I will be adding interesting UFO case reviews here at intervals (possibly each week).
These cases are what many consider to be the best UFO reports around, with physical evidence
and numerous, reliable (sometimes military) eyewitnesses.
Choose the links below to go directly to the individual cases :
In December 1952 Lieutenant Sid Coleman was Radar Officer aboard a B-29
bomber near Galveston. When watching the radar scope Coleman observed two UFOs
which he tracked at a speed in excess of 5,000 miles per hour, quite impossible
for planes of the day. The captain of the plane, John Harta, suggested that
Coleman recalibrate his set as the sighting was impossible but the sighting was
immediately confirmed by the navigator on his radar scope. Eventually
four UFOs were seen on the radar screen.
From the plane, they were also able to make visual contact with the object,
watching it as a blue-white streak moving fast near the bomber. Shortly after
this there was a repeat with several more objects whizzing past their plane.
Crew members watched the UFOs perform incredible maneuvers to avoid hitting the
plane. There were reports of a mothercraft absorbing smaller craft and one
report of one UFO moving at over 9,000 miles per hour.
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On 16 January, 1958 a ship belonging to the hydrographic and navigation
service of the Brazilian Navy, the Almirante Saldanha, was
anchored at Trinidade Island with around fifty people aboard. Trinidade
Island is some 750 miles from the Brazilian coast.
Among the people on board was Almiro Barauna, a professional photographer
who had been taking underwater film at the time.
Just after noon a bright "Saturn-shaped" object was seen approaching the island
and Barauna was called on deck to photograph it. He took six photographs within
fifteen seconds, of which four captured the object in motion. (This invalidates what
sceptics/debunkers say : i.e. that the object was actually Saturn magnified by the atmosphere)
The photographs showed a hazy flattened globe surrounded by a central ring. The haziness looks
to be a factor of the photograph although apparently it corresponds to eye witness
testimony. This fact has been used to suggest that the object may have been less
a structured machine, and more a manifestation of energy (or a force-field surrounding
the object).
Captain Bacellar, the commanding officer of the ship, ordered that the film
be developed immediately in a converted washroom on board. In order to authenticate
the film he also insisted that Barauna strip to his swimming trunks before
going into the darkroom, to prevent his taking an already exposed film in with him.
Given these precautions and nearly fifty witnesses, it is not surprising that when
the Brazilian Navy requested analysis of the film it was pronounced genuine and
released to the press by the President of Brazil, Mr Joscelino Kubitschek.
View one of the photos ||
View an enhanced zoom of the UFO
The Trinidade Island photographs are some of the most famous in the world,
despite which they have never been held to provide conclusive proof of any
aspect of the UFO phenomenon.
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In February, 1959 Private Gerry Irwin was driving from Idaho to his
barracks at El Paso, Texas, when, at Cedar City, Utah, he observed a
glowing UFO.
He was of the opinion that he might be watching a crashing aircraft
and made an immediate attempt to aid any survivors. He left a note
in his car requesting that anybody reading it should call the police.
On the side of his car he wrote the word "STOP" in shoe polish to
direct people to the note.
The Cedar City Sheriff and others eventually found Private Gerry
Irwin unconscious, some hour and a half after the sighting. There
had been no aeroplane crash.
He re-awoke in the hospital, puzzled by the UFO sighting and also by
the disappearance of his coat. It was some six weeks after the incident
that he returned to the site and recovered his coat. He then reported to
the Cedar City Sheriff, apparently having come out of some sort of trance
and being unaware of all that had happened to him since the night he had
been returning to barracks. In August Private Irwin failed to report
for duty and was listed as a deserter.
He has never been seen again.
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In March 1965 James W. Flynn was camping in the Everglades. After midnight
he saw an object descending approximately a mile away; he believed it to be a
plane in trouble. With this in mind he drove his swamp buggy towards the
light - which remained visible through the trees - stopping approximately
a quarter of a mile from the object and walking on foot the rest of the way.
The vegetation prevented a closer approach in his vehicle.
When he got closer, he saw the object to be a large cone-shaped structure
hovering near the ground; it was some 75 feet wide and 25 feet high. He
observed rows of windows with light shining through them.
As he approached the object a beam of light struck him in the forehead,
knocking him unconscious and temporarily leaving him partially blinded. The
UFO then disappeared, leaving burning trees and other vegetation where it
had been. Flynn's doctor also found impairment of muscle and tendon reflexes
which he believed could not have been faked, and the NICAP investigation
concluded that the account of the event was supported by the physical
evidence.
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On 1 July 1965, in the early hours of the morning, French farmer Maurice Masse at
Valensole was attracted to the sight of a landed object in his lavender field by a
strange high-pitched sound.
The object was shaped like an egg with a cupola on top and was approximately fifteen
feet wide. It was standing on six legs in a manner reminiscent of a spider, according to
the witness. The door of the object was open and within it Masse could see two seats.
Near the object were what Masse took to be two young boys apparently taking lavender
plants; they turned out to be entities from the object about four feet tall and clad
in green "ski suits". When they noticed Masse approaching, one of them levelled a
rod towards him which immobilised him.
On further examination the entities appeared to have large bald heads, big slanting
eyes, pronounced chins and small lipless mouths; in fact, very much the description
given by many American witnesses. They made guttural sounds.
This style of entity is often recounted by Americans under hypnosis in most fearful
terms but Masse's conscious recall remembers them as good-natured and bringing a
sense of peace to him. It is interesting that many American cases involving these
entities combine fear with a great longing to be with the creatures, whether or not
that emotion is "engineered".
While Masse was still immobilised, the entities returned to their craft and took off,
with the landing legs retracting. It was some considerable time before Masse was
able to move. Four days after the event occurred he fell into a deep sleep and
members of his family fought to wake him up, believing that otherwise he would have
slept for a very extended period. Usually Masse slept only five or six hours a night
but for months after the event he needed at least twelve hours sleep.
The most remarkable of the ground traces was that no lavender plants would grow at
the landing site for ten years!
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This information was obtained by Mr Dale Goudie, Director of Puget Sound
Aerial Phenomena Research and Information Director for the UFO Reporting and
Information Service in Seattle, Washington.
The broad details of this case have long been known. This is the case in
which Dr. J. Allen Hynek, at the time a consultant to the U.S. Air Force,
issued his quickly condemned opinion that the lights seen could have been
swamp gas.
New additional information about the famed 1966 Swamp Gas case in Michigan
surfaced in 1984 shedding new light on this incident.
The material consists of a news release issued at the time by William E. Van
Horn, the Civil Defense Director for Hillsdale County, Michigan. It contains
a hitherto unknown laboratory report covering the scientific analysis of
soil, water and animal life in the area of the reported landing. For those
unfamiliar with the case, here are excepts from a statement made at the time
by Mr. Van Horn:
On the evening of March 21,1966 at 10:32 p.m., a call was received from the
New Woman's Dormitory at Hillsdale College by the Office Of Civil Defense...
from a student reporting that some type of craft had descended from the
Northeast, flashed by their dormitory and disappeared to the South. At this
time, the girl described as well as later, the observing of red, green and
white pulsating lights. There were 17 of the college students that made this
observation.
At approximately 11 p.m., a second call was made by the girl to the Civil
Defense Office informing them that the object had reappeared and had settled
close to the ground approximately one half mile from the dormitory. Van Horn
at once called for help from the Police Department and three cars plus
himself were sent in a two mile area from the dormitory to the East. Van
Horn checked the area at the half mile point and after he was unable to
locate anything. He at once returned to the dormitory.
Upon arriving at the dormitory, he was escorted to the second floor and taken
to a room facing the east, from where he made the following observation. He
observed that there was an object which was at an approximate distance of
1,500 to 1,700 feet away from them... settled into a hollow and was
apparently either near or on the ground. The two lights upon his first
observation were what he would describe as a dim orange on the right and a
dirty white on the left. After observing this for a period of about 10
minutes the lights began to grow in brilliance, the dim orange became red and
true in color and the white became a true white. As the lights became more
brilliant, the object or vehicle began to rise.
It would rise to a height of approximately 100 to 150 feet, stop momentarily
and began to descend. This occurred several times. At one time upon
descending, a glow from the side opposite them came from somewhere and he was
able to see a convexed surface.
The vehicle was also observed to move right to left, and left to right, and
did so in a very smooth manner. The acsent and descent were at an estimated
rate of 25 to 30 feet per minute. (This was estimated from Van Horns'
experience as a commercial pilot.) At no time were any of the witnesses able
to detect any type of sound or noise.
At approximately 4:30 a.m., those still observing the scene noticed the
lights disappear and this was the last that was seen of it.
The area that this was observed in was by no means a swamp but rather an area
which is cultivated by Hillsdale College as a park.
Goudie also states that there will be additional information up coming and
will be released in a short time by the UFO Reporting and Information Service
in Seattle. This new information will even bring us closer to the reality of
this case and keep this in mind that this case was investigated very
carefully.
Lab Results Of 1966 "Swamp Gas" Case
NOTE : The Report gives the detailed results of tests done on the soil, plants,
water, and animals in the vicinity of the UFO landing site. I shall only be
showing the conclusions reached by the Laboratory. For the full report enquire
at CUFON (Computer UFO Network), P.O.Box 832, Mercer Island, WA 98040, USA.
CONCLUSIONS
1. SOIL:
The soil had above normal radiation and also had abnormal content of
Boron.
2. PLANT:
The plants had above normal radiation. Blue pigments did not show up in
the tests and were presumed to be destroyed, but this did not seem to
effect the life junctions of the plants.
3. POND LIFE:
Crustacean and Amphibian radiation was higher than normal but the highest
radiation was recorded in the Amphibian. Also the Amphibian was
affected noiceably where the Crustacean was not.
4. MINERAL:
Sedimentary rocks were slightly higher in radiation than either igneous
or metamorphic rocks. There was no other change either chemical or
structural.
5. WATER:
All microscopic plants and animals were dead. The water had above normal
radiation and abnormally contained Boron.
6. ENVIRONMENT:
The environment had above normal radiation and it contained a small amount
of Boron which is foreign to this soil.
7. MAIN CONCLUSION:
The area contained an abnormally high amount of radiation from some
unknown source. The area also strangely contained Boron which was found
in both water and soil. These two facts are the only ones which would
substantiate the presence of a UFO. In our opinion, we're not saying
that there was a UFO, but we also do not know how to account for these
two facts. However, we believe it could not be swamp gas because of the
high winds on the night of the sighting. With these high winds the gas
would not have formed a mass and remained stationary. We also do not
believe it was pranksters because we searched the area thoroughly for any
sign of evidence to explain the phenomenon.
NOTE: Radioactive decay took place at 0.6 milliroentgens per hour over a
period of three hours.
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Probably the most famous UFO sighting during the British wave of 1967 was
the report by former RAF intelligence officer J. B. W. 'Angus' Brooks.
While walking his dogs in the early morning of 26 October at Moigne Downs
in Dorset, he witnessed an object descending at phenomenal speed before
abruptly levelling out at a height of approximately 250 feet, some quarter
of a mile from where he was positioned.
Brooks described the object as a central circular body with a leading fuselage
in the front and three separate fuselages at the rear. During the period of
observation the three rear fuselages moved so that with the fourth fuselage
they formed a cross shape. Brooks reported no obvious power units or noise
and despite a very strong wind, up to Force 8, the object apparently remained
motionless for over twenty minutes.
During the encounter one of Angus Brooks' dogs, an Alsatian, was very distraught
and frantically pawed at him, disobeying his commands to sit.
A team of researchers from the Ministry of Defence, Dr John Dickinson of the
Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough, Leslie Akhurst from S4 (Air) and
Alec Cassie, a psychologist, interviewed Mr Brooks and offered their explanation;
he had seen a vitreous floater, i.e. dead matter in the fluid of his eyeball, the
sighting of which had become dramatic due to Brooks' falling asleep or
entering a near sleep state and dreaming.
Brooks seems to have been less than impressed with the MOD's explanation
and not least the idea that he had dozed off to sleep during a Force 8 gale
with an Alsatian clawing at him.
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Captain Lawrence J. Coyne was the pilot of a Bell helicopter which in October
1973 had a close UFO sighting near Mansfield, Ohio.
The object apparently flew at approximately 600 knots on a collision course
towards the helicopter. Coyne had to make a sudden descent to avoid the impact.
For a time the object appears to have paced the helicopter; the object was
described as cigar-shaped and grey with a dome on top, and some sixty feet long.
It was held probably to have been manned, and operated a light which scanned
the helicopter.
There were several witnesses on the ground below the event, confirming the
encounter. Coyne and his companions filed a very detailed report of what was
held to be one of the most important sightings of that year.
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Just after midnight on September 19, 1976, calls came in to the military control
centre at Teheran in the Middle Eastern state of Iran. A rather bored officer,
B.G. Yousefit, listened impatiently to stories of a big white light beaming down
onto the ground.
He told the excited witnesses on the phone that they were probably just watching
a big star. It was nothing to worry about. They stopped calling, but Yousefit
could not shrug off this growing problem. More calls came in, all repeating the
same story. Maybe, he mused, just maybe, there is something up there - perhaps
a helicopter with a searchlight. He reluctantly decided that he had better go
outside and take a look.
Gazing out into the star-filled sky, the air force officer expected to see nothing.
But he was wrong. He did see something - a huge, brilliant glowing mass
hanging above the outskirts of the city. Biting his lip, the Iranian called Shahrokhi
Air Base and suggested that they launch a Phantom jet interceptor as a matter of
urgency.
At 1.20 am the Phantom took off under the control of Lieutenant Jafari, then 23 years
old. Even from 70 miles away, he could see it dead ahead. The glare was
exceptionally bright - like the sun going nova! Jafari switched on the fighter's
afterburners and pushed the jet through the sound barrier in pursuit of the UFO.
The shock waves trailed across the tablelands that dropped towards the coast, shaking
villagers from their beds to see the dazzling UFO for themselves.
Jafari was now closing in on the hovering object and radioed back his account :
"It's half the size of the moon ... radiating colours - violet, orange and white
light." But as he drew within a few miles of the monster, it shot away across
the sky. He tried desperately to catch up with it, but the UFO easily outpaced him.
Frustrated, he reported back to Shahrokhi base and they suggested that he abandon
pursuit and return home.
Moments later, Jafari cried out : "Something is coming at me from behind ... It is 15
miles away ... now 10 miles ... now 5 ... It is level now. It think it's going
to crash into me ..." There were long seconds of tension as ground control
waited for the resolution. Was their pilot doomed? Relief came swiftly, a clearly
stunned pilot announcing, "It has just passed by - missing me narrowly."
The terrified fighter pilot was shaken by this episode. Disoriented and confused,
he had to be shepherded back to base. He explained that as he had tried to close in,
his instruments lost all power for a few seconds. Only after he pulled out of the
pursuit did his multimillion dollar equipment return to normal. There was little
doubt that this was intended as a sign to stay clear, perhaps the alien equivalent
of a shot across the bow!
By now, a second Phantom had been launched and was on its way towards the UFO's location.
The pilot locked on his radar intercept equipment. The jet was travelling at several
hundred miles per hour. At this rate, it would catch up to the huge light in about
9 minutes. However, as if it had detected that the radar lock was on, the UFO
dramatically kicked into higher gear and shot away. The jet poured on its power,
using afterburners to reach maximum velocity, but still it could not come close to
matching the UFO's rate of departure.
Then the pilot and radar operator faced a moment of absolute terror. The UFO ejected
a ball of light that swiveled around and headed straight for them. There was no
way out. It looked as if the flying monster had fired a missile at the Iranian jet.
All air crew are trained to react instinctively in such a situation. The Iranian
pilot instantly launched an AIM-9 missile at the UFO. Using its infrared heat-seeking
capabilities it should have immediately honed in on the target and destroyed it.
But it did no such thing. The missile failed to launch. All power on the aircraft -
radio communications, instrument readings, the lot - vanished the moment the pilot threw
the switch to fire the missile. It was as if someone knew what he was doing and was
determined to put a stop to it, using far superior technology.
The ball of light ejected from the UFO was still bearing down on the defenseless aircraft.
In another maneuver from the training manual, the pilot screwed the plane into a "negative
G-force" dive to evade the enemy missile. It was of no use - the ball changed course,
still heading straight for the Phantom. It was now only four miles away. Impact was
inevitable. The crew prepared for an emergency evacuation by firing their rocket powered
ejection seats - if it would only work!
Then a miracle happened. The glowing beachball-shaped mass swerved inside the twisting
course of the diving jet, completed an incredible "U" turn and headed straight back to
the UFO that had launched it. There was absolutely no doubt to all concerned
that they had just been given a warning by forces that were far superior to themselves.
Not for a moment did anyone think of launching a second missile, even when all power
returned to the Phantom a few moments later. Yet, as the jet plane pulled out of its
dive, the UFO ejected a second ball of light, this time vertically downwards. As it
streaked towards the ground like a firebomb, the air crew waited for the coming
explosion to rock the night air.
Only there was no explosion. The ball simply oozed light as if it were a gigantic
flare, illuminating a huge section of desert as if it were the middle of the day.
Seconds later, the UFO accelerated in an instant to an utterly fantastic speed and
disappeared from view at thousands of miles per hour. The dumbfounded crew of the Phantom
was ordered down to take a look at the object on the ground. They spiralled from 25,000
feet to 15,000 feet but could still see no substance behind the glow. Whenever they
passed through a bearing of 150° on these circuits, the jet lost all communication
power. Some weird interference signal appeared to be blocking it out. It was obviously
coming from the thing on the ground. Unknown to the crew, at that moment a civilian
airliner over Teheran had reported identical problems as it swept through 150° on its
landing approach.
As the Phantom reached 15,000 feet, the light simply went out, plunging the terrain into
shocking darkneww. The crew now faced another serious and unexpected problem. The
brilliance of the glow that had saturated the night had been so bright for the past
few minutes that their vision was severely impaired. The pilot was almost blinded
with the afterimages burnt onto his retina as he stared into the dark sky. He could
not fly the jet at all. As a result, the fighter had to circle the sky for an hour
under strict control from the ground until the pilot's vision returned sufficiently
to allow them to make a safe landing at Shahrokhi.
At dawn the pilot and radar officer from the second Phantom went out by helicopter
to pinpoint the location where the huge glare had landed. It was a dried-up lake
bed. They found nothing, but did detect a beeping noise on radio transmissions.
In the area was a single isolated farmhouse, whose occupants reported hearing a big
noise (probably the Phantom jet) and seeing a blinding light through their bedroom
window.
This case was taken very seriously. The US Secretary of Defence compiled a secret
dossier (later made public) calling its credibility "high" and saying it was a "a
classic which meets all the criteria necessary for a valid study of the UFO phenomenon."
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In the late afternoon of November 17, 1986, Japan Air Lines flight 1628, a
Boeing 747 with a crew of three, was nearing the end of a trip from Iceland
to Anchorage, Alaska. The jet, carrying a cargo of French wine, was flying
at 35,000 feet through darkening skies, a red glow from the setting sun
lighting one horizon and a full moon rising above the other.
A little after six p.m., pilot Kenju Terauchi noticed white and yellow
lights ahead, below, and to the left of his airplane. He could see no details
in the darkness and assumed the lights were those of military aircraft. But
they continued to pace the 747, prompting first officer Takanori Tamefuji to
radio Anchorage air traffic control and ask if there were other aircraft
nearby. Both Anchorage and a nearby military radar station announced that they
were picking up weak signals from the 747's vicinity. Terauchi switched on the
digital color cockpit weather radar, which is designed to detect weather
systems, not other aircraft. His radar screen displayed a green target, a color
usually associated with light rain, not the red he would have expected from a
reflective solid object.
Because he was sitting in the left-hand seat, Terauchi had the only unobstructed
view when the lights, still in front of and below the airplane, began
moving erratically, "like two bear cubs playing with each other," as the pilot
later wrote in a statement for the Federal Aviation Administration. After
several minutes, the lights suddenly darted in front of the 747, "shooting off
lights" that lit the cockpit with a warm glow.
As the airplane passed over Eielson Air Force Base, near Fairbanks, the
captain said he noticed, looming behind his airplane, the dark silhouette of a
gigantic "mothership" larger than two aircraft carriers. He asked air traffic
control for permission to take his airplane around in a complete circle and
then descend to 31,000 feet. Terauchi said his shadower followed him through
both maneuvers.
A United Airlines fight and a military C-130 were both in the area and Anchorage
asked the airplanes to change course, intercept the Japanese 747, and
confirm the sighting. Both airplanes flew close enough to see JAL 1628's
navigation lights, alone in the night sky, before Terauchi reported that the
unidentified fyling objects had disappeared. The encounter had lasted nearly
50 minutes.
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