The incident at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago on November 7, 2006, is one of the most famous UFO sightings at an airport. At approximately 4:15 p.m. local time, around a dozen United Airlines employees—including pilots, mechanics, and ground personnel—reported seeing a metallic, disc-shaped object hovering above Gate C17. Several witnesses described the object as dark gray and silent and estimated its diameter to be between six and twenty-four meters. After hovering motionless for several minutes, the object was said to have shot upward through the cloud cover with such force that it left behind a circular hole in the clouds, which some witnesses described as a distinct tear in the sky.
Despite the large number of witnesses, both the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and United Airlines initially denied having any knowledge of the incident. However, a Freedom of Information Act request later filed by the Chicago Tribune revealed that a United supervisor had in fact reported the sighting to an FAA manager in the air traffic control tower. The FAA nevertheless dismissed the incident as a "weather phenomenon," specifically a so-called hole-punch cloud, which occurs when supercooled water droplets in clouds turn into ice and create a hole in the cloud cover.
Many of the witnesses and UFO researchers questioned that explanation and argued that the FAA's unwillingness to investigate the matter further stood in contrast to its responsibility to ensure aviation safety at American airports. The incident has since become one of the most widely discussed UFO cases and has been featured in several documentaries, books, and television programs about unexplained aviation incidents.
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