Pittsburgh-area UFO sightings outpace national average
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Pittsburghers really want to believe: Allegheny County reports more UFO sightings per capita than the national average.
Why it matters: Southwestern Pennsylvania is home to some of the nation's most famous UFO cases, many of which continue to fascinate people today.
By the numbers: Allegheny County had 37.6 UFO sightings per 100,000 residents between 2000 and 2023, per National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC) data — higher than the national average of 34.3.
- Lawrence (64), Armstrong (47.3) and Beaver (44.1) counties had the most sightings per capita in the region.
How it works: Anyone can file a report with NUFORC, a nonprofit where volunteers screen out what they consider hoaxes or false reports.
- NUFORC ranks Pennsylvania sixth nationwide for UFO sightings (now officially called UAPs, for unidentified anomalous phenomena), with 5,407 reports dating back to 1947, including more than three dozen across the state this year.
- Browse all Pennsylvania reports here.
Zoom in: Kecksburg in Westmoreland County was at the center of one of America's most enduring UFO mysteries after witnesses reported an acorn-shaped object streaked across the sky and crashed on Dec. 9, 1965.
- Police and military officials sealed off the area and searched nearby woods but said they found no evidence of a crash, chalking it up to a meteor.
- Decades later, witnesses still tell stories of deafening thuds and agents hauling away an acorn-shaped object. Some say it was marked with symbols resembling Egyptian hieroglyphics, per the Observer Reporter, fueling speculation it was a Russian satellite or a U.S. reentry vehicle.
The intrigue: A lawsuit against NASA in the 2000s yielded no smoking-gun documents, NBC News reported, but NASA acknowledged that many records were missing or destroyed.
- A replica of the "space acorn," built for an episode of "Unsolved Mysteries," now serves as Kecksburg's landmark.
The latest: Dubbed "Pennsylvania's Roswell," the incident was most recently mentioned in Steven Spielberg's new film, "Disclosure Day."
- The annual Kecksburg UFO Festival returns July 17-19 at the Kecksburg Volunteer Fire Department.
Zoom out: Locals can get their extraterrestrial fix at the Vandergrift ArtFest on July 26 with an alien and cryptid theme, by visiting the Mars Flying Saucer in Butler County, or by reading about Pennsylvania's UFO Bigfoot Invasion of 1973.
👾 Your turn: Have your own UFO story to share? Email [email protected]!