Colorado and Nebraska drone swarms
- Date
- Dec 2019
- Place
- Phillips, Yuma, Morgan and Sedgwick counties, north-eastern Colorado, and western Nebraska, United States
- Record
- Curated case
- Assessment
- Contested
- Evidence strength
What was reported
From December 2019 into January 2020 residents and sheriffs in north-eastern Colorado and western Nebraska reported groups of six to nineteen drones with blinking lights and wingspans of about six feet flying grid patterns at night between about 6 and 10 p.m. More than 70 federal, state and local agencies, including the FBI, the Air Force and the FAA, met in Brush, Colorado on 6 January 2020, and a brief search for a 'command vehicle' found nothing. The Air Force confirmed it ran counter-drone exercises from F.E. Warren AFB, and investigators found most sightings were planets, stars, aircraft and hobbyist drones, but the operator of the grid flights was never publicly identified.
What officials concluded
Unresolved
Operators not identified (FAA-led task force)
Strongest ordinary reading
Drones of undetermined, probably commercial origin, plus misidentified aircraft and stars
Evidence profile
- Yes: Visual
- No: Infrared
- No: Radar
- Yes: Video
- No: Photo
- No: Film
- No: Audio
- No: Night vision
- No: Other sensor
- Yes: Civilian
- No: Military aircrew
- No: Military ground
- No: Airline crew
- No: Sensor operator
- Yes: Law enforcement
- No: Scientist
- No: Astronaut
- No: Intelligence official
- No: Other
- Yes: Light only
- No: Orb or sphere
- No: Disc
- No: Triangle
- No: Cylinder
- No: Cube
- No: Other shape
- No: Physiological
- No: Physical trace
- No: Electromagnetic
- No: Sound
- No: Silent
Outside sources
- Wikipedia: 2019-20 Colorado drone sightingsen.wikipedia.org
On the map
40.60° N, 102.40° W, plotted at the centre of the region named in the record
Show on the map