5 things to know about UFO crash retrieval claims made to U.S. lawmakers

CTV National News: UFO hearing The U.S. government held another UFO hearing on Wednesday, promising to pull back the curtains. Paul Hollingsworth has more.

A former U.S. intelligence officer claims a secret program is trying to reverse-engineer crashed UFOs. Speaking under oath during a congressional hearing on Wednesday, retired U.S. Air Force major David Grusch also claimed non-human "biologics" have been recovered from alleged crash sites.

"I was a member of the UAP Task Force from 2019 to 2021," Grusch told American lawmakers, referring to a Pentagon effort to study what are also known as unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAP. "I was informed in the course of my official duties of a multi-decade UAP crash retrieval and reverse-engineering program, to which I was denied access."

The Pentagon tells CTVNews.ca that its UAP office has "not discovered any verifiable information to substantiate" these claims.

Grusch appeared before the congressional subcommittee alongside former U.S. fighter pilots and UAP witnesses David Fravor and Ryan Graves. Here are five things to know about the two-and-a-half hour hearing, which you can watch on YouTube in its entirety.

U.S. FIGHTER PILOTS HAVE ENCOUNTERED UAP

Both Fravor and Graves have previously spoken to the New York Times and others about their UAP encounters while flying F-18 fighter jets.

"There were no rotors, no rotor wash, or any sign of visible control surfaces like wings," Fravor, a retired U.S. Navy commander and F-18 pilot, said of the object he saw and others saw off the Pacific coast. "I would like to say that the tic tac object we engaged in 2004 was far superior to anything that we had on time, have today or are looking to develop in the next ten years."

Graves, a fellow U.S. Navy F-18 pilot, believes that only five per cent of sightings get reported because of the stigma surrounding the topic.

"After upgrades were made to our Jets radar systems, we began detecting unknown objects operating in our airspace," Graves recalled of his first encounters over the Atlantic Ocean in 2014. "We were primarily seeing dark gray or black cubes inside of a clear sphere."

THE U.S. IS ALLEGEDLY TRYING TO REVERSE-ENGINEER UAP WRECKAGE

In a June article, Grusch began publicly claiming that the U.S. government, its allies and defence contractors have been involved in efforts to retrieve and analyze UAP wreckage and even intact craft. While the former intelligence official's claims are certainly extraordinary, he is clear that he is not providing firsthand information.

"My testimony is based on information I've been given by individuals with a longstanding track record of legitimacy and service to this country, many of whom also have shared compelling evidence in the form of photography, visual documentation and classified oral testimony," Grusch said on Wednesday. Grusch alleges that the U.S. government has been aware of these activities and hiding them from the public since the 1930s, and that he has been subject to "very brutal" retaliation since deciding to come forward as a whistleblower.

There were unfortunately few details in the testimony. Grusch said he could only share unclassified information in a public setting, and repeatedly responded to direct questions by saying that he could provide specifics behind closed doors or in a so-called "SCIF," short for sensitive compartmented information facility.

"I know the exact locations," Grusch said. "I can give you a specific, cooperative and hostile witness list of specific individuals."

SOME OF THE ALLEGED MATERIAL HAS INCLUDED NON-HUMAN 'BIOLOGICS'

"Biologics came with some of these recoveries, yeah," Grusch said in reply to a question from a lawmaker. He characterized them as "non-human" in origin.

"That was the assessment of people with direct knowledge on the program I talked to that are currently still on the program," Grusch stated. "I like to use the term non-human…I think the phenomenon is very complex and I like to leave an open mind analytically to specific origin."

At one point a congressman said he found the idea of advanced technology traversing space only to crash on arrival "a little bit farfetched."

"Planes crash, cars crash," Grusch said. "N number of sorties, however high, a small percentage are going to end in mission failure if you will, as we say in the Air Force."

PENTAGON AND NASA DENY OTHERWORLDLY ORIGINS

The Pentagon's current UAP program is known as the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, or AARO.

In a statement to CTVNews.ca, U.S. Department of Defence spokesperson Sue Gough said AARO investigators have "not discovered any verifiable information to substantiate claims that any programs regarding the possession or reverse-engineering of extraterrestrial materials have existed in the past or exist currently."

"The Department is fully committed to openness and accountability to the American people, which it must balance with its obligation to protect sensitive information, sources, and methods," Gough said via email. "There is no impediment to AARO receiving all UAP-related information, past or present, regardless of level or origin of classification."

A similar statement was made earlier in the year by AARO director Sean Kirkpatrick.

"In our research, AARO has found no credible evidence thus far of extraterrestrial activity, off-world technology or objects that defy the known laws of physics," Kirkpatrick, a physicist and intelligence officer, told a U.S. Senate subcommittee this April.

NASA is also currently studying UAP, with the aim of releasing a public report this summer.

"There is no conclusive evidence suggesting an extraterrestrial origin for UAP," a member of the NASA study said during a May 31 meeting.

While Canadian military personnel have been filing UAP reports for decades, Canada's Department of National Defence routinely states that it does "not typically investigate sightings of unknown or unexplained phenomena outside the context of investigating credible threats, potential threats, or potential distress in the case of search and rescue."

"In fact, all efforts to study UAP ceased in the 1960s," a department spokesperson said in a recent statement to CTVNews.ca. "We can confirm that the Canadian Armed Forces/Department of National Defence (as well as previous iterations) have never had any possession of any UAP material."

BIPARTISAN SUPPORT FOR ANSWERS AND INVESTIGATION

U.S. lawmakers noted that the headline-grabbing subject has received rare bipartisan support from both Republicans and Democrats, who are pushing for answers and investigation into the enigmatic issue.

"The circumstances surrounding UAPs has captivated the attention of the American people for decades, ingrained in even the minds of our nation's leaders, from Jimmy Carter to Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton to Donald Trump, Marco Rubio to Chuck Schumer," Florida Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna said in her opening remarks, referring to politicians who have spoken publicly about UAP.

The sentiment was echoed by colleagues like Democratic Rep. Mike Garcia of California.

"I've only been here for seven months, but this is by far the most bipartisan conversation and discussion that I have seen happen in the Congress," Garcia said towards the end of the hearing. "I think that a topic of this significance as it relates to our national security, as it relates to information that we're trying to gather for the American public, does bring people together and I think that's been really great to see."

Rep. Tim Burchett, a Tennessee Republican, pushed for Wednesday's hearing after Grusch's claims went public.

"This is an issue of government transparency,” Burchett said. “We’re not bringing little green men or flying saucers into the hearing… We’re just going to get to the facts. We’re going to uncover the cover up, and I hope this is just the beginning of many more hearings."

On Thursday night, the U.S. Senate passed the country's annual defence spending and policy bill, which contained a number of UAP-related amendments, including the assertion that the U.S. government take ownership "over any and all recovered technologies of unknown origin and biological evidence of non-human intelligence that may be controlled by private persons or entities in the interests of the public good." The amendments still require approval from the House of Representatives and the U.S. president.

With files from The Associated Press and CNN

Do you have an unusual document or observation to share? Email CTVNews.ca Writer Daniel Otis at [e-mail].