Ryan Graves

Ryan Graves flew F/A-18F Super Hornets for the US Navy's VFA-11 Red Rippers squadron from 2014 to 2019, operating out of NAS Oceana, Virginia. During that period, he and his fellow pilots encountered unidentified objects in their training airspace off the East Coast on an almost daily basis. The objects appeared on radar, were visible to pilots, and exhibited flight characteristics that no known aircraft could match: stationary hovering in high winds, hypersonic acceleration, and operation without any visible propulsion.

Graves reported these encounters through official channels but received no meaningful response from the chain of command. The safety concern was real: these objects were operating in controlled airspace used for combat training, and a mid-air collision was a genuine risk.

After leaving the Navy, Graves founded Americans for Safe Aerospace (ASA) in 2022, a non-profit organisation advocating for transparent UAP reporting, pilot safety, and congressional oversight. ASA has become the primary civilian organisation collecting UAP reports from commercial and military pilots, building a database of encounters that would otherwise go unreported due to stigma.

Graves testified before the House Oversight Committee on 26 July 2023. His testimony focused on the systemic failure to take pilot reports seriously, the aviation safety implications of objects in controlled airspace, and the culture of ridicule that prevents disclosure.