Radar Report Unclassified Complete

237UAP00539

National Archives and Records Administration

Released

—

Published

—

Added to archive

Jun 14, 2026

Department

NARA

Original size

242 KB

External ID

2247a55b4ec9e0a31c65fd5c0046bfbdec1a9c7e7152b2436ce1f90f7fd157e9

Confidence

85%

Credibility

90%

View original document ↗ hosted at the official government source

Intelligence summary

On August 16, 2023, American Airlines flight AAL1397 reported observing two bright lights while flying at 20,000 feet near Birmingham, AL. Multiple aircraft have reported similar sightings of these lights at various altitudes, with no evasive action taken.

Tags & topics

Air traffic controlAviation SafetyUAPUFO Aviation FAA sightings UAP UFO

Locations referenced

Location	Context	Confidence	Supporting text
BIRMINGHAM, AL	Incident Location	Medium	Date: 8/16/2023 1:46:00 AM (-05 CDT) Title: AAL1397 UFO-UAP ACTIVITY 08-16-2023 Latitude: 34.43441498 Latitude: -86.752305559999996 PRELIM INFO FROM FAA OPS: BI
Birmingham, AL	Incident Location	Unresolved	On August 16, 2023, American Airlines flight AAL1397 reported observing two bright lights while flying at 20,000 feet near Birmingham, AL. Multiple aircraft hav

Extracted timeline

Jun 15, 2023

Document Date (year hint)

Document Date (year hint) for 237UAP00539

Jun 14, 2026

Ingestion Date

Ingestion Date for 237UAP00539

Jun 14, 2026

Document Record Date

Document Record Date for 237UAP00539

Jun 14, 2026

Update Date

Update Date for 237UAP00539

Entities mentioned

AAL1397 Birmingham, AL Nashville, TN Huntsville, AL

Full document text

670 characters, transcribed via OCR. Errors reflect the source scan. Compare with the original ↗

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Date: 8/16/2023 1:46:00 AM (-05 CDT) Title: AAL1397 UFO-UAP ACTIVITY 08-16-2023 Latitude: 34.43441498 Latitude: -86.752305559999996 PRELIM INFO FROM FAA OPS: BIRMINGHAM, AL/UFO-UAP ACTIVITY/0100C/MEMPHIS ARTCC ADVISED AMERICAN 1397, B738, MIA - MCI, OBSERVED TWO BRIGHT LIGHTS ABOVE ACFT WHILE AT 20,000 FEET 60 N BHM . NO EVASIVE ACTION REPORTED. MULTIPLE ACFT HAVE REPORTED SAME TWO LIGHTS AT VARIOUS ALTITUDES (6,000 FEET UP TO "SATELLITE ALTITUDE"). BMH ATCT REPORTED LIGHTS AS WELL. THE LIGHTS HAVE BEEN REPORTED AS FAR NORTH AS BNA AND HSV. NO LEO NOTIFICATION REPORTED. WOC 7-3333 DJ/MO Washington Operations Center DESCRIPTION