Washington: Two commercial pilots flying over the Arizona desert have claimed to have seen an unidentified flying object (UFO) pass overhead, according to a radio broadcast released by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

A Learjet pilot and an American Airlines pilot saw the object on February 24 and radioed the regional air traffic controller in Albuquerque, CNN reported on Thursday.

It remains unclear whether the object spotted by the pilots was a UFO or a high-altitude weather balloon.

The strange encounter took place not far from Roswell, New Mexico — a town that became synonymous with extraterrestrial activity in 1947 after reports that a flying object crash-landed in a field.