THE American Airlines The pilot saw what he described as a “long, cylindrical object” on the jet he was flying to Phoenix in the skies over New Mexico on Sunday. The FBI said it was aware of the incident, and the Pentagon said the military was not conducting any tests in the area that day.
“Do you have any targets here?” one of the pilots on American Flight 2292 asked air traffic controllers, according to a broadcast recording obtained by CBS News. “We just put something on top of us that – I hate to say it – looked like a long, cylindrical object that almost looked like a type of cruise missile moving very fast that passed right over us. “
American confirmed that the transmission was from flight 2292, going from Cincinnati airport to Phoenix. The airline forwarded additional questions to the FBI, which said it was aware of the incident.
“While our policy is not to confirm or deny investigations, the FBI is continuously working with our federal, state, local and tribal partners to share intelligence and protect the public,” spokesman Frank Fisher of the FBI field office in Albuquerque, New Mexico. , said in a statement. “Anyone who is aware of suspicious or criminal activity should contact the local law enforcement agency or the FBI.”
The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement that the pilot reported the sighting of New Mexico shortly after noon on Sunday. The agency said that air traffic controllers did not see any objects in the area on their radarscopes.
A Pentagon spokesman told CBS News national security correspondent David Martin that the reported sighting took place about 400 miles from the White Sands Missile Range in southern New Mexico. The spokesman said the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, known as DARPA, the Missile Defense Agency and the U.S. Strategic Command did not conduct any missile range tests on Sunday.