Cases and themes
Sightings reported by police officers, sheriffs and constables, often from patrol cars. 77 events, newest first.
Sightings2 Jul 2017
Gatwick Airport said a reported drone near the airfield led it to suspend runway operations twice in one evening, briefly each time, causing go-arounds and diversions of several easyJet and British Airways flights. Police investigated. It preceded the far larger December 2018 shutdown.
Photo: Robin Webster, CC BY-SA 2.0
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.
Sightings17 Apr 2016
The pilot of a British Airways A320 arriving from Geneva reported that an object, believed to be a drone, struck the front of the aircraft on approach to Heathrow. The plane landed safely and Metropolitan Police aviation officers opened an investigation.
Photo: Jeremy Segrott from Cardiff, Wales, UK, CC BY 2.0
Sightings18 Mar 2016
A Lufthansa A380 crew approaching Los Angeles International at about 5,000 feet reported a drone passing roughly 200 feet above the jet, 14 miles out. The FAA notified Los Angeles police, whose air unit did not find the drone; the plane landed safely.
Photo: Glenn Beltz from Goleta, CA, USA, CC BY 2.0
Whistleblowers2016
Charles Halt, deputy base commander at RAF Bentwaters in 1980, published The Halt Perspective with former police officer John Hanson, setting out his own account of the Rendlesham Forest events. In press coverage Halt said he believed the objects he saw were extraterrestrial.
Photo: Lieutenant Colonel Charles Halt, Public domain
Sightings20 Jul 2015
The crew of a Lufthansa Embraer 195 from Munich reported a black object, possibly a drone, passing within about 100 meters of the jet at 760 meters on approach to Warsaw. The plane landed safely; police questioned a local drone owner but brought no charges.
Photo: PerpetualTraveler, CC BY-SA 4.0
Sightings24 Feb 2015
On two straight nights, unidentified drones were seen over Paris sites including the Eiffel Tower, the U.S. Embassy and the Interior Ministry. Police opened an investigation; a government spokesman said hobbyists were the likely operators.
Photo: Getfunky Paris, CC BY 2.0
SightingsOct 2014
EDF said unidentified drones flew over seven of its French nuclear sites between Oct. 5 and Oct. 20, 2014, mostly at night. Each plant filed a police complaint and the interior minister said a judicial investigation was under way; no operator was named.
Photo: Raimond Spekking, CC BY-SA 4.0
SightingsNov 2011
After residents near Onamatunga reported loud bangs, police recovered a hollow 6 kg metal ball near a small crater. Namibia's forensic institute said it was a known alloy used in spacecraft and ruled out anything extraterrestrial; no space agency claimed it.
Photo: Oshilumbu5, Public domain
Sightings13 Oct 2010
Crowds and TV cameras watched shiny objects over Chelsea in Manhattan on October 13, 2010, prompting calls to police and the FAA. A Mount Vernon school said they were balloons that blew away from a teacher's engagement party about an hour before.
Sightings8 Jun 2008
A South Wales Police helicopter crew waiting to land at St Athan reported an unusual object that vanished over the Bristol Channel. Police denied tabloid claims of a chase, and a couple later said lanterns released at their nearby wedding were the likely cause.
Photo: Mick Lobb, CC BY-SA 2.0
Sightings21 Apr 2008
Residents across north Phoenix reported a line of red lights that shifted formation and faded one by one; Luke Air Force Base said no aircraft of its were involved. Two days later a local man told a TV station he had tied road flares to helium balloons, and police declined to investigate.
Photo: Alan Stark, 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
Media24 Feb 2005
ABC broadcast a two-hour prime-time special in which anchor Peter Jennings examined UFO reports from 1947 onward, interviewing pilots, police and military witnesses as well as skeptics. A syndicated preview called it measured and noted it offered no proof of a visiting spacecraft.
Photo: Sgt. John Queen, Public domain
Government2005
Following an audit, CNES restructured its UFO service as GEIPAN, adding public information to its mission and placing it under a steering committee with gendarmerie, police, air force and weather service members. The committee first met in September 2005; GEIPAN later put its case archives online.
Photo: GEIPAN / Wizly-08, Public domain
Sightings14 Jul 2001
Just after midnight, drivers pulled off the New Jersey Turnpike to watch orange and gold lights in a V formation over the Arthur Kill near Carteret. A Carteret police lieutenant counted 16 lights. Newark Airport and the Weather Service had nothing to explain them; no official cause was found.
Photo: Famartin, CC BY-SA 4.0
Sightings5 Jan 2000
Before dawn, a Highland business owner and police officers in Lebanon, Shiloh, Millstadt and Dupo, Illinois, reported a large, low, slow object with bright lights, which some described as triangular. The FAA suggested an advertising blimp; witnesses and some researchers dispute that.
Photo: Xing979 at English Wikipedia, Public domain
Media2 Jul 1997
Sony released Men in Black, a comedy about agents who police aliens living secretly on Earth, drawing on UFO lore about mysterious men who silence witnesses. It earned about $589 million worldwide and launched a franchise.
Photo: Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc., Public domain
Sightings20 Jan 1996
Three young women in Varginha, Minas Gerais, said they saw a strange crouching creature, and rumors of an army capture followed. A 1997 Brazilian Army military police inquiry found no military operation and concluded they had likely seen a local man; the files were made public in 2026.
Photo: Felipe Trombini, CC BY 3.0
Military31 Mar 1993
Police and military witnesses, including a patrol at RAF Cosford, made more than 30 reports of bright lights across central England over about six hours. MoD radar replays showed nothing unusual; most sightings were traced to the re-entry of the Russian rocket that launched Cosmos 2238.
Photo: N Chadwick, CC BY-SA 2.0
Sightings7 Nov 1990
Guests, staff, police officers and La Presse reporters watched a cluster of lights above the Hotel Bonaventure for nearly three hours. A 1992 study by Bernard Guenette and Richard Haines argued for a large object; the case has no official explanation.
Photo: Jeangagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0
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
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
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
Sightings26 Oct 1978
RCMP Constable James Blackwood and about a dozen residents reported a lit object hovering over the water between Clarenville and Random Island for about two hours before it rose and vanished. Blackwood said it mirrored his cruiser's lights. The Royal Canadian Mint marked the case on a 2020 coin.
Photo: Rioux Photography Edmonton, AB, Public domain
