In the FBI’s files on unidentified objects, one answer appears again and again: This is outside our jurisdiction. That’s how a bureaucratic gap persisted for years.
The Aliens editors
This story was put together by our editors from the original documents. Every quote, date and figure comes from the source files listed further down the page.
On September 19, 1966, Florence Dow of New Hampshire wrote to the FBI. She suspected that a civilian group studying flying saucers was a front for hostile political activity. Nine days later, a brief reply arrived. It was signed by J. Edgar Hoover. The wording was familiar.
Part 10 of File No. 62-83894, which covers mainly the years 1966–1977, consists mostly not of field investigations but of correspondence. Citizens write to the FBI about sightings, rumors, documents, or suspicions. The bureau replies.
One sentence recurs like a form letter:
It wasn’t necessarily a dismissive answer. It was an administrative one. But in practice, an administrative answer can determine the fate of an entire subject.
In the first years of the 1947 wave, the FBI did take an interest. Part 1 of the file contains early memos and investigations concerning “flying discs.” Hoover himself requested information, and the bureau gathered testimony.
But the balance shifted over time. The Air Force set up its own programs, beginning with Project Sign and later continuing with Project Grudge and Project Blue Book. The FBI gradually retreated to the role of forwarding inquiries. Once the subject was designated an Air Force matter, the bureau almost always closed the door.
There were exceptions during this period. The FBI did step in when there were suspicions of forged federal documents, impersonation, threats, or other offenses within its usual jurisdiction. In other words, it didn’t investigate unidentified objects. It investigated people who used claims about unidentified objects to commit other crimes.
The distinction matters. The question “Did an unusual aerial event occur?” wasn’t the FBI’s to answer. The question “Did someone forge a federal document?” was.
The people who contacted the FBI came from all walks of life: concerned citizens, independent researchers, retired military personnel, journalists, students, engineers, and people who seemed deeply confused. They all entered the same response process.
Donald Keyhoe, a former Marine officer and director of the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena, is a good example. For years, he sent the bureau documents, testimony, and detailed claims. Almost every time, he received the same answer: Contact the Air Force.
Project Blue Book closed in 1969. The FBI continued to say the subject wasn’t within its jurisdiction. The CIA dealt with it occasionally and in secret, but didn’t serve as a public point of contact. A gap emerged: Citizens saw things, wrote in, and sent documents, while the system didn’t always know where to direct them.
Only in the past decade has the United States begun rebuilding an official mechanism for addressing anomalous aerial phenomena. But the old files show clearly what came before: not a grand denial or an organized conspiracy, but a bureaucracy that knew how to reply and struggled to listen.
Sources: FBI File No. 62-83894, Parts 1 and 10, released May 8, 2026.
