Elizondo on shoot-downs and recoveries (2019)
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 9
| Speaker | Luis "Lue" Elizondo, then with To The Stars Academy |
|---|---|
| Event | First annual Anomalous Aerospace Phenomena (AAP) conference, Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies (SCU), March 2019 |
| Format | Keynote and question session, moderated by SCU's Rich Hoffman, with Hal Puthoff in the audience |
| Key question | "Have we attempted to shoot down any UAP? ... Have we recovered any tech or beings, dead or alive?" |
| Answer | "I can't answer those questions" |
| Transcript | Joe Murgia, published November 2019 from Rob Freeman's video |
| Date | 15 March 2019 |
| Topics | Crashes & retrievals (topic), Beings & bodies (topic), Secrecy & cover-up (topic) |
| People | Luis Elizondo |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 192 |
| Year | 2019 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 2019 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 3 |
In March 2019 Luis Elizondo was the keynote speaker at the first Anomalous Aerospace Phenomena conference of the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies (SCU), in Alabama.[1] In the question session he was asked directly whether the United States had tried to shoot down UAP, and whether it had recovered any technology or beings. Shaking his head, he replied, "I can't answer those questions."[1] He gave similarly guarded answers on whether UAP had caused damage or harm, and he deferred questions about biological evidence and radiation.[1]
The event
The conference was semi-private and initially invitation-only. The researcher Joe Murgia transcribed Elizondo's keynote first. He published the question session in November 2019, after finding that the videographer Rob Freeman had posted it on YouTube, and edited out personal details that the video version omitted.[1] SCU's Rich Hoffman relayed audience questions, and the physicist Hal Puthoff, a colleague of Elizondo's at To The Stars Academy, sat in the audience and sometimes answered.[1]
Shoot-downs and recoveries
The question that gives this entry its name came late in the session: "Have we attempted to shoot down any UAP? Have we succeeded? Have we recovered any tech or beings, dead or alive?"[1] Murgia records Elizondo shaking his head as he said, "I can't answer those questions."[1] Hoffman followed up by asking whether AATIP had looked at the crash-retrieval research of Leonard Stringfield. The transcript records no direct answer.[1] Related answers:[1]
- Material. Analysis of material had "supported" the physics, but some had turned out "fairly ordinary". Only "the minority of the material" was "truly extraordinary".
- Occupants. AATIP had focused on the occupants of UAP "to a limited degree. Early on". To The Stars was casting "a really, really wide net".
- Witnesses. "Very qualified individuals in the medical field" had studied the physical and psychological effects on observers.
Damage and threat
Asked whether UAP had done damage or threatened national security, Elizondo answered, "Simply put…yes?" He added that "that narrative is still being constructed".[1] It was not a matter of "people getting zapped", he said, but there had been "some very interesting provocations".[1] Asked whether there was evidence of a threat, he first defined the word through examples:[1]
- standing too close to a jet engine
- a pilot who suffers hearing loss after a UAP performs "barrel rolls" over him
- a witness who comes back looking as if they have "radiation burn"
Such things were threats "even if it's not intentional", a "medical threat".[1]
Radiation and biology
Asked whether anyone had received a measurable dose of radiation from a UAP, Elizondo smiled, whispered "Damn", and said he could not answer. Puthoff, in the audience, said, "Yes." Elizondo replied, "There you have it."[1] He was asked whether AATIP, MUFON, the STAR teams or Bigelow Aerospace had collected biological evidence or DNA. He said that was a question for Robert Bigelow to answer about his own company.[1] A question on whether AATIP had investigated abductions he passed to Puthoff with "Can I buy a vowel instead?", and it went unanswered.[1]
Other answers
Elizondo also answered questions on the program itself:[1]
- Who knew. He "absolutely cannot answer" whether figures such as John Brennan, James Clapper or James Mattis had been read into AATIP.
- Where it ran. AATIP was "a confederated effort" across "several locations… throughout the national capital region and beyond".
- Its origins. It had been moved out of the DIA to the Office of the Secretary of Defense. He advised researchers to direct FOIA requests to the DIA.
- The Navy and NRO. He could not talk about their role.
- Why so cagey. Some questions involved methods that also applied to identifying foreign or experimental aircraft, which was why he could not discuss them.
- Hypersonics. He rejected the idea that the objects were hypersonic test vehicles: "Hyper-sonic cruise missiles don't do barrel rolls. They don't hover."
- Solar Warden. Asked about "Solar Warden", he said he had never heard of it. Puthoff described it as a conspiracy theory about reverse-engineering operations.
He attributed journalists' and scientists' reluctance to follow up on the 2017 New York Times story to stigma, "a career killer", which he said was changing.[1]
Assessment
Elizondo offered no evidence at the event.[1] On the shoot-down and recovery question, the transcript shows only that he declined to answer, as he did with many other questions.[1] His role in AATIP was later disputed by the Pentagon.[2][3] In his 2024 book Imminent he said he believed the U.S. had a crash-retrieval program. In November 2024 he testified to Congress that the government had secretly retrieved UFOs and alien bodies, claims criticized as lacking direct evidence. The Pentagon's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office disputes them.[2]
People and topics
- Luis Elizondo — Former Army counterintelligence officer who says he ran AATIP.
- AATIP — The Pentagon UAP effort associated with Luis Elizondo, revealed in December 2017.
- Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies — A group of scientists and analysts that studies UAP.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- Imminent — Luis Elizondo's 2024 memoir.
- Crash retrieval — The alleged recovery of crashed non-human craft by governments.
- AARO — The Pentagon office set up in 2022 to investigate UAP.
On the Timeline
- InterNASA lawsuit (26 February 2019) — A TV producer sues former officials over a company called InterNASA.
- NNSA rescues the JASON group (25 April 2019) — The nuclear security agency takes over the JASON advisory group contract.
See every 2019 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- Joe Murgia, "Elizondo transcript – SCU Q&A", UFO Joe (Nov 2019) · ufojoe.net · archived copy
- Luis Elizondo — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
Facts in this article are drawn in part from the Wikipedia articles “Luis Elizondo”, “Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program”, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
No discussion yet.