Birds, not spacecraft? Avi Loeb answers a former Pentagon official's wreckage claim
Speaking from Champaign on Chicago Live, the Harvard astrophysicist asks for material evidence and explains how a wingbeat can give a mysterious sensor video away.
FOX 32 Chicago
Story of Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 49,358 views a day, 34 times a normal first day on this channel (1,444).
UFO spacecraft? Harvard's Avi Loeb break down a claim by a former Pentagon official
Things we can learn from the video
Press to jump
- 0:41Loeb introduces Jay Stratton's book Out of the Shadows and says the claim comes with no supporting evidence.
- 2:00He explains declassification directives and NDA waivers that set out how former officials can report classified UAP information.
- 3:35Loeb says he invited Stratton to present evidence to his advisory council and received no response.
- 5:50He points to contradictions in Stratton's account about international technology races and what presidents know.
- 7:15Over 80% of sensor videos his council analyzed show mundane objects, often birds revealed by wing-beat heat changes.
- 9:40Loeb proposes working with the Pentagon to deploy optical and acoustic sensors that collect high-quality data.
Avi Loeb has spent years arguing that scientists should take the possibility of alien technology seriously, which makes his answer here worth hearing: show me the evidence.
On FOX 32's Chicago Live, anchor Kasey Chronis asks the Harvard astrophysicist about Jay Stratton, a former Pentagon official whose book, Out of the Shadows, says he has personally seen the wreckage of an alien spacecraft held by the U.S. government. Loeb is unmoved by the claim on its own. "Without evidence, they don't carry much weight," he says. He adds that he invited Stratton to present to his UAP Science Advisory Council and never heard back, and he points to parts of the account that do not sit well together, including what it says about presidents being kept in the dark.
The sharpest turn comes from his own council's work. Most of the sensor videos it has analyzed, Loeb says, show ordinary objects, and birds give themselves away through heat that flickers with each beat of their wings. His proposed fix is better data: a partnership with the Pentagon to put advanced optical and acoustic sensors on the sky. And he offers a homely image for what a real discovery would mean: a tennis ball turning up in the backyard tells you that you have a neighbor.
Loeb joins from Champaign, Illinois, after a lecture at the University of Illinois. The 16-minute segment passed 23,000 views in eight hours, far beyond how the station's regular videos usually begin, and its comment section filled up when such videos typically draw almost none. The birds are the main topic there: some viewers joke about flocks hovering motionless at great altitude, while others propose their own standards for what would finally count as proof.
Published on Trari
Where next?
What viewers say
Avi said " birds flap their wings "
@privatedata665See it on YouTubeYa, I saw those birds yesterday. 20000 feet flapping around with Zero formation. Back n forth, up n down. It's crazy when they stop n hover in one spot Wacky birds. 👍🏼
@FullMetalNobodySee it on YouTubeUFOs should sit on the skies and not move for weeks . That would be proof they exist
@RabbSabbSee it on YouTube
2 more comments
If I go to buy a Lambo they want to see my credit worth. No proof no sir. IF IF
@joey-v7w6ySee it on YouTubeGovernment knows nothing more than we, the aliens know exactly how to stay under the radar.
@Inguu-p1lSee it on YouTube
Public comments from the video's page on YouTube
Is this your channel?For the channel's owners and team: a ready picture, text and badge for your audience
Share the story with your audience. Everything is ready:
For an Instagram story or a WhatsApp status
For a community post or your channel's description
For your website
You may use the picture, the badge, and link it to this story.
- Channel
- FOX 32 Chicago
- Subscribers
- 486,000 ▲ 1,000 this week
- Channel views, last 7 days
- 1,940,886
- Channel views, pace per day
- 470,404 (on a normal day: 231,460)
- Video published
- October 16, 2026
- Video views so far
- 23,285 (less than a day online)
- Video views, pace per day
- 49,358
The numbers
The interview started far faster than the station's regular videos usually do, and the channel as a whole is running at about twice its usual daily pace.
💡 Test your knowledge
Avi Loeb's 2021 book Extraterrestrial argues about the nature of which interstellar object?
In Extraterrestrial, Loeb argues that 'Oumuamua, the first interstellar object spotted passing through the solar system, may have been alien technology.