Americans for Safe Aerospace Executive Director Ryan Graves joined filmmaker Dan Farah and former UAP Task Force Director Jay Stratton at iConnections Global Alts Miami 2026 last month, marking a significant shift in how the financial and investment communities are engaging with the unidentified anomalous phenomena issue.

The panel, titled "The Age of Disclosure: The Impact of Learning We're Not Alone," took place during the February 23-26 iConnections Global Alts Miami 2026 conference at the Miami Beach Convention Center, a major business conference that typically focuses on alternative investments and capital markets.

Graves outlined the evolution of UAP from a stigmatized topic to a pressing national security and aviation safety concern, drawing on his experiences as a former Navy F/A-18F pilot. His squadron, VFA-11, experienced five near mid-air collisions with unidentified objects in a single month during the 2012-2013 timeframe off the Eastern Seaboard.

"After we upgraded our radars, we were seeing these objects nearly every day," Graves told the audience. "We'd see them completely stationary at 0.0 Mach in very high winds. We'd see them at supersonic speeds. And we'd see them at 250, 350 knots, hanging out in our working areas."

The first confirmed encounter occurred when an object passed within 50 feet of a Navy jet, splitting two aircraft flying 150 feet apart. The pilot described it as "a dark gray or black cube inside of a clear sphere" with no visible propulsion systems and no standard heat signature.

Despite the clear aviation safety hazard, stigma prevented meaningful reporting or mitigation. "We weren't talking about this in the debrief, even to ourselves," Graves explained. "We were afraid of sticking our heads above the grass and having it chopped off in that tight-knit community where reputation is everything."

Americans for Safe Aerospace: Processing Thousands of Reports

Graves founded Americans for Safe Aerospace in 2023 after leaving active duty, specifically to address the reporting gap he experienced firsthand. The organization has since received thousands of reports from military and commercial pilots, military veterans and active-duty personnel, and civilian ground observers.

"What perhaps has been the most interesting learning experience is just how common this is," Graves said. "These encounters, whether from military pilots, commercial pilots, military personnel, or civilian ground observers who have seen something incredible in their life and just haven't had a way to integrate it into their reality."

ASA processes these reports and ensures cases with national security implications reach proper authorities within the government, while aviation safety cases are communicated to pilot unions and commercial airlines to help air crews mitigate these threats.

The panel came at a pivotal moment for UAP disclosure. Former UAP Task Force Director Jay Stratton confirmed that following President Trump's late February directive to declassify evidence of non-human intelligent life, both the Director of National Intelligence and the Secretary of Defense have begun internal declassification processes.

Stratton, who ran the largest whole-of-government UAP investigation for nearly two decades, revealed he had discovered a legacy reverse-engineering program involving the CIA, US Air Force, Department of Energy, and defense contractors. He provided physical addresses of facilities to the Gang of Eight, but members of Congress were denied access when they attempted to investigate.

"Members of Congress, the public certainly, and presidents have not been briefed on this topic. Not to the level they need to be," Stratton said.

The panel's inclusion at iConnections Global Alts Miami represents a notable expansion of UAP discourse beyond traditional defense and aerospace venues. The conference drew over 5,000 attendees across four days, including institutional investors, asset managers, family offices, and fund managers typically focused on hedge funds, private equity, venture capital, and other alternative investments. The audience represented a cross-section of business leaders who rarely engage with UAP topics in their professional settings.

Ron Biscardi, iConnections CEO, introduced the session as a "forward-leaning conversation" aimed at getting past stigma barriers to address national security and aviation safety issues.

"I want to thank our host Ron for having this forward-leaning conversation and helping move the topic past the barriers of stigma so we can maturely address the national security and aviation safety issues," Graves said in his opening remarks.

The venue choice reflects a broader trend of UAP moving from fringe conspiracy theory to serious policy and security discussion in mainstream professional environments.

For Americans for Safe Aerospace, the iConnections panel represents progress in normalizing UAP as a legitimate aviation safety and national security concern.

"The stigma is a national security problem," Stratton told the audience. "The fact that people won't talk about this, the fact that I can't get the best and brightest scientists, that pilots like Ryan don't want to come forward and report, that was my worst problem."

As disclosure efforts accelerate, ASA continues its core mission: providing military and commercial aviation professionals a trusted channel to report encounters safely, ensuring critical safety data reaches decision-makers who can act on it. The organization stands ready to continue filling knowledge gaps, training aircrew on UAP safety risks, and helping aviation professionals understand what to expect from encounters based on reports from other pilots and crew members.

Aviation professionals, military personnel, and civilian observers who have experienced UAP encounters can submit reports confidentially at safeaerospace.org/report-uap.

Ryan Graves Joins UAP Panel at iConnections Global Alts Miami

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