The videos had been “circulating in the public domain after unauthorized releases in 2007 and 2017”, the statement read. “The aerial phenomena observed in the videos remain characterized as ‘unidentified.’”

The Navy videos were first released in 2017 by The Stars Academy of Arts & Sciences, a company co-founded by former Blink-182 musician Tom DeLonge. The company studies information about unidentified aerial phenomena.

The footage from 2004 was also shared in a New York Times story published in 2017, which included interviews with the two pilots who witnessed the incident. One of them said that the spotted aircraft “accelerated like nothing I’ve ever seen.” He added that he was “pretty weirded out.”