When a commercial pilot sees something they cannot explain, the report moves through three separate systems, two federal agencies, and a process that has changed significantly since 2021. Most coverage treats pilot sightings as events. The reporting infrastructure is the more interesting story.
Step 1 — ATC
The first action is a radio call to Air Traffic Control. ATC logs the report and preserves the radar track from the relevant TRACON or ARTCC. This is the most valuable data moment in the chain — independent sensor corroboration generated in real time, preserved as routine operational records.
Step 2 — FAA
Since 2021, FAA submits all UAP reports directly to AARO. This constitutes a significant portion of AARO’s case intake. NARCAP — the non-government Pilot Aerial Anomaly Reporting Network — provides pilots an additional confidential channel.
Step 3 — AARO triage
AARO cross-references the report against IC databases — GEOINT, SIGINT, HUMINT, MASINT. The average single-pilot report with no radar corroboration lands in insufficient data. Cases that survive scrutiny get referred to AARO’s IC and Science & Technology partners for deeper analysis.
The structural limitation
The system captures the observer, not the phenomenon. AARO’s GREMLIN system — currently in 90-day deployment — is designed to do the opposite: capture the phenomenon directly via dedicated multi-sensor arrays. That’s the institutional response to the observer-bias problem inherent in pilot reporting.