Twin Falls, Idaho UFO Sighting (July 10) — FBI Files
FBI records reveal that a reported saucer-shaped object in Twin Falls, Idaho, was investigated and determined to be a model disc launched by teenagers.
Background
On July 10, in Twin and Falls, Idaho, U.S. government investigators recorded an unidentified-object incident that was later released to the public on May 8, 2026, as part of the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE). This specific event occurred during a period of intense national preoccupation with aerial phenomena. The incident is recognized as one of the first wave of “flying saucer” reports that swept the United States following the Kenneth Arnold sighting of June 1947 and the Roswell incident of July 1947. During this era, the sudden influx of reports regarding metallic, disc-shaped objects created a sense of widespread atmospheric uncertainty across the American West.
The geographical location of Twin Falls, situated within the Snake River Plain, placed the incident within a region often subject to various aerial activities and atmospheric conditions. The documentation of this event was processed through formal federal channels. The case was filed with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, whose Knoxville, Albuquerque, Los Angeles, and other field offices routed UFO reports to headquarters under the Bureau’s standing protocols for the protection of vital installations. This bureaucratic structure ensured that any reported anomaly near sensitive or significant infrastructure was funneled into centralized intelligence streams for evaluation by federal authorities.
The Incident and Investigation
The details preserved in the released documents describe a localized event involving a group of four teenagers. These individuals constructed a model flying disc and launched it into a local yard, an action that caused a brief sensation within the community. While the presence of the object drew immediate attention, the subsequent investigation by both the army and the FBI revealed the event to be a hoax. The investigation successfully traced the origin of the aerial phenomenon to the deliberate actions of the youths and their homemade craft.
While the released documentation provides the technical details of the investigation and the ultimate resolution, the specific number of witnesses to the launch or the flight of the model was not specified in the released document. The primary focus of the official record remained the identification of the object’s nature and the determination of whether the sighting represented a threat to national security or a breach of restricted airspace.
Classification and Analysis
The witnesses involved in the event described the object as being disc- or saucer-shaped, a description consistent with the prevailing terminology used during the late 1940s. This shape became the standard descriptor for unidentified aerial phenomena during the post-war period, heavily influenced by the media coverage of the Arnold and Roswell events.
The status of this case remains categorized under specific federal guidelines. All records released under the PURSUE program are designated unresolved by the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) by default. Under this administrative designation, the federal government has not concluded that the events were anomalous, has not concluded that they were conventional, and has not ruled out either possibility. This classification is a standard procedural outcome for many historical files within the archive.
When evaluating sightings from this specific period, investigators often consider a variety of conventional candidates. These include experimental aircraft being tested in secret, weather balloons—specifically those associated with the Project Mogul series in the late 1940s—and various atmospheric optical phenomena such as sundogs or lenticular clouds. Additionally, astronomical objects like Venus, the Moon, or meteors appearing near the horizon are frequently analyzed as potential sources for reported saucer-shaped sightings. In the case of the Twin Falls incident, however, the investigation concluded with a definitive identification of the object as a man-made model.