Explained and disputed
Famous fakes and claims that did not hold up, and how they were exposed. 53 events, newest first.
Close encounters26 Nov 1979
Friends of Franck Fontaine, 19, told police he vanished from a car near Paris after a UFO appeared; he reappeared a week later. France's GEPAN found nothing of value. In 1983 friend Jean-Pierre Prevost told a reporter he had staged it and hidden Fontaine in an apartment.
Photo: Alvar Lavague, CC BY-SA 4.0
Media26 Nov 1977
Around 5:10 pm, a distorted voice claiming to speak for an alien intelligence replaced Southern Television's news sound for almost six minutes, apparently by jamming the Hannington transmitter. The IBA investigated; no culprit was ever identified, and it is generally treated as a hoax.
Photo: Matthew Prior, CC BY-SA 4.0
Media20 Jun 1977
Anglia Television's 'Science Report' aired 'Alternative 3', a spoof documentary with actors claiming missing scientists were being taken to a secret Mars colony. Meant for April Fools' Day, it ran on June 20; viewers flooded Anglia with calls, and some still treat it as real.
Photo: Spudgun67, CC0
Sightings4 Feb 1977
About 15 Broad Haven Primary pupils said they saw a silver cigar-shaped craft in a field behind the school; some described a figure in a silver suit. The MoD got their drawings but offered no explanation. An RAF officer suspected a prankster; a local man admitted a silver-suit prank in 1996.
Photo: Bob Jones, CC BY-SA 2.0
Sightings1977
Through 1977, residents around Broad Haven and Little Haven in Pembrokeshire reported lights, craft and silver-suited figures, a flap the press called the Dyfed or Broad Haven Triangle. MoD files show an RAF Brawdy officer checked a hotelier's report; a local man later admitted a silver-suit prank.
Photo: Celuici, CC0
Media1975
Arizona State University librarian Larry Kusche checked the records behind famous Bermuda Triangle disappearances one by one. His Harper and Row book found many losses happened in storms, outside the area, or had ordinary explanations, and it is widely credited with debunking the legend.
MediaJan 1974
Aviation Week editor Philip J. Klass published UFOs Explained with Random House, arguing case by case that reports came from balloons, meteors, rocket debris, aircraft, radar effects, hoaxes and mistaken witnesses rather than alien craft. It became a standard skeptical reference.
Photo: Robert Sheaffer, CC BY-SA 3.0
Sightings4 Sep 1967
Six beeping metal-domed saucers were found in a line from the Isle of Sheppey to Somerset, drawing police, military and Ministry of Defence responders before they were revealed the same day as a charity stunt by Royal Aircraft Establishment apprentices.
Close encounters22 Apr 1967
University of Arizona atmospheric physicist James E. McDonald told the American Society of Newspaper Editors that the UFO problem had been mishandled for years. He blamed a 1953 CIA-sponsored panel's recommendation for a debunking effort and said Project Blue Book had been downgraded.
Photo: United States Government, Public domain
Government20 Feb 1967
Condon and four committee members visited the CIA's National Photographic Interpretation Center, which agreed to give technical help on UFO photos as long as the work was never identified as CIA work. In May 1967 NPIC briefed them on an analysis that debunked photos from Zanesville, Ohio.
Close encounters23 Apr 1965
George Adamski, the best-known 1950s contactee, died of a heart attack in Maryland at 74. His claims of meeting Venusians and his saucer photographs had been dismissed by investigators, including Blue Book consultant J. Allen Hynek, who called the photos crude fakes.
Photo: Unknown (likely a Buffalo Evening News or press photo), Public domain
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
Close encounters5 Nov 1957
During the November 1957 wave, grain buyer Reinhold Schmidt said a cigar-shaped craft stalled his car near Kearney and that he spoke with German-speaking occupants. Air Force investigators concluded the story was a hoax made for publicity.
Sightings15 Feb 1954
Thirteen-year-old Stephen Darbishire took two blurry photos of a disc near the Old Man of Coniston that were reproduced widely. He later said at various times that the picture was genuine and that it was a hoax, and it is generally treated as a fake.
Photo: Strider52, CC BY-SA 3.0
Media1954
A book credited to Cedric Allingham claimed its author met a Martian pilot near Lossiemouth in February 1954. In 1986 researchers argued it was a spoof: Peter Davies admitted revising it and posing as Allingham, and they named astronomer Patrick Moore, who never admitted a role, as author.
Photo: David Scanlan, Public domain
Media1953
London publisher T. Werner Laurie issued a book pairing Desmond Leslie's history of sky sightings with George Adamski's claim of meeting a Venusian in 1952. It became a bestseller and a founding text of the contactee movement; Adamski's claims are widely regarded as hoaxes.
Media1953
Harvard astrophysicist Donald Menzel published Flying Saucers through Harvard University Press, arguing that most reports were mirages and other optical effects. The Condon Report later called it an excellent book while noting its reputation as a debunking one.
Photo: Babette Whipple, CC BY-SA 3.0
Close encounters19 Aug 1952
Florida scoutmaster Sonny DesVergers said a hovering craft engulfed him in a red mist, singeing his arms and cap, while three scouts waited in his car. Blue Book chief Edward Ruppelt wrote it off as the best hoax in UFO history, though investigators never proved how it was done.
Sightings31 Jul 1952
Photos of a domed disc said to be taken in Passaic, New Jersey were widely printed. Air Force intelligence (ATIC) found no independent witnesses and judged the pictures suspicious and easily faked, though it said they were never proven a hoax.
MediaJun 1952
German newspapers, starting with the Saarbrucker Zeitung, reported that Norway's military had recovered a flying saucer on Spitsbergen. The story grew with each retelling and was never verified; researchers regard it as a hoax with no basis in any official record.
Photo: Wilson44691, Public domain
GovernmentJun 1951
A small Ministry of Defence scientific intelligence working party set up in 1950 delivered a secret report concluding that saucer sightings were misidentified aircraft, balloons, astronomical objects, illusions or hoaxes, and advised against further study without material evidence.
Photo: Bernard Hailstone, Public domain
Sightings11 May 1950
Paul Trent took two photos of a disc-shaped object his wife Evelyn saw over their farm near McMinnville; a local paper and then Life ran them. A Condon study analyst found them consistent with a real distant object but could not rule out fabrication; skeptics call them a hoax.
Photo: Paul Trent, Public domain
Media1950
Fawcett Publications issued Donald Keyhoe's 'The Flying Saucers Are Real', a paperback expanding on his January 1950 True magazine article. Keyhoe argued the Air Force knew more about flying saucers than it admitted.
Photo: Donald Keyhoe, Public domain
Government27 Dec 1949
The Air Force announced that Project Grudge was closed and released its final report, which attributed saucer reports to misidentification, mild hysteria and hoaxes and recommended cutting the effort back. Grudge continued at a minimal level until Project Blue Book replaced it.
Photo: US Air Force, Public domain
Government11 Feb 1949
The Air Force renamed Project Sign as Project Grudge, a scaled-down successor that treated most reports as misidentifications. Its 1949 report concluded sightings came from misread natural objects, hoaxes or psychological causes.
Photo: US Air Force, Public domain
