President Donald Trump said the incident may have been a coincidence. The news comes amidst a flurry of reports and speculation about a number of incidents.
President Trump says government will start releasing UFO files
President Donald Trump said at a Turning Point USA event that his administration would begin releasing government files on UFOs.
The White House said it was investigating multiple deaths and disappearances of people associated with the U.S. scientific community over the past few years and asked federal investigators to see if there was a connection between the cases.
“I hope it’s random,” President Donald Trump said when asked by reporters about the claim. “It’s a pretty serious situation…hopefully, I don’t know if it’s a coincidence, whatever you want to call it, but some of them were very important. We’re going to look into that in the next short period of time.”
President Trump said he had just left a conference on the topic.
White House press secretary Caroline Levitt confirmed on April 17 that the administration was working with “relevant” agencies and the FBI, saying “no stone will be left unturned.”
The news from the White House comes after weeks of tabloid reports, internet speculation and inconsistent reporting.
A review of publicly available information by USA TODAY found at least 10 cases of disappearances or deaths that may be related to investigations spanning several years, but the cases reveal inconsistent links to scientific research and widely varying circumstances.
USA TODAY has reached out to the FBI and Department of Energy for more information. CBS News reported that the DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees some of the facilities where some of the scientists worked, is investigating the incident.
Perhaps the most high-profile case concerns retired U.S. Air Force Gen. William “Neil” McCasland, who once managed a science and technology program. He was last seen at his home in Albuquerque in February.
Following the disappearance of McCasland, 68, authorities issued a Silver Alert, an advisory used when elderly people or people with health or cognitive conditions go missing, citing an unspecified “medical issue.”
Authorities said he had previously experienced “mental fog,” but investigators did not believe he was cognitively impaired at the time of his disappearance. There was no evidence of foul play at the time, and a revolver and other items also appeared to be missing from the residence, they said.
McCasland was director of the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio, where he managed science and technology programs. He joined the base in 2011 and retired in 2013, the Cincinnati Enquirer, part of the USA TODAY Network, reported. The base was home to a project to investigate UFO sightings in the 1950s and ’60s.
