Safe Aerospace Podcast

A veteran Marine F-18 Hornet pilot, a commercial airliner climbing out of Houston, and an object "the size of a 737" hovering motionless between cloud layers — with air traffic control confirming an uncorrelated target that had been "popping on and off the scope all day." In this episode of the Safe Aerospace Podcast, former Navy F/A-18F pilot Ryan Graves talks with Benjamin Read, an 18-year Marine Corps aviator turned commercial airline captain, about the encounter that turned a lifelong skeptic into an advocate for pilot reporting. Reed describes a night departure out of Houston in May 2021: during a level-off, the controller called out unidentified traffic that neither pilot expected to see. What they found was a wingless, mercury-like, oblong object — a "Tic Tac" — holding perfectly still on their flight path. Reed rolled the aircraft to avoid it. At an estimated 500 feet, the object accelerated perpendicular to their wing line faster than anything he'd seen in two decades of military and civilian flying. The captain's photo captured nothing. Before the encounter, Read's story is remarkable on its own: enlisted helicopter mechanic to Hornet pilot, a G-induced spinal injury during a gun run for the Thai Royal Family, a FAC tour in Iraq recovering fallen Americans with Task Force Personnel Recovery, and a stint as a general's aide that convinced him every strange light in the sky had a classified explanation. This episode is about what happens when that worldview meets something it can't explain — and why he chose to report it to ASA rather than stay silent. In this episode: From enlisted avionics tech to single-seat Hornet pilot in JapanThe back injury that nearly ended his career — and the 90-day recovery that saved itWhy a former general's aide assumed all UAP were classified U.S. programsThe Houston encounter: ATC's uncorrelated radar target, the 500-foot pass, the instant acceleration"Don't lie": the cockpit conversation about what to tell ATCWhy pilots self-censor, and why reported cases may represent 1% of encountersNightly unexplained lights on West Coast routes — and how cockpit culture is changingReed's message to fellow pilots: "Don't be a coward"About the guest: Benjamin Read served 18 years in the U.S. Marine Corps, flying the F/A-18 Hornet from Japan and Afghanistan, serving as a forward air controller in Iraq, and instructing in the T-6 Texan before becoming a commercial airline captain. About the show: The Safe Aerospace Podcast is produced by Americans for Safe Aerospace (ASA), the nonprofit founded by Ryan Graves dedicated to aviation safety, airspace transparency, and rigorous scientific investigation of UAP. Read pilot reports and support our work at https://www.safeaerospace.org Ben will join ASA members for a live AMA one week after this episode airs — become a member at safeaerospace.org to submit your questions.

What do air traffic controllers actually see on their scopes when pilots report unidentified aerial phenomena? In the premiere episode of the Safe Aerospace Podcast, former U.S. Navy F/A-18F pilot Ryan Graves sits down with Jason Judy, a 26-year FAA air traffic controller turned corporate pilot, for a rare inside look at how UAP appear — and disappear — inside America's air traffic control system. Jason pulls back the curtain on what controllers discuss off-frequency: near misses with falling NASA balloon payloads, nightly UAP reports during 2021–2023 that had watch desk managers saying "they're back," an American Airlines crew tracked by an object bouncing off their wing nearly all the way to Salt Lake, and the radar playback of the 2023 Chinese balloon incident — including data suggesting an object accelerated from a 28-knot drift to over 1,200 knots in roughly a minute. The conversation also digs into the systemic issues ASA works on every day: why primary radar returns are filtered out above 23,000 feet, why raw radar data is erased after just 45 days, how stigma keeps pilots and controllers from filing reports, and what happened to the thousands of aviation UAP reports that vanished into classified archives. In this episode: How ATC radar actually works: primary vs. secondary returns and ADS-BWhy controllers never see most UAP — the 23,000 ft filtering problemThe 45-day data destruction window and the case for preserving raw radarUAP reports "almost every night" on mid shifts, 2021–2023The Chinese balloon radar playback and a 1,252-knot acceleration analysisStigma, reporting culture, and where early-2000s UFO reports actually wentAbout the guest: Jason Judy spent 26 years as an FAA air traffic controller, beginning at Fort Worth Center in 1997, before retiring in 2023 to fly corporate aviation. About the show: The Safe Aerospace Podcast is produced by Americans for Safe Aerospace (ASA), the nonprofit founded by Ryan Graves dedicated to aviation safety, airspace transparency, and rigorous scientific investigation of UAP. Learn more, read pilot reports, and support our work at https://www.safeaerospace.org Jason will be joining ASA members for a live AMA after this episode airs, become a member at safeaerospace.org to submit your questions.