On November 7, 2006, at about 4:15 p.m., 12 United Airlines workers and some other people outside O'Hare International Airport saw a sudden UFO. The Federal Aviation Administration did not look into the event because the object was not detected on radar. Instead, the agency described it as a "weather phenomenon."
The sighting
On November 7, 2006, at about 4:15 p.m. Central Standard Time, federal officials at Chicago O'Hare International Airport received a report that twelve airport workers saw a metal, saucer-shaped object hovering near Gate C-17.
The object was first seen by a ramp worker pushing back United Airlines Flight 446, which was preparing to leave Chicago for Charlotte, North Carolina. The worker told the flight crew about the object above their plane. Pilots, airline managers, and mechanics also saw the object. However, air traffic controllers did not see it, and it did not appear on radar.
Eyewitnesses described the object as completely silent, with a diameter between 6 and 24 feet (1.8 to 7.3 meters) and a dark gray color. Some people outside the airport also saw it. One witness said the object looked like a disc hovering above the airport and claimed it was "obviously not clouds." This person reported that the object moved quickly through the clouds, creating a clear blue hole in the cloud layer. The hole reportedly closed itself shortly after. At least four eyewitness accounts differ on details such as the object's shape, height, movement, time, or the number of objects seen.
According to the Chicago Tribune’s Jon Hilkevitch, the disc was visible for about five minutes and was seen by nearly a dozen United Airlines employees, including pilots and supervisors. These workers heard radio chatter about the object and rushed outside to see it.
Reaction from the Federal Aviation Administration and United Airlines
United Airlines and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) first said they had no information about the O'Hare UFO sighting. This changed when the newspaper Chicago Tribune, which was looking into the report, sent a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. The FAA then checked air-traffic communication records to meet the request. This search found a call between a United Airlines supervisor and an FAA manager at the airport tower about the UFO sighting.
The FAA believed the sighting was caused by a "weather phenomenon" and decided not to investigate further. Astronomer Mark Hammergren explained that weather conditions on the day of the sighting were suitable for a "hole-punch cloud," a rare weather event.
UFO investigators pointed out that the FAA's decision not to investigate goes against the agency's responsibility to look into possible security issues at airports. This case involved an object seen by many airport workers and officially reported by at least one employee, hovering over one of the busiest airports in the world. Some people who saw the event and spoke to the Chicago Tribune expressed disappointment that federal officials did not investigate further.
Media coverage
The Chicago O'Hare airport UFO story was reported by several well-known news organizations, including CNN, CBS, MSNBC, Fox News, the Chicago Tribune, and NPR.
On February 11, 2009, The History Channel broadcast an episode of the television show UFO Hunters titled "Aliens at the Airport," which examined the incident.
The event is also included in the television series Hangar 1: The UFO Files in the episode "Unfriendly Skies."
This incident is further described in the series Ancient Aliens, Season 19, Episode 9: "Aliens in Our Airspace."