Is Maryland a UFO hotspot? Locals have reported nearly 2,000 bizarre sightings in the sky since 1995

Maryland could be a UFO hotspot, as nearly 2,000 sightings of bizarre objects in the sky have been reported since the mid-1990s.

Residents of the eighth-smallest state have reported a ‘flat bottom black triangle’ with green lights, ‘a classic flying saucer,’ and an oval-shaped craft that ‘stayed stationary for about a minute and a half.’

Reports of the phenomenon have been collected in a database that shows that the first recorded sighting in Maryland dates back to May 15, 1946 — but wasn’t reported until June 2017.

More modern sightings, like the glowing ‘orbs’ witnessed above Ocean City this past April, now get reported to the database within a matter of days.

‘My daughter and I looked up and saw ‘four orbs’ moving in a circular motion, then come back to the middle, then spread back out,’ the witness from Ocean City, who works in the defense sector, wrote to the UFO database. 

For decades, the official policy of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has been that commercial pilots and other civilians should not bother reporting unexplained aerial phenomena (UAP) or craft (UFOs) to the federal agency.

Per the FAA’s ‘Aeronautical Information Manual,’ anyone who sees something strange in the sky should report their sightings to the volunteers at the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC) instead.

‘If concern is expressed that life or property might be endangered,’ the FAA manual’s guidance on UFO sightings continues, ‘report the activity to the local law enforcement department.’

One White House official, former Clinton chief of staff and current Biden ‘clean energy’ czar John Podesta, likened the FAA’s official stance to ‘illogical directives’ and ‘discrimination.’ 

And, as of this summer, NASA’s UAP advisory panel now recommends that the civilian air agency should admit the public’s UFO and UAP sightings into its own Aviation Safety Reporting System.

But in the meantime, NUFORC’s director Peter Davenport said his group is getting inundated with fresh reports as scrutiny of the UFO issue reaches a fever pitch in the halls of Congress, inside the Pentagon and across the news media. 

‘It’s heartening to me that so many people are coming forward now,’ Davenport told CBS News. 

‘We’re getting significantly more reports than just six months or a year ago,’ he said. ‘There are UFO reports coming from probably most cities in the country.’

California is reported to have the most UFO sightings out of any state in the US, with more than 15,000 claims.

And the state has seen more than 200 objects this year alone.  

Maryland has witnessed 1,923 UFO incidents, as logged by 1,818 reports maintained by this civilian UFO database. 

Below are some of Maryland’s most compelling cases from the past year.

August 5, 2023 – Baltimore, Maryland 

Multiple electric blue lights, several in a tight triangular formation, hovered over a backyard in Baltimore, according to one crisply recorded UFO report to NUFORC. 

‘We were outback celebrating and I notice some bright lights in the sky,’ the witness wrote along with their submission of the video. 

‘I started recording because I didn’t think they were stars like most people thought,’ the witness said. ‘I usually look at the sky at night and never saw those before, plus they were moving slowly across the sky.’

While the witness described seeing ‘at least 10 lights’ during the sighting, at most eight or nine are seen during the 30-second video.  

Although the lights do twinkle in the distance like stars, no other stars are visible in the night sky — and, by the video’s end, the lights can be seen moving slowly in unison ‘across the sky’ just as the witness describes.

July 4, 2023 – Brunswick, Maryland

During a clear night of Independence Day fireworks, multiple witnesses at an apartment complex in Brunswick noticed a pair of blinking lights that appeared connected to one another, hovering around their local fireworks show.

‘What is that? Oh, my gosh! What is that?’ one confused witness video-recording the event can be heard asking as the reportedly ‘quick moving lights in synchronization’ glides across the sky, leaving ‘no sound or trails.’ 

‘Happened during fireworks but very easy to tell it’s not fireworks, nor a plane or helicopters in formation,’ said the witness who submitted his report and cell phone video to NUFORC.  

‘The objects also seemed fairly close, as in not extremely high,’ the witness added, ‘but the objects still seemed smaller than crafts known of.’ 

‘The flight pattern was so consistent between the two lights that I truly don’t believe it’s drones being flown as the line between the two was absolutely perfect and did not change at all during flight.’

A child witness, who can be heard in the video, guesses that the mystery lights might be ‘a firework,’ but the adults remain unsure.

March 19, 2023 – Perryville, MD

For about a minute near Jackson Station Road, one driver reported seeing a ‘flat-bottom black triangle shape flying low to the ground with a low wooshing sound.’

‘I stopped my car and rolled down the window and heard a low wooshing sound coming from it,’ the witness told NUFORC in their written report.

The UFO, which they referred to as ‘the shape,’ was then reportedly ‘flying low to the ground and moving really slow.’

The witness further described the UFO as appearing ‘black in color’ with a green light on ‘each point’ of its triangular shape. 

‘I got one blurry picture,’ the witness reported, ‘when a car pulled up behind me and I had to keep driving.’

November 7, 2022 – Rockville, MD, USA

One Maryland witness saw what they described as ‘a classic flying saucer, with a black marking in the ‘front» moving very slowly above their parents’ house in Rockville just north of Washington DC.

‘Saw this weird flying saucer-looking thing, took some photos,’ the witness wrote into NUFORC. 

‘I was looking at the evening sky and saw a strange looking object with no trail,’ their account continues, noting that the UFO ‘seemed to be relatively low’ in the sky and was moving ‘very slowly (compared to, for example, an aircraft).’

In the throwback to the mid-20th Century’s UFO sightings, the object, they report, ‘looks like a classic flying saucer, with a black marking in the ‘front’ (what was visible).’ 

Then, just like a classic UFO, it apparently zipped off: ‘It seemed to disappear after I filmed and photographed it for 30 seconds,’ the witness wrote.

Although Davenport has been working for NUFORC since 1994, the group’s director has few predictions for what the recent resurgence in interest might lead to.

‘I don’t know what the future has in store for us,’ Davenport said. 

‘But I am encouraged that more people are coming forward and the government recognizes the UFO phenomenon [as] something worthy of their attention.’