The mystery of the lack of good footage in the age of smartphones is less mysterious when one considers that perhaps the phenomenon itself is intelligent.

And in fact if one considers witness testimony, that's what it seems to be.

If the phenomenon is intelligent, it does not appear to be concerned by crowds seeing it. If the 1952 UFO sighting over Washington DC[1] is to be believed, this phenomenon exposed itself to millions of humans twice over the federal capital. Another example is the 2006 sighting at O'Hare in Chicago[2] where the vessel appeared to ascend through the clouds and leave a hole in them.

In light of that, what is puzzling is that although most of the Americas is populated by humans who have carried portable video cameras in their pockets for over a decade, we do not see any visual evidence of such public phenomena. The reported sightings are nearly exclusively from pilots (but never smartphone-carrying passengers) and the military.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1952_Washington,_D.C.,_UFO_inc...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_O%27Hare_International_Ai...