny information that enabled us to determine what exactly it was that people reported seeing.鈥�
That includes whether what people saw were drones and, the FAA added, if so, who was flying them.
In a statement, Colorado homeland security officials said they鈥檝e received no new complaints.
鈥淎s a result no additional action has been taken or required at this time,鈥� a spokesperson said in a statement.
Sen. Bennet isn鈥檛 the only one to see the lack of answers as a threat to national security. Others, including his colleague, now-former Sen. Cory Gardner, a Colorado Republican, worried at the time of the incidents about their ongoing implications.
"If we can't find out who they are, how they are being controlled, who is controlling them, what is to keep a nation like Iran or North Korea from looking at this instance and saying, 鈥楤oy now, we should come out and do the same thing,鈥欌�� he told KKTV in Colorado Springs last year.
After sifting through the thousands of pages about the mysterious objects that he received in his requests, Johnson thinks about that issue, too.
鈥淓ven if this Colorado/Nebraska activity turns out to be some actor that's totally innocuous, harmless, it still is troubling that the government can't find out who it is or says they still haven鈥檛 been able to find out,鈥� he said. 鈥淎ctivity of that scale going on for at least three weeks, that is of concern.鈥�
