Digital Rendering, Narrative Statement 2-7, Western United States Event, October 2023 — FBI Image
This image is an artistic interpretation of a reported incident near a sensitive national security site in the western United States involving unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) over a period of two days in October 2023. This image is based upon a first-hand description provided by a federal…
Incident Overview
October 2023, in the Western United States, FBI preserved an image record that was declassified and published on June 12, 2026 as part of the third tranche of the Department of War’s Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE).
What the government released
This image is an artistic interpretation of a reported incident near a sensitive national security site in the western United States involving unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) over a period of two days in October 2023. This image is based upon a first-hand description provided by a federal law enforcement special agent, as described in DOW-UAP-D080. The Federal Bureau of Investigation prepared this digital rendering at the request of the Department of War in 2026.
Status of the case
Records released under the PURSUE program are designated unresolved by the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, which means the federal government has not concluded the events were anomalous, has not concluded they were conventional, and has not ruled out either possibility. Where AARO has offered a likely source for an item — an infrared sensor aboard a military aircraft, a commercial camera, or a known optical effect — that attribution is the agency’s working assessment rather than a final determination. Conventional candidates such as drones, balloons, flares, satellites, parallax and forced-perspective artifacts, and ordinary aircraft remain on the table for any unresolved case absent better data than a single sensor pass or a witness recollection.
