--- title: "Pentagon Whistleblower Hints That Pilots Who Encountered UFOs Had Radiation Burns" description: "In an interview with GQ, former Pentagon intelligence officer Elizondo said he talked to pilots who experienced radiation burns after encountering UFOs." date: "2021-11-09" modified: "2021-11-09" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/pentagon-whistleblower-radiation-burns" categories: - "Robots and Machines" tags: - "aliens" - "uaps" - "ufos" --- # Pentagon Whistleblower Hints That Pilots Who Encountered UFOs Had Radiation Burns ![In an interview with GQ, former Pentagon intelligence officer Elizondo said he talked to pilots who experienced radiation burns after encountering UFOs.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* It's been four years since an [explosive feature in *The New York Times*]() revealed a shadowy program run by the US military and tasked with investigating — yes, seriously — UFO encounters, accompanied by several videos showing the purported encounters. Several pilots have come forward since then to discuss what they saw, which they've often characterized as oddly-shaped objects that appeared to defy the laws of physics as they hurtled through the air. Former Pentagon intelligence officer and self-styled UFO whistleblower Luis Elizondo has [publicly spoken]() of his own experiences, though his credibility has at times [been called into question](). In a [new interview with *GQ*](), Elizondo suggested that pilots who had encountered the craft had ended up with physical symptoms, although his phrasing was ambiguous. "I’ve got to be careful, I can’t speak too specifically, but one might imagine that you get a report from a pilot who says, 'Lue, it’s really weird. I was flying and I got close to this thing and I came back home and it was like I got a sunburn. I was red for four days,'" he told the magazine. The former intelligence officer had his own interpretation of what that could mean. "Well, that’s a sign of radiation," he said. "That’s not a sunburn; it’s a radiation burn." Elizondo even went as far as saying that other pilots experienced the "warping of space time," only using "five minutes' worth of fuel" despite 30 minutes having passed. "And the closer you get to one of these vehicles, the more you may begin to experience space time relative to the vehicle and the environment," he told *GQ*. Tantalizingly, he also said that there are even more unreleased videos of the strange phenomena. "There’s videos out there \[in government, that the public haven’t seen\] — there’s one that’s 23 minutes long," Elizondo told *GQ*. "There’s another one where this thing is 50 feet away from the cockpit." So stay tuned — not necessarily for evidence of UFOs, but certainly for drama. "We’re going to begin sharing information a lot more and I think people may be surprised just how much information is possessed on this topic by other countries," Elizondo added. **READ MORE:** [This man ran the Pentagon's secretive UFO program for a decade. We had some questions]() \[*GQ*\] **More on UFOs:** *[Head of NASA Suggests That UFOs Could Be Alien Technology]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()