Close encounters of the Whidbey kind

Published 1:30 am Friday, June 19, 2026

A new report ranks Washington as the nation’s second-best state for sightings of unidentified flying objects, and Whidbey Island continues to be one of the state’s hotspots for mysterious lights and odd-shaped objects in the sky.

In fact, earlier this year five North Whidbey residents saw a hovering disk in the Cornet Bay Area, while similar sightings were made on the island in recent years, according to a report made to the National UFO Reporting Center.

Of course, the presence of Naval Air Station Whidbey Island and other aircraft on the island may or may not have something to do with the number of UFOs spotted over the years. In 2010, for example, an image that appeared to show a missile blasting off from the island made headlines throughout the region, but was later deemed to be a play of light off a helicopter.

Yet both the White House and the Pentagon have taken reports of UFOs seriously, with President Donald Trump directing the Secretary of War earlier this year to start releasing files “related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs), and any and all other information connected to these highly complex, but extremely interesting and important, matters.”

There’s even a tab on the Department of War website dedicated to UFOs.

It’s unclear whether any aircrews from the base have ever seen something unidentified in the skies over the Pacific Northwest.

While Whidbey residents occasionally post about UFOs on social media or even report them to the police, those who are most serious often report the sightings to the National UFO Reporting Center, which catalogs and maps sightings.

The map shows many dozens of reports — some much stranger than others — on the island dating back to 1973.

On Jan. 18 of this year, a North Whidbey resident reported that five people witnessed a mysterious disk with red and green lights hovering for about 30 minutes at night above the eastern part of Deception Pass State Park. It was described as 100-150 feet in diameter.

The person reported that family members were sitting in a hot tub on a clear night and saw what they first thought was an aircraft, but then it just hovered and acted strangely. Neighbors also saw the object.

“To be honest,” the post states, “the whole event was unsettling. Both my husband and I are retired educators. We are very skeptical as a whole. My husband especially will only say that it didn’t appear to be a drone. No one lives across the water in that part of Whidbey Island. … Even though my husband’s dad was a pilot and had one sighting while flying, he is still quite skeptical about the existence of UFOs. However, what we saw was most definitely NOT an aircraft and highly unlikely a drone.”

On Aug. 11, 2025, a woman and her daughter saw objects described as shapeshifting UFOs circling each other above the Blue Fox Drive-In.

“I don’t know what I saw,” the resident wrote, “but I refuse to accept that this was military or the northern lights, or any other wrong excuse. This was insane to see. My daughter witnessed this whole thing with me.”

On Dec. 18, 2024, two people in Langley saw two huge bursts of “nearly holographic purple light” streaking into the clouds. Afterward, they reported seeing an unusual number of coyotes and deer running across roads and into the woods.

On Dec. 4, 2024, a resident in Clinton saw a white orb, possibly 15 feet in diameter, traveling over the water at a tremendous speed.

Another Clinton resident reported reaching out mentally for “beings of mercy and justice to please show themselves” on July 4, 2024. In response, a white orb hovered over a nearby house with light that neither reflected off surfaces nor hurt the eyes.

“It appeared like it was curious about me for a few moments then changed shape into a long oval shape of a shadow that had green white and red lights flashing,” the person wrote.

The new study based on such reports to NUFORC finds that Washington ranks second in the U.S. for UFO sightings, with 9.75 reported sightings per 100,000 residents.

Only Vermont has a higher rate of UFO peeping.