Topic
Encounters reported by pilots, radar crews and base personnel, from the 1950s to today. 141 events, newest first.
Military18 Oct 1973
A four-man Army Reserve UH-1H crew led by Capt. Lawrence Coyne reported that a gray, cigar-shaped object approached their helicopter near Mansfield, Ohio, bathed the cockpit in green light, and that the helicopter rose sharply during the encounter. Ground witnesses reported a red light.
Photo: InSapphoWeTrust from Los Angeles, California, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0
Military8 Sep 1970
USAF exchange pilot Capt. William Schaffner was lost when his RAF Lightning from Binbrook hit the sea at night during an exercise shadowing a slow RAF target aircraft; his body was never found. Claims from 1992 on that he chased a UFO conflict with the inquiry's accident findings.
Photo: Adrian S Pye, CC BY-SA 2.0
Military1969
The Brazilian Air Force's IV Air Zone in Sao Paulo set up SIOANI, a system to collect and study reports of unidentified aerial objects, issuing bulletins from March 1969. It wound down by 1972; its records are now in Brazil's National Archive.
Photo: Tonyjeff, based on militar symbol., Public domain
Military24 Oct 1968
Missile-site maintenance and security crews near Minot AFB reported a glowing object for over three hours, and a returning B-52 crew tracked a target on radar that paced the bomber while its radios failed to transmit. Project Blue Book attributed the reports to a natural phenomenon.
Photo: Project Blue Book, Public domain
Military17 Jun 1968
On 16-17 June 1968, U.S. Air Force jets whose pilots took the radar returns of allied ships for enemy helicopters attacked several ships near the Vietnam DMZ, hitting HMAS Hobart and killing two sailors. In 1973 USAF chief Gen. George Brown described the episode as a series of UFO sightings.
Photo: RAN Public Relations, CC0
Military16 Mar 1967
All ten Minuteman missiles of Malmstrom's Echo Flight went offline within about half a minute, an event recorded in declassified unit histories. Former launch officer Robert Salas and others later said guards reported glowing objects at the time; their decades-later accounts are disputed.
Photo: U.S. Air Force photo, Public domain
Military7 Oct 1965
Edwards Air Force Base reported about a dozen moving lights over the base on October 7, 1965; an F-106 was scrambled and found nothing. About 40 minutes of a six-hour recording of the night's radio and phone traffic were declassified when Blue Book closed.
Photo: Unknown author, Public domain
Military22 Sep 1964
Former Air Force Lt. Robert Jacobs claimed from 1982 that telescope film of a September 22, 1964 Vandenberg Atlas launch, shot from Big Sur, showed a craft circling the warhead and hitting it with a beam. Project engineer Kingston George said it showed decoys and debris, not a UFO.
Photo: SDASM Archives, Public domain
Military1963
Hector Quintanilla succeeded Lt. Col. Robert Friend at the Air Force's Project Blue Book and led it until it closed in December 1969, through the Socorro case and the 1966 Michigan sightings. His later unpublished memoir defended the Air Force's handling of reports.
Photo: U.S. Air Force, Public domain
Military9 Jul 1962
The U.S. detonated a thermonuclear warhead about 250 miles above Johnston Atoll. In Hawaii a bright flash was followed by a red, aurora-like glow for hours, some streetlights failed and Kauai's inter-island links were cut: a man-made sky display, not an unknown object.
Photo: Unknown, Public domain
MilitaryDec 1961
The Avrocar, a disc-shaped vertical-takeoff craft built by Avro Canada and taken over by the U.S. Army and Air Force in 1958, proved unstable above about three feet and topped out near 35 mph. The project was cancelled in December 1961. Its saucer shape drew comparisons with 'flying saucers'.
Photo: Bzuk at English Wikipedia, Public domain
Military1 Jul 1961
The Air Force replaced its Aerospace Technical Intelligence Center with the new Foreign Technology Division under Air Force Systems Command at Wright-Patterson. Project Blue Book records from then until the end of 1969 are filed under FTD's Aerial Phenomena Branch.
Photo: AF Historical Research Agency, Public domain
Military15 Sep 1960
Edward J. Ruppelt, the Air Force officer who led the UFO project during the 1952 wave and later wrote a book about it, died of a heart attack on September 15, 1960, at age 37.
Photo: Associated Press, Public domain
MilitaryFeb 1960
The Navy's new Dark Fence space-surveillance radar detected an unidentified object in orbit, prompting speculation about a Soviet spy satellite. The Defense Department said it was part of a stray U.S. Discoverer satellite. The episode was later folded into the 'Black Knight' satellite legend.
Photo: Unknown US Air Force member, Public domain
MilitaryFeb 1960
In February 1960 Argentina's navy closed Golfo Nuevo and spent weeks chasing sonar and radar contacts it described as one or two unidentified submarines, with U.S. equipment sent to help. No vessel was ever found or identified; TIME noted sonar can mistake whales or wrecks for submarines.
Photo: Horacio_Fernandez, CC BY 3.0
Military16 Jan 1958
Civilian photographer Almiro Barauna photographed an object over Trindade Island from the Brazilian Navy ship Almirante Saldanha, and Rio papers ran the photos in February 1958. A U.S. Naval Attache report and later Air Force correspondence judged the photos a hoax.
Photo: Project Blue Book, Public domain
Military1958
Tuskegee Airman Robert Friend led the Air Force's Project Blue Book from 1958 to 1963. He tried without success to have the project moved to a civilian agency such as NASA.
Military5 Nov 1957
The Coast Guard cutter Sebago reported several fast-moving radar targets and a brief bright light before dawn during the November 1957 wave. The Condon study judged the light a meteor and most radar returns likely anomalous propagation.
Photo: Florida Department of Commerce, Public domain
Military4 Nov 1957
CAA tower operators at Kirtland AFB reported a dark object with a white light below that crossed the field, appeared to reverse direction at low altitude and climbed into the overcast, with a radar return. The Air Force and the Condon Report concluded it was likely a small private aircraft.
Photo: USAF, Public domain
Military3 Nov 1957
Two U.S. Army patrols at White Sands reported a very bright light near the horizon and later a pulsating light, hours after the Levelland reports made national news. Project Blue Book concluded the first sighting was the setting Moon and the second was Venus.
Photo: Project Blue Book, Public domain
