UAP · 2026-06-20

Harare Airport, 2008 — CIA's Released UAP File on a Zimbabwean Disc Sighting

Among the 18 CIA files in PURSUE Release 03, one entry stands out for its specificity: CIA-UAP-017 — "Placement on High Alert, Harare Zimbabwe 2008". The file documents an observation of a disc-shaped object with rotating lights over Harare International Airport.

CIA-UAP-017 · Harare, Zimbabwe 2008

Disc-shaped object with rotating lights observed over Harare International Airport. Source: war.gov/UFO.

What the file describes

The released document covers an incident in which a disc-shaped object with rotating lights was observed above Harare International Airport. Internal commentary in the file reflects debate among observers and analysts over whether the sighting represented advanced foreign reconnaissance technology or something genuinely anomalous. The file title — "Placement on High Alert" — refers to the operational response at the airport at the time.

Why this is significant: Most PURSUE military-era files come from U.S. or U.S.-allied operational theatres. The Harare file is one of the few in Release 03 set in sub-Saharan Africa, and one of the few CIA-published sightings tied to a specific civilian airport rather than a military encounter.

Part of a larger CIA batch

Release 03 includes the largest single CIA disclosure of UFO-related records to date — files CIA-UAP-002 through CIA-UAP-019, spanning 1950 to 1973. Notable companions to the Harare file include the Robertson Panel report (1952–53), the U-2 and OXCART overhead-reconnaissance history (1954–74), and a speculative 1972 paper by Soviet physicists N. Kardashev and A. Sakharov.

Browse every PURSUE fileOpen UAP files

The full Release 03 file index is in the SkyLens overview. The original document is on war.gov/ufo.

Official PURSUE Release 03 record · U.S. Department of War / FBI / NASA / CIA · published June 12, 2026 on war.gov/UFO