The FBI's online records library, the Vault, holds a UFO collection that has drawn millions of readers. Its most famous page is a short 1950 memo about "flying saucers" in New Mexico. This guide explains what the FBI's UFO records are, and what the Bureau itself has said about them.
After the wave of "flying disc" reports in 1947, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover had agents help verify UFO sightings. According to the FBI's March 2013 statement as reported by LiveScience and NBC News, that work ran until July 1950. The records it produced — reports, letters and teletypes — form the core of the FBI's UFO collection.
When the Justice Department adds Epstein files or the Pentagon publishes new UFO files, we email you a short summary and a link to the official records.
The best-known page is a one-page memo dated March 22, 1950 from Guy Hottel, head of the FBI's Washington, D.C. field office, to Director Hoover. It relays a secondhand account, attributed to an Air Force investigator, of three crashed "flying saucers" recovered in New Mexico.
The memo was first released under the Freedom of Information Act in the late 1970s. After the FBI launched the Vault in 2011 it became the most viewed document there, seen nearly a million times by 2013.
In a March 2013 statement, the FBI said the memo "does not prove the existence of UFOs" and is "simply a second- or third-hand claim that we never investigated." It added that "our Washington Field Office didn't think enough of that flying saucer story to look into it."
Later FOIA research by The Black Vault traced the story to a special investigator connected to the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department; its original source remains unknown.
The FBI also holds one of only two surviving 1947 government records about Roswell. According to the GAO's 1995 report, an FBI teletype of July 8, 1947 states that the military reported recovering "an object resembling a high-altitude weather balloon with a radar reflector" near Roswell. Our Roswell guide covers the full record.
The FBI's UFO collection is online in the FBI Vault (vault.fbi.gov). In 2026, FBI case files were also included in the Pentagon's PURSUE releases on war.gov — the first release, on May 8, 2026, included FBI files covering 1947 to 1968.
A one-page FBI memo dated March 22, 1950 from the head of the Washington field office to J. Edgar Hoover, relaying a secondhand story about three crashed flying saucers in New Mexico. The FBI says it never investigated the claim and that the memo does not prove UFOs exist.
Yes, briefly. FBI agents helped verify UFO sightings from 1947 until July 1950, at Director J. Edgar Hoover's direction, according to the FBI's 2013 statement.
In the FBI Vault at vault.fbi.gov. FBI case files were also published in the Pentagon's 2026 PURSUE releases on war.gov.
Facts on this page were checked against the sources below on October 22, 2026 by Himanshu Singh. Spot an error? Email hello@nowdeclassified.com.
We'll email you when the government releases new Epstein files or Pentagon UFO files — with a link to our sourced explainer.
Complete archive guide to the 1947 Roswell recovery: the original FBI teletype, the press release and retraction, Project Mogul vs. the recovery narrative, and what the 2026 declassified archive adds.
Complete guide to Project Blue Book: the USAF's 1952–1969 UFO investigation, its 12,618 cases, 701 unresolved 'Unknown' designations, key investigators, and how to access the full archive in NARA.
A complete guide to the Department of Defense PURSUE program: what it is, how declassified UAP files are released via war.gov, what the three release tranches contain, and how to navigate the archive.
AATIP director's first-person account of the Pentagon UAP program.
Religious-studies professor's investigation of UAP elite belief networks.
Insider claim of Roswell recovered technology distribution program.