‘1,000-foot UFO’ allegedly spotted over Four Corners in photo taken by commercial pilot sparks debate: Alien truth or optical illusion?

A new photo claiming to show a massive, 1,000-foot-wide UFO hovering above the American Southwest has been released by UFO disclosure activists, and immediately ridiculed by critics who say the “craft” looks more like farmland than flying saucer, reported the New York Post.
The image was presented by controversial former Pentagon insider Luis “Lue” Elizondo during a UAP Disclosure Fund panel on Thursday in Washington, DC The event, titled Science, National Security & Innovation, featured several US lawmakers and scientists and aimed to push for full declassification of UFO data held by the government.
“Captured near Four Corners at FL210, estimated 600–1,000 ft in diameter, silver-hued, disc-shaped,” read the accompanying caption posted by the UAP Disclosure Fund on X.
The photo, reportedly taken by a commercial airline pilot in 2021, appears to show a silvery disc casting a large shadow on the Earth below.

Elizondo said the image was taken with a “civilian-grade” camera and noted he “could not vouch for the veracity of this photograph, because I didn’t take it.” Still, he pointed to the visible shadow as evidence that the object had physical presence.
The group also claimed “several speakers confirmed DoD & IC hold hundreds of similar UAP images + sensor files still classified.”
But online sleuths weren’t impressed. Prominent UFO skeptic Mick West led the backlash, arguing the “saucer” is likely just a set of circular crop irrigation fields, common in desert regions, and said the shadows in nearby hills contradict the claim of a flying object casting its own.

Elizondo has previously faced criticism for presenting “evidence” of UFOs that turned out to be misidentified or debunked, and the Pentagon has distanced itself from many of his past claims.
The panel included Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), Congressman Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), and Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb. One panelist, nuclear physicist Eric Davis, went further, claiming Earth has been visited by four alien species: “grays,” “Nordics,” “reptilian,” and “insectoid.”