US Navy confirms multiple UFO videos are real
Navy acknowledges UFO videos in statement; reaction from UFO expert Nick Pope.
In a new interview, Blink-182 co-founder Tom DeLonge said the research he and his To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science organization is doing on UFOs could "change the world."
Speaking to Sky News, DeLonge, the former guitarist for the band, said he has seen "enormous amounts of data" and would not have made the commitment he has to chase something that is mere "pie in the sky."
"You've got to understand, the last show that I played before I started To The Stars Academy was actually in the UK," the 44-year-old told the news outlet. "My band headlined Reading and Leeds. You know, it's like, there's a hundred thousand people there. 'And you decided to just leave that to go chase monsters and ghosts?' You know, I'm not stupid, I'm a pretty savvy guy."
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DeLonge continued: "I've been brought into a group of people and I'm a big part of a mechanism that is absolutely profound and [has] already started changing the world. And it's going to do a lot more."
In recent memory, DeLonge and the TTSA have been responsible for or had a hand in some notable moments.
In 2017, three videos of "unidentified aerial phenomena" were originally released to the New York Times and to TTSA.
The first video, known as "FLIR1," of the unidentified object was taken on Nov. 14, 2004, and shot by the F-18's gun camera. The second video, known as "Gimbal," was shot on Jan. 21, 2015, and shows another aerial vehicle with pilots commenting on how strange it is.
Musician Tom DeLonge speaks onstage at A Conversation With Tom DeLonge at The GRAMMY Museum on Oct. 13, 2015, in Los Angeles, Calif. (Rebecca Sapp/WireImage)
The third video, known as "GoFast," was also taken on Jan. 21, 2015, but it is unclear whether it was of the same object or a different one.
The news report and subsequent media coverage surrounding the videos forced the U.S. Navy to admit the videos were real in September 2019. Several months later, in April, the Pentagon publicly released the videos.
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"After a thorough review, the department has determined that the authorized release of these unclassified videos does not reveal any sensitive capabilities or systems, and does not impinge on any subsequent investigations of military air space incursions by unidentified aerial phenomena," Pentagon spokesperson Sue Gough said at the time.
"DOD is releasing the videos in order to clear up any misconceptions by the public on whether or not the footage that has been circulating was real, or whether or not there is more to the videos,” Gough added. “The aerial phenomena observed in the videos remain characterized as ‘unidentified.’"
"There's no getting away from the fact that TTSA has driven the agenda on this subject for the last two and half years, ever since the New York Times's December 2017 stories about AATIP (Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program) and related matters - stories in which TTSA played a key role," Nick Pope, a former employee and UFO investigator for Britain's Ministry of Defense, said in an email to Fox News. "TTSA has played a big part in moving this subject forward, out of the fringe and into the mainstream."
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In December 2017, Fox News reported that the Pentagon had secretly set the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program to investigate UFOs at the request of former Sen. Harry Reid. It reportedly ceased operations in 2012, but the 2017 Times report said the Department of Defense was still investigating potential episodes of unidentified flying objects.
Additionally, DeLonge and TTSA signed a deal with the U.S. Army to study its purported extraterrestrial "discoveries" in October 2019.
DeLonge, who is the executive producer of "Unidentified: Inside America's UFO Investigation" on the History Channel, noted the topic of UFOs, or unidentified aerial phenomena, is "fraught with taboo and stigma." However, the public revealing of the AATIP may have changed public perception for good.
"All of a sudden, lo and behold, the world finds out we actually had a real program with $22 million of taxpayer money to actually look at UFOs, but nobody wanted to talk about it," DeLonge continued.
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In a September 2019 Gallup poll, Americans said they are becoming increasingly skeptical that the government knows more than it is letting on as it pertains to UFOs.
Luis Elizondo, who Pope said is "one of the key figures" for his previous involvement with the AATIP and his help releasing the three videos, has said people should pay attention to the comments the government is making about UFOs.
"What the pilots encountered that day was able to perform in ways that defied all logic and our current understanding of aerodynamics," Elizondo wrote in a Fox News op-ed of the 2004 encounter by U.S. Navy pilots.
Elizondo was also a part of the interview with Sky News and is working with DeLonge on the History Channel project.
DeLonge, who said he experienced the stigma for the first time while in the early days of Blink-182, added the only way to remove that mindset is to get the world's best and brightest minds working on it.
"I mean, 20 years ago, it was very much like, these are craft and they must be from a planet, or they're an alien, and that's kind of where I was when I was in my early 20s in the van," DeLonge, who previously said "UFOs are real" in a since-deleted tweet, explained.
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"Over time, as science moves and it evolves ... I just think that we're gonna find - I assume, I don't know - but my gut is that we're going to find out there's a lot more to this. But the only way we get there is if the stigma is gone and we get the best scientists involved and we get the best facilities and the government working together."