https://www.dailymail.com/sciencetech/article-16278729/ufo-hovers-alaska-military-base.html?ito=social-twitter_mailonline
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Giant UFO with dangling tentacles hovers near US military base before vanishing: 'Only God and the government know what it is'
By STACY LIBERATORE, US SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR
Published: 13:59 EST, 10 November 2026 | Updated: 16:42 EST, 10 November 2026
A giant, jellyfish-like UFO was filmed hovering in the direction of a US military base in Alaska before disappearing within minutes.
Sara Jane Osborn told the Daily Mail she was photographing a rainbow in Anchorage when a dark object emerged above distant trees near what she believed was Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson (JBER).
JBER hosts F-22 Raptor fighters and supports air defense, surveillance and military airlift operations.
The encounter unfolded on June 15 at around 10.13pm, she recalled, while the evening sky remained bright.
The object appeared to have dangling appendages that moved independently as it hovered and turned from side to side. Osborn estimated it was visible for about three minutes before vanishing almost as abruptly as it appeared.
'It disappeared almost as quickly as it came,' Osborn said.
Its apparent size also puzzled them, with a small aircraft spotted during their outing looking tiny by comparison.
Osborn said the search afterward failed to uncover a kite, its operator or another explanation for what they had witnessed.
She added that 'only God and the government' would know what it was, describing an eerie sight that left her and her husband, Pete, looking for answers.
Osborn and her husband had traveled to Anchorage on business from the Valley, where they now live after spending years in the city.
She was captivated by a rainbow as they drove along Sixth Avenue and began taking photographs through the open car window.
Pete pulled into an empty downtown parking lot, allowing her to capture the view without passing vehicles and traffic lights getting in the way.
Then she noticed something she initially dismissed as an insect.
'I was annoyed, because I was like, is that a mosquito?' she recalled. But when Osborn looked beyond her phone screen, she realized the shape demanded a closer look.
She asked Pete whether he could see it, took several photographs, and began recording.
Osborn said she had more than a brief video of the encounter, having photographed the rainbow in rapid succession. 'But I have multiple stills of pictures taken within milliseconds of each other,' she said.
She described taking photographs in rapid succession. What troubled her was its movement.
Osborn contrasted its 'black and silver' appearance with the 'bright colors' of kites she was used to seeing.
She described the trees moving, noting there was a breeze. 'But it wasn't a big enough breeze for a kite,' she said. 'It was very clearly not a kite in its movements.'
Osborn believed the object's movements differed from those of a kite, whose tails she expected to stream together in the wind.
The couple also questioned why something that appeared so large would remain airborne for only a few minutes.
'Because if there was a kite there, why would you only fly it for, like, three minutes?' Osborn asked.
She also questioned whether the nearby park could accommodate something so large. 'It's a very small park. You can't operate a large kite from that park,' she said.
Having lived in Anchorage for years, she said she was familiar with the colorful kites flown around the city's parks. This object, she felt, did not fit that familiar scene.
'You know, you're kind of looking for some, some logical explanation of what it was,' she said.
The couple went toward a nearby park, hoping to find someone packing away a kite or another clue that might explain the sighting.
'And there was nobody taking down a kite,' Osborn said. 'People would have been there. The kite would have been there.'
They continued searching and drove toward Arctic Valley, where they could look across the wooded landscape.
'And we looked everywhere. We looked for, like, 30 minutes,' she said.
Her husband estimated the object could have been within about three miles of their position, although that distance was not confirmed.
The couple also recalled seeing an aircraft near the mountains that appeared much smaller, adding to their impression that the unidentified object was unusually large.
However, without knowing the distance to either object, their apparent sizes cannot reliably establish their actual dimensions.
The object's perceived position also does not establish a military connection. A kite, drone or another airborne object has not been ruled out, and their account provides no evidence of an extraterrestrial origin.
Osborn herself considered a more ordinary explanation.
'You know, maybe it's a drone-type thing,' she said.
But its apparent size and unusual movement continued to trouble her.
The lack of other witnesses was another detail she found puzzling.
'We weren't able to find anyone else who saw it when we did either,' she said.
For Osborn, Pete's presence made the experience harder to dismiss. She said that, without him, she might have doubted her own eyes.
What began as an attempt to photograph a rainbow had become something neither could explain.
'Because it was there, and then it wasn't,' she said. 'I can't deny that it happened.'
By then, the object had disappeared.
Its apparent position added to their questions. The couple believed it had been above forested military land associated with JBER. 'But it's just forest over there,' Osborn said.