FBI Photo B15

Evidence media

• Official PDF container: Open Sky Release 01 file copy

Derived page render from the official one-page PDF. The image shows a grainy monochrome sensor-style frame with black redaction blocks, a central reticle, the visible overlay timestamp 12/31/99 18:20:22, and two small unresolved dark features near the reticle. The release description says the displayed date/time is incorrect because the system date/time was not set.

Extracted raster from the PDF image object. It is included to show the real embedded still apart from the rendered PDF page; it is not a separate source or an identification of the visible features.

Investigation reading

FBI Photo B15 is a one-page Release 01 PDF containing a redacted still image. The Release 01 record identifies the agency as FBI and describes the item as a still image derived from a U.S. military system in 2025, submitted to AARO after redactions had already been applied. The same source description says no accompanying mission report was provided and that the operator reported being unable to positively identify the UAP.

The source file was checked directly as a PDF container rather than only through graph text. The Open Sky release-file copy verifies as 427,316 bytes with SHA-256 0c6fe7a96a68e8440cd405bb92519fce639079a00ed6b6193863a39fa5a86c14. PDF inspection shows one encrypted/copy-disabled page, page size 640 x 480 points, metadata title/subject B15 FBI Photo, and one embedded RGB image measuring 1280 x 960 pixels. The selectable text layer is effectively empty; the OCR pass captures only the visible lower-left overlay timestamp 12/31/99 18:20:22.

That displayed timestamp should not be treated as the incident time. The official release description says the image date/time is incorrect because the system date/time was not set. The current Release 01 record supplies only broad incident context: Late 2025 and Western United States. The image itself does not independently verify the exact collection date, time, platform, sensor, range, altitude, or location.

What the file appears to contain

The rendered page and the embedded raster show a grainy monochrome sensor-style frame. A bright white central reticle is visible, with a vertical line and a horizontal line crossing near the center, small tick marks, and the number 3 visible near both sides of the horizontal reticle. Multiple hard-edged black redaction blocks cover the top band and several display areas along the left and right sides. Some muted gray rectangular patches are visible around the redacted areas, so release redactions and any original scene content should be kept separate.

The lower-left overlay reads 12/31/99 18:20:22. The unredacted background is mostly noisy, blocky gray texture with no clear terrain, building, vehicle, horizon, person, landmark, or readable label identifying the platform or sensor. Slightly right of the vertical reticle line and just above the horizontal reticle line, two small dark features are visible close together. The left feature appears a little lower and broader; the right feature appears slightly higher and more compact. Both are blurred and unresolved. The official narrative description calls them two small, dark, circular objects near the center of the frame, but the released still alone does not provide enough detail to infer true shape, size, distance, motion, or identity.

Source custody and provenance

• Official/source URL: https://www.war.gov/medialink/ufo/release_1/fbi-photo-b15.pdf
• Open released file: war-gov-fbi-photo-b15-3a5445e8
• Release 01 CSV row: 118
• Agency: FBI
• Source/container kind: one-page PDF still-image container
• Verified file size: 427,316 bytes
• Verified SHA-256: 0c6fe7a96a68e8440cd405bb92519fce639079a00ed6b6193863a39fa5a86c14
• Embedded image: one RGB image, 1280 x 960 pixels
• Release-record incident context: Late 2025, Western United States

This file preserves custody for one public, redacted still frame and the official release description. It does not include the underlying mission report, raw sensor package, adjacent frames, operator log, platform identification, range/altitude readout, or unredacted telemetry. The official URL remains cited; the Open Sky Release 01 file copy and verified hash provide the reviewed public-file copy.

Graph context

The graph has exact source records for the B15 PDF asset and the current Release 01 row-118 record. The semantic layer currently carries 22 extracted claim records, 14 entity mentions, 4 sensor-event records, and no table rows for this asset. The strongest source-backed points are narrow: the file is a still image from a U.S. military system; it was redacted before submission to AARO; no accompanying mission report was provided; the operator reportedly could not positively identify the UAP; and the visible image clock is unreliable.

The sensor-event records are navigation cues triggered by phrases such as still image and military system. They are not four independent sensor tracks and do not represent released radar, telemetry, range, altitude, or multi-sensor corroboration. Related graph records point to nearby FBI photo items such as B12 and B18, but those links are release-neighborhood context unless source-row, URL, hash, and image-level review establish a stronger relationship.

One release-description entry in the current linked corpus appears to associate B15 with row 121, while the current selected asset metadata and exact release record place B15 at row 118. Treat that as a custody/indexing cleanup lead, not a content conclusion about the image.

Leads to check

• Locate any less-redacted source frame, original image export, adjacent frames, video sequence, operator log, mission report, or AARO submission metadata.
• Verify the actual collection date/time outside the invalid 12/31/99 display clock.
• Identify the platform, sensor type, reticle meaning, field of view, range scale, altitude context, and whether redactions hide telemetry or classification markings.
• Compare B15 with official thumbnails and nearby FBI B-series photo records only after checking each record’s row number, URL, hash, and visible frame content item by item.
• Run ordinary image-quality and prosaic checks before escalation: sensor blemish, dust/debris, compression or display artifact, redaction artifact, distant aircraft, bird, balloon, terrain contrast, weather, illumination, and line-of-sight.
• Reconcile the row 118 / row 121 metadata mismatch before using row numbers or related-record links for cross-page analysis.

Lead check notes

• Blocked — The Release 01 file and release description provide a single redacted still-image PDF only; no less-redacted frame, adjacent frames, video sequence, operator log, mission report, raw sensor package, or AARO submission metadata is included in the current public file.
• Partial — The rendered page, extracted raster, and OCR agree on the visible 12/31/99 18:20:22 overlay, but the official release description says the system date/time was not set. No independent collection timestamp is exposed in the current Release 01 record.
• Partial — Source wording supports only a broad U.S. military system origin. The public still does not expose platform identity, sensor model, field of view, range scale, altitude, reticle meaning, or whether redacted display areas hide telemetry/classification fields.
• Partial — B15’s current Release 01 row 118, official URL, size, and SHA-256 were verified. Graph/source context points to nearby B-series items such as B12 and B18, but those are release-neighborhood links until each row, hash, and frame is compared item by item.
• Needs external source — Ordinary image checks such as sensor blemish, dust/debris, compression or display artifact, redaction artifact, distant aircraft, bird, balloon, terrain contrast, weather, illumination, and line-of-sight need unredacted imagery, collection geometry, and environmental data not present in this PDF.
• Partial — The row 118 / row 121 mismatch remains a metadata-cleanup issue: current exact release metadata places B15 at row 118, while one linked source-description entry surfaces row 121, which also appears as FBI Photo B18 context.

Deep investigation — graph + web reconnaissance

Source reread

The source reread keeps B15 in the still-image lane. The reviewed public file is a one-page encrypted/copy-disabled PDF titled B15 FBI Photo, 427,316 bytes, SHA-256 0c6fe7a96a68e8440cd405bb92519fce639079a00ed6b6193863a39fa5a86c14, with one embedded RGB image at 1280 x 960 pixels. The OCR text contains only the visible overlay timestamp 12/31/99 18:20:22; the official release description separately says the image date is incorrect because the system date/time was not set.

The release description is narrower than the image may appear at first glance: FBI submitted a still image derived from a U.S. military system in 2025, the imagery had already been redacted before AARO received it, no accompanying mission report was provided, and the operator reportedly could not positively identify the UAP. The rendered page and extracted raster both show the same central reticle, black redaction blocks, invalid timestamp, and two small dark unresolved marks slightly right of the vertical reticle line and just above the horizontal reticle line. The still does not expose platform, sensor model, field of view, range, altitude, motion, look angle, or collection geometry.

Graph connections

Read-only graph checks found the exact B15 PDF asset by URL and SHA-256, plus the current Release 01 row-118 record. The semantic layer for this asset contains 22 machine-extracted claims, 14 entity mentions, and 4 sensor-event records. Those records are review aids, not findings: the sensor-event records are triggered by source phrases such as still image and military system, not by released radar, telemetry, range, altitude, or multi-sensor tracks.

The graph also preserves a custody/indexing drift that should stay visible during later cleanup. The exact asset records related_csv_row_numbers: [118], while one manifest-description field still points at row 121. Exact URL/hash matching also surfaces a row-121 FBI Photo B18 record carrying the B15 final URL/body hash and a row-118 FBI Photo B15 record retaining an older B12 final URL. That makes B12/B18 useful release-neighborhood and dedupe leads, but not corroborating evidence for what appears in B15 until each page is checked by its own URL, hash, row, and frame content. No CANDIDATE_CROSSLINK relationship was found for the B15 asset in this check.

External provenance/context

Direct WAR.GOV/PURSUE probes for the B15 PDF, thumbnail, release page, and release CSV returned 403 Access Denied during this review, so the verified Open Sky release-file copy remains the inspected source copy. The Internet Archive availability endpoint reports a closest exact-URL snapshot from 2026-05-15 08:52:27 UTC. Fetching the raw archived PDF returned a one-page B15 FBI Photo PDF with the same visible still content under visual review, but the archived replay was 62,256 bytes with a different SHA-256 and a later PDF modification timestamp than the 427,316-byte reviewed copy. Treat that as a versioning/custody lead for the official server or Wayback replay, not as a second event or an analytical conclusion.

No public DVIDS pairing, mission report, operator statement, raw image export, less-redacted frame, or adjacent-frame sequence is present in the current release metadata reviewed here. The broad Late 2025 / Western United States context comes from the release row; it is not enough to run meaningful astronomy, weather, aircraft, satellite, launch, balloon, or local-lighting correlation.

Prosaic checks and open leads

Prosaic checks remain image-quality and custody checks before any escalation: sensor/display artifact, compression or resampling artifact, dust/debris/blemish, redaction artifact, contrast feature in the scene, distant aircraft, bird, balloon, weather/illumination, and line-of-sight effects. The current still does not provide the geometry or time needed to rank those lanes.

Next useful work is source acquisition and reconciliation: obtain any raw or less-redacted B15 image export, adjacent frames/video, operator log, mission report, AARO submission metadata, and exact collection timestamp; compare the WAR.GOV live/Wayback byte variants visually and by hash; and resolve the row 118 / 121 / B12 / B18 graph-field drift without treating any row-neighborhood link as corroboration.

Audit note

This deep check used wiki/source evidence first and Neo4j read-only second. No graph writes or conclusion nodes were created. Machine-extracted graph claims remain machine_extracted_needs_human_review / not_a_finding unless verified against the source file or a future official source package.

Limits

This page does not identify the two dark features and does not assert a finding. The public file is a single redacted still-image PDF, not a full event package. There is no released motion sequence, no platform identity, no confirmed incident timestamp from the visible clock, no raw sensor data, no range or altitude measurement, no weather or astronomy context, and no independent corroborating source in the file. The visible marks are therefore documented only as unresolved features in a noisy, redacted image pending review and additional source material.

Sources

• WAR.GOV / PURSUE Release 01 official PDF: FBI Photo B15
• Open Sky release-file endpoint for the same PDF: war-gov-fbi-photo-b15-3a5445e8
• Current Release 01 record metadata: row 118, FBI, late 2025, Western United States
• Verified file hash: 0c6fe7a96a68e8440cd405bb92519fce639079a00ed6b6193863a39fa5a86c14
• Source-file review: one-page PDF inspection, embedded-image inspection, rendered-page visual check, and Frontier OCR timestamp check