A UAP encounter by a military pilot over the Gulf of Mexico on January 26, 2023 — first described publicly by Congressman Matt Gaetz during a Congressional hearing — has been partially confirmed by FOIA documents obtained by researcher Abbas Michael Dharamsey and archived by The Black Vault.
The incident occurred during a test mission operated out of Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. Gaetz described the encounter at the July 2023 Congressional UAP hearing, stating the object matched “no human capability.” He had reportedly viewed classified imagery related to the incident.
What the FOIA Documents Show
The released documents, obtained under a FOIA request, confirm the incident occurred and involved a military aviation platform. Most of the substantive detail — sensor data, performance characteristics, and the imagery Gaetz described — remains classified and was withheld in the FOIA response. What was released confirms the basic facts of the encounter while protecting the most operationally significant details.
This is the standard pattern: confirmation that something happened, classification of what it was. The encounter is real. The object is unidentified. The imagery stays secret.
The Gaetz Connection
Gaetz’s public description of this incident at the July 2023 Congressional hearing was significant because it came from a sitting US Representative who had viewed classified imagery under controlled conditions. His description — an object matching no known human capability observed during an active Air Force test mission — is one of the clearest congressional-level confirmations of the UAP phenomenon on record.
The FOIA confirmation adds a documentary layer to his testimony. The incident is not anecdote. It is documented in military records. The records exist. Most are classified.
Sources: The Debrief (Micah Hanks, March 7, 2024), The Black Vault FOIA archive, Congressional UAP hearing testimony July 2023.