Was a viral video of a flying egg-shaped object part of the Pentagon UFO files release? No, that's not true: Lead Stories reviewed the first -- and the only available, as of this writing -- batch of the released materials and did not find the video in question there. It also did not match the visual style of other released videos.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here and here) published on TikTok on May 11, 2026, under the caption:
Pentagon Releases UFO/ UAP Files. USA April 18, 2005 #UFO #usa🇺🇸 #aliens #conspiracytheory #UAP
The location tag read:
Chihuahuan Desert · Fort Davis.
This is what the video looked like on TikTok:
(Image source: post by @pride_usa on TikTok.)
Lead Stories manually watched 28 clips uploaded to the Pentagon website as part of the first release (archived here) on May 8, 2026, but none of them showed the same object as in the video shared on social media.
The video recordings that contained additional coordinates of the location were released in a different form, with that data redacted. The composite image below shows what the real videos from the Pentagon website looked like (click to view larger):
(Image source: Pentagon.)
Lead Stories also manually reviewed other files from the first release that contained some still pictures. None of those pages showed the exact match to the object from the viral video.
Lead Stories reached out to the agencies whose files were published under the presidential directive (archived here).
A NASA spokesperson told Lead Stories via email on May 12, 2026:
NASA did not release any UAP videos separately from what we shared with the new war.gov website. The video... was not from NASA.
An FBI spokesperson declined to comment on the matters involving viral videos, suggesting filing a FOIA request to discuss already released files. The U.S. Navy referred this reporter to the Pentagon duty officer, who, in turn, redirected the Lead Stories inquiry to the person who was said not to be in the office on the day of the inquiry and didn't respond later.
If we receive more replies, this story will be updated as appropriate.
