Cases and themes
Events where objects were tracked on radar, often alongside visual sightings. 56 events, newest first.
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
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
Military7 Nov 1975
NORAD logs record Malmstrom AFB missile crews reporting a bright orange object over their sites until sunrise. A Pentagon memo describes height-finder radar returns and two F-106 interceptors scrambled that could not find the object. The objects were never identified.
Photo: U.S. Air Force photo, Public domain
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
Military27 Oct 1975
On the evening of Oct. 27, 1975, a security airman at Loring AFB, Maine, reported a low aircraft with lights circling near the nuclear weapons storage area; tower radar showed an unknown target and the base went on alert. Thought from its flight to be a helicopter, it was never identified.
Photo: Air Force Base Conversion Agency, Public domain
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
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
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
GovernmentJan 1969
The Air Force-funded Condon Report included the 1956 Lakenheath-Bentwaters radar-visual case as its Case 2. The study said it learned of the case in winter 1968 from an unsolicited letter by the retired USAF watch supervisor on duty that night, and obtained the Blue Book file afterward.
Photo: Chris, CC BY-SA 2.0
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
Sightings2 Aug 1965
After a sheriff's dispatcher reported an object near Wellington, Kansas, the Wichita Weather Bureau radar tracked several slow, erratic targets for over an hour. The Condon study judged them likely false radar returns from strong temperature inversions.
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
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
Military17 Jul 1957
The crew of a USAF RB-47H testing electronic countermeasures gear reported a light and a radar-emitting source that followed them from Mississippi into Oklahoma, with ground radar also reporting a target. The Condon study left it unidentified; skeptics later proposed an airliner.
Photo: U.S. Air Force photo, Public domain
Military13 Aug 1956
Over the night of Aug. 13-14, 1956, USAF ground radars at RAF Bentwaters and Lakenheath tracked fast-moving targets, some with visual reports, and an RAF Venom night fighter was sent up and reported a radar lock. The Condon study rated a genuine UFO 'fairly high' in probability.
Photo: Bev Dickinson, CC BY-SA 2.0
Military23 Nov 1953
An F-89C interceptor flown by 1st Lt. Felix Moncla Jr. with radar operator 2nd Lt. Robert Wilson vanished over Lake Superior after being vectored toward an unknown radar target. The Air Force said the target was an off-course Canadian C-47; no wreckage or crew were found.
Photo: USAF, Public domain
Military12 Aug 1953
A Ground Observer Corps spotter near Rapid City reported a bright light that Ellsworth AFB radar then tracked; an F-84 pilot chased it and reported a radar lock before breaking off. Blue Book chief Edward Ruppelt, who investigated in person, called it the best report in the Air Force files.
Photo: Staff Sgt. Marc I. Lane, U.S. Air Force, Public domain
MilitaryAug 1952
Control tower operators at Haneda AFB in Tokyo watched a bright light over Tokyo Bay that ground radar tracked at the same time; a scrambled F-94 got a brief radar lock before losing it. Ruppelt said the Far East Air Force investigators rated it among their best cases.
Photo: Project Blue Book, Public domain
Military1 Aug 1952
An Air Defense Command radar near Bellefontaine tracked a fast target north of Dayton, and two Wright-Patterson F-86 pilots photographed a silver sphere on gun-camera film. Blue Book first carried it as unknown, then attributed it to a jet and a weather balloon.
Photo: USAF photo 82042 AC, Public domain
Government29 Jul 1952
Maj. Gen. John Samford, Air Force Director of Intelligence, held a Pentagon press conference on the Washington sightings. He said the reports showed no threat to the U.S., that temperature inversions might explain the radar returns, and that the objects were not U.S. tests.
Photo: US Gov, Public domain
Government29 Jul 1952
Days after the Washington radar sightings, Ralph L. Clark, acting head of the CIA's Office of Scientific Intelligence, sent the Deputy Director for Intelligence a memo on recent unexplained sightings. The CIA's own history says the agency then formed a special OSI study group on the reports.
