File 23990 · July 2008
Harare International Airport
Harare International Airport, Zimbabwe
Opened 9/9/2026
Ledger illustration of the file — not a photograph of the object. Ledger illustration of the report. An African runway at dusk. — Night Ledger illustration of the file
Standing
Unidentified
On the public record, and still open. A claim, paper, or film — not a finding that it was ours, and not a finding that it was not.
What was claimed
A CIA file considered a disc-like object over Harare’s airport as either foreign reconnaissance or an unidentified flying object. It did not decide.
What is on the record
This file is a working record — a report, not a verdict. Official paper, if any, is linked where we have it.
In July 2008, according to a CIA record later released through PURSUE, an unidentified object was reported hovering at high altitude over Harare International Airport. The description was a disc with rotating underside lights and beams. The paper weighed an advanced reconnaissance device against an unidentified object of unknown origin. It did not close the file as either.
A CIA note is not a recovered disc. This catalogue files the note.
Could this have been ours?
The known sky, that night.
The station was flying. Starlink was not. A string of orbs in this year is usually not a train.
Always
Aircraft, balloons, meteors
Landing lights, flares, lanterns, reentries, fireballs. They are on the known sky. They do not close a file by themselves — they are what a serious look has to hold the claim against.
Orbit · Space — the desks for lights that are already named.
Sources
Paper on this file
Official or public documents that belong with this case — not a verdict.
Released from 1978
CIA UFO FOIA collection
Central Intelligence Agency · United States
The CIA’s reading-room UFO collection is mostly foreign-press summaries, Robertson Panel residue, and the Agency’s long insistence that it does not investigate UFOs as a mission.
8 May 2026 — rolling
PURSUE portal, war.gov/UFO
U.S. Department of War · United States
The Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters opened a public portal of declassified files. Five tranches through August 2026. The portal is paper, not a recovered craft.
Related files
Same craft, same place, same years. A neighbor in the catalogue — not a conclusion.
Same craft · Same place · Same year · July 2, 2008
Harare Airport Disc
Harare International Airport · Zimbabwe
Unidentified
A disc-shaped object with a hollow center and rotating underside lights hovered over the airport. It emitted beams before ascending rapidly. A CIA report debated whether it was foreign reconnaissance or extraterrestrial.
Same craft · Same years · 7 November 2006
Chicago O’Hare disk
O’Hare International Airport, Chicago · United States
Unidentified
United Airlines ramp workers and pilots saw a dark disk hovering under an overcast, then shooting up through the cloud and leaving a hole.
Same craft · 14 August 2026
Car-sized object over Shagawa Lake, Ely
Ely, Minnesota · United States
Unidentified
An adult and three children at Semers Beach independently described a car-sized object with two round lights over the lake.
Same craft · August 6, 2026, evening
Disk shoots across sky leaving trail, photographed
Poway, California · USA
Unidentified
While photographing an unusual storm, the witness and family saw a disk zoom across the sky at hypersonic speed with no sound. The long-exposure photo captured the metallic disk with a visible trail and possible greenish cloud/wormhole above it.
Same craft · May 2026 (circulated September 2026)
Glowing disc over a bowling-alley lot, Argentina
Argentina · Argentina
Unidentified
Young people outside a bowling alley later found a luminous disc in their night video; Argentine researchers circulated the clip in September.
Same craft · January 21, 2015
GIMBAL
Off the East Coast (Atlantic Ocean) · United States
Unidentified
U.S. Navy F/A-18 ATFLIR footage showing a rotating unidentified object tracked during operations from the USS Theodore Roosevelt. Cockpit audio captures pilot reactions to the object's apparent rotation and flight characteristics.