Benjamin Read

Benjamin Read says he enlisted in the Marine Corps hoping to fly as aircrew, worked as an avionics technician on CH-53 helicopters, and was sent through an officer programme. He was commissioned in 2001 and flew the F/A-18 Hornet for most of about 18 years in the Corps, surviving a G-induced spinal injury during an air show in Thailand, and served as a general's aide and as air officer of Task Force Personnel Recovery in Iraq before taking early retirement. He then joined the airlines, where he is now a captain.

He says he was "a full on skeptic" who assumed strange lights over the western U.S. were classified American programs. That changed in May 2021 when, as first officer climbing out of Houston, he saw a large metallic object hover in his path and then streak away, after the controller had called it as unidentified traffic. He reported it to Americans for Safe Aerospace about two years later, and told the story on Ryan Graves's podcast in July 2026.

His account is his own: the captain has not spoken publicly, no photograph came out, and no ATC or radar record has been released.

Sources: Safe Aerospace Podcast (14 July 2026) · Americans for Safe Aerospace testimony to the Pennsylvania House (25 June 2026)