Cases and themes
Reports from airline, military and private pilots, air traffic controllers and aviation agencies. 136 events, newest first.
Sightings31 Jul 1995
Capt. Jorge Polanco of Aerolineas Argentinas flight 674 reported a bright light pacing his Boeing 727 on approach to Bariloche during a power cut; Gendarmeria pilots also reported it. A 2018 Argentine Air Force report attributed it to a searchlight aimed at the clouds; files were released in 2020.
Photo: Nocturnogatuno, CC BY 3.0
Sightings25 May 1995
The crew of America West 564, flying from Tampa to Las Vegas, reported a row of strobe-like lights and a long dark object near Bovina, Texas. Controllers checked with NORAD; accounts of what radar showed conflict, and circulating ATC audio has not been officially authenticated.
Photo: Aero Icarus from Zurich, Switzerland, CC BY-SA 2.0
SightingsJan 1995
The crew of British Airways flight 5061 from Milan reported a lit, wedge-shaped object passing very close at high speed as they descended over the Pennines toward Manchester. A Civil Aviation Authority airmiss review later could not establish what the object was.
Photo: G B_NZ, CC BY-SA 2.0
Close encounters16 Sep 1994
About 60 children at the Ariel School outside Harare said they saw a craft land near the playground and figures beside it. A BBC crew filmed interviews days later, and Harvard psychiatrist John Mack interviewed pupils. Skeptics cite mass suggestion after a rocket re-entry fireball days earlier.
Sightings28 Jan 1994
The crew of an Air France A320 flying Nice to London reported a large dark disk that changed shape and vanished near Coulommiers, while a military radar logged an unidentified 50-second track. GEIPAN ruled out a weather balloon and classes the case unexplained (D).
Photo: Aero Icarus from Zurich, Switzerland, CC BY-SA 2.0
Military30 Mar 1990
On March 30-31, 1990, two Belgian F-16s were scrambled after ground radar contacts that matched visual reports; pilots saw nothing but recorded brief radar locks. The Air Force said it could not identify the phenomena; skeptics trace the locks to the other F-16 and false echoes.
Photo: Pedro Aragao, CC BY-SA 3.0
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
Government5 Mar 1987
The FAA's Alaskan Region publicly released its file on the November 1986 JAL 1628 sighting: pilot-controller transcripts, crew and controller interviews, the captain's drawings and radar data. It said it could not confirm the event and attributed the radar returns to uncorrelated signals.
Government17 Nov 1986
The crew of a Japan Air Lines 747 cargo flight bound for Anchorage reported lights and a large object pacing their aircraft over interior Alaska. The FAA interviewed the crew and reviewed the radar data.
Photo: contri from Yonezawa, Yamagata, Japan, CC BY-SA 2.0
Sightings25 Aug 1984
An August 1984 New York Times report said police had traced many Hudson Valley 'boomerang' sightings to light planes from Stormville Airport flying in tight night formation. Officials said no rule was broken; some witnesses rejected the explanation.
Photo: Indefatigable2, CC BY-SA 4.0
Sightings16 Jan 1984
Kenneth Arnold, the Idaho businessman and pilot whose June 1947 report of fast objects near Mount Rainier is generally considered the first widely reported modern UFO sighting in the U.S., died in January 1984.
Photo: Associated Press, Public domain
SightingsMar 1983
Starting in the early 1980s, many people in New York's Hudson Valley and nearby Connecticut reported a large V of lights moving slowly at night. Local reports traced some sightings to light-aircraft pilots flying in formation; some witnesses rejected that explanation.
GovernmentMay 1982
Australia's Bureau of Air Safety Investigation released its summary report on pilot Frederick Valentich, who vanished over Bass Strait in 1978 after radioing about an unidentified craft. It said the reason for the disappearance had not been determined and presumed it fatal.
Photo: Ulfl, Public domain
Sightings8 Feb 1982
The captain of a VASP Boeing 727 flying from Fortaleza to Rio de Janeiro reported a bright, color-changing light that seemed to follow the plane, and some passengers also saw it. Ground radar showed nothing; a 2014 journal analysis argued the light was Venus, possibly distorted by a mirage.
Photo: HELIO BASTOS SALMON, CC BY-SA 4.0
Military9 May 1980
A U.S. defense attache cable from Lima reported that Peruvian Air Force officers saw a round object hovering near Mariano Melgar air base at La Joya, and that an Su-22 fired on it without effect. Pilot Oscar Santa Maria Huertas later gave his own account. The object was never identified.
Photo: U.S. DoD photo, uploaded by en:User:Victor12, Public domain
Military11 Nov 1979
A TAE Super Caravelle bound for the Canary Islands diverted to Valencia-Manises after its crew reported red lights closing on the aircraft. A Spanish Air Force Mirage F1 later chased lights without success; the declassified file records no radar contact. A deputy raised it in parliament.
Photo: Rob Hodgkins, CC BY-SA 2.0
Sightings31 Dec 1978
A TV crew aboard a Safe Air Argosy cargo flight filmed lights off the Kaikoura coast, with returns reported on Wellington radar and the plane's own radar. An Air Force inquiry concluded natural but unusual phenomena; UN-post files released in 2021 show DSIR scientists left them unidentified.
Photo: Richard Goring, CC BY-SA 2.0
Sightings21 Oct 1978
Pilot Frederick Valentich, 20, radioed Melbourne Flight Service that a large unidentified object was hovering over his Cessna 182 above Bass Strait, then the transmission ended. Neither he nor the plane was found; the Department of Transport report said the cause was not determined.
Photo: Australian Department of Transportation, Public domain
Military22 Jun 1976
Crew of the Spanish Navy corvette Atrevida off Fuerteventura, then a doctor, a taxi driver and residents of Gran Canaria, reported a luminous object. A Spanish military file found no explanation; it was later attributed to a U.S. submarine-launched Poseidon missile test.
Photo: Jose Juan Medina Cobacho, CC BY-SA 3.0
Military30 Oct 1975
Security police at Wurtsmith AFB, Michigan, reported an unlit helicopter-like craft over the nuclear weapons storage area. A returning KC-135 tanker was sent to identify radar targets; a NORAD log says the crew saw and painted one before losing it over Lake Huron. It was never identified.
Photo: United States Geological Survey (USGS), Public domain
Sightings3 May 1975
Mexican private pilot Carlos Antonio de los Santos radioed Mexico City airport's control tower that three unidentified objects were flying around his light Piper aircraft and that his controls moved on their own. He landed safely. A recording said to be his call circulated widely in 2023.
Photo: Jonmallard, CC BY-SA 4.0
MediaOct 1974
NBC aired the TV movie The Disappearance of Flight 412, starring Glenn Ford. Two Air Force fighters vanish while intercepting radar UFOs, and the surviving crew is held at a remote base and pressed to deny what they saw. It dramatized the idea of an official UFO cover-up.
Photo: Alan Light, CC BY 2.0
Sightings30 Nov 1973
Press reports said Turin-Caselle airport radar tracked an unidentified target while a private pilot and an Alitalia crew saw a bright, color-changing sphere. The airport's military commander was quoted confirming the sighting; no official explanation is on record in the loaded sources.
Photo: Paolo Cerutti, Public domain
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
