Cases and themes
Sightings seen by many people at once, and the waves of reports that swept regions or countries. 47 events, newest first.
Select any year above to see what happened that year.
Open Mass sightings and waves as a timeline
Sightings2 Oct 2025
Munich Airport suspended flights on the evenings of Oct. 2 and 3, 2025 after unconfirmed drone sightings, amid a wave of drone incidents across Europe; thousands of passengers were affected. Germany's interior minister promised faster rules letting police call on the military to shoot drones down.
Photo: Thomas Kniess, CC BY-SA 3.0
Sightings26 Sep 2025
Amid Denmark's wave of drone alarms, Billund, the country's second-largest airport, was briefly closed early on September 26, 2025 after a report of illegal drone activity. Police later said the object behind that report was a shining star in the sky.
Photo: Nico-dk, CC BY-SA 3.0
Government15 Dec 2024
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer asked the Department of Homeland Security to deploy a recently declassified radio-wave tracking system to identify drones reported over New York and New Jersey and their operators, noting state and local police lacked authority to track them.
Photo: U.S. Senate Photographic Studio/Jeff McEvoy, Public domain
Sightings14 Dec 2024
During the Northeast drone flap, Boston police responding to reports of a drone flying dangerously close to Logan Airport found two men on closed Long Island in Boston Harbor with a drone in a backpack. They were charged with trespassing; a third man was not caught.
Photo: David Wilson, CC BY 2.0
Sightings13 Dec 2024
Runways at Stewart International Airport in New York were shut for about an hour after the FAA reported drone activity during the Northeast drone flap. Gov. Kathy Hochul said 'This has gone too far' and sought federal help; the Port Authority said flights were not affected.
Photo: Acroterion, CC BY-SA 4.0
Military13 Dec 2024
Naval Weapons Station Earle's public affairs officer confirmed multiple instances of unidentified drones entering the base's airspace during the New Jersey sightings wave. The base said no direct threat had been identified and did not say when the incursions happened.
Photo: Szeremeta, CC BY 4.0
Military13 Dec 2024
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio closed its airspace for about four hours after small drones were seen near and over the base late on Dec. 13, 2024. The 88th Air Base Wing said they did not affect base residents, facilities or assets. It came amid a wave of drone reports in several states.
Photo: Nyttend, Public domain
Military12 Dec 2024
A spokesperson for Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst said no drone incursions had been identified during the New Jersey sightings. The Air Force later said the base's 2024 drone incidents involved contraband deliveries to the federal prison on base, the latest in September.
Photo: Famartin, CC BY-SA 3.0
SightingsNov 2024
From mid-November 2024 residents across New Jersey and nearby states reported thousands of suspected drones at night. In joint statements the FBI, DHS, FAA and DoD said they found no national security threat and attributed sightings to lawful drones, manned aircraft and stars.
Photo: Chetsford, Public domain
Sightings19 Dec 2018
Reported drone sightings over the runway closed London Gatwick from the night of Dec. 19, 2018 into Dec. 21, disrupting tens of thousands of passengers. Sussex Police called it a deliberate act, and the Defence Secretary confirmed the Army was brought in to support police.
Photo: Chris Sampson, CC BY 2.0
Sightings16 Jan 2018
Hundreds of people saw and filmed a bright flash over southeast Michigan. NASA said a small meteoroid exploded with about 10 tons of TNT energy; NOAA's GOES-16 caught the flash and the ground blast registered like a magnitude 2.0 quake.
Photo: Philipp R. Heck et al., CC BY 4.0
Sightings6 Feb 2017
A bright green fireball seen by hundreds of people around Lake Michigan at 1:25 a.m. CST was identified by NASA as an asteroid fragment of at least 600 pounds that broke apart over the lake. Weather radar tracked falling fragments, and police dash cams recorded it.
GovernmentDec 2010
New Zealand's Defence Force released thousands of pages of previously secret UFO reports dating from 1952, including material on the 1978 Kaikoura lights. Most were reports of lights in the sky, and the military did not draw conclusions about them.
Photo: Daderot, CC0
GovernmentAug 2009
The National Archives put online a fourth batch of Ministry of Defence UFO files: 14 files, about 4,000 pages, spanning 1981-1996. Highlights included Rendlesham Forest correspondence, the 1989-90 Belgian wave and London sightings the MoD traced to an advertising airship.
Photo: Eirian Evans, CC BY-SA 2.0
Sightings8 Jan 2008
Several dozen people around Stephenville, including a county constable, reported a large, quiet, low object with shifting lights, some saying jets chased it. The Air Force Reserve's 301st Fighter Wing first said none of its planes were there, then said 10 F-16s had been training in the area.
Photo: CletusDitto, CC BY-SA 3.0
MediaNov 2002
Thai broadcaster iTV aired footage it said showed Lao soldiers firing tracer rounds across the Mekong during the yearly glowing-ball festival at Nong Khai. Thousands of residents protested the report, and Laos' ambassador objected; skeptics favor fireworks or tracers as the cause.
Photo: J A Forbes, CC BY-SA 4.0
MediaJul 1997
Roswell, New Mexico, staged a celebration for the 50th anniversary of the 1947 debris recovery, with tens of thousands of visitors expected. It came days after the Air Force released 'The Roswell Report: Case Closed', which attributed alien-body stories to test dummies.
Photo: J Dykstra, Public domain
Media9 Jan 1996
NBC premiered 3rd Rock from the Sun, a sitcom about extraterrestrials posing as a human family in Ohio to study people. The series ran until 2001 and won eight Emmys, part of the mid-1990s wave of alien-themed entertainment.
Photo: The Carsey-Werner Company, Public domain
Sightings5 Nov 1990
Around 7 p.m. a bright luminous formation crossed much of France, and CNES's SEPRA received more than 1,100 witness reports and police statements. A NASA telex let SEPRA identify it as the reentering third stage of the Soviet rocket that launched the Gorizont 21 satellite.
Photo: NASA, Public domain
Sightings1990
A photo said to show a lighted triangle over Petit-Rechain became the best-known image of the Belgian wave and was analyzed by the Royal Military Academy and others. Its author later admitted it was a hoax.
Photo: J.S. Henrardi, Public domain
Sightings29 Nov 1989
Gendarme patrols near Eupen reported large, silent triangular objects with bright lights, starting months of similar reports across Belgium. On the night of 30-31 March 1990 the Belgian Air Force scrambled two F-16s after a radar contact; the pilots saw nothing and the object was never identified.
Photo: Ronnie Macdonald from Chelmsford, United Kingdom, CC BY 2.0
SightingsDec 1981
Residents of Norway's Hessdalen valley began reporting strange lights in December 1981, up to about 20 a week into 1984. Project Hessdalen ran an instrumented field study in 1984, and Ostfold University College set up an automatic measuring station in 1998. Their cause is still debated.
Photo: National Archives of Norway (Riksarkivet), CC BY-SA 4.0
SightingsMay 1980
A UFO enthusiasts' liaison office set up at Wuhan University in 1979 grew by May 1980 into the China UFO Research Association, which later claimed dozens of branches and thousands of members. It gained legal standing under a state-linked umbrella body in 1988 and lost it in 1997.
Photo: Howchou, CC BY-SA 3.0
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
Sightings1975
Through spring and summer 1975 residents around Carman, Manitoba reported a recurring red light that locals nicknamed 'Charlie Redstar'. Some reports went to the RCMP and federal agencies; researcher Chris Rutkowski, who studied the wave, says most were distant lights in the night sky.
Photo: Winnipeg Photo. Co., Public domain
