This is a list of notable reported sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and related claims of close encounters or abductions. UFOs are generally considered to include any perceived aerial phenomenon that cannot be immediately identified or explained. Upon investigation, most UFOs are identified as known objects or atmospheric phenomena, while a small number remain unexplained.[1] [2] [3] UFOs have been referred to using a range of terms including the more specific "flying saucer" and the more general "unidentified anomalous phenomena" (UAP). The term "UAP" is sometimes used to avoid cultural associations with UFO conspiracy theories.[4] [5] [6]
Although often viewed as abnormal, UFO sightings are reported frequently.[7] [8] During the United States' initial 1947 wave, over 800 sightings were reported in the news.[9] The British Ministry of Defence receives 100s of reports each year.[10] In Brazil, pilots alone report dozens of annual sightings.[11] [12] A small portion of reported sightings have lasting cultural significance,[13] interpreted through the cultural and technological expectations of the time.[14]
| Date | Name | Location | Description | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| data-sort-value="-1450" | c. 1450 BC | Thutmose III Jebel Barkal Stele | , Ancient Egypt; Jebel Barkal, Lower Egypt | After conquering the ancient Nubian city of Napata, Thutmose III had a stele erected at the Temple of Amun, beneath the Jebel Barkal outcropping.[15] The stele describes how "a star came down" to set fire to Thutmose's adversaries.[16] [17] This has been cited by ufologists via the purported Tulli Papyrus, likely a fraud.[18] This alleged translation—published in issue 41 of the Fortean Society's magazine Doubt—used such Fortean tropes as "circles of fire" and fish that "fell down from the sky".[19] | |
| Ships in the sky | , Roman Republic; Rome, Italia | During the build-up to the Second Punic War, Livy recorded prodigies in the winter sky, including navium speciem de caelo adfulsisse ("phantom ships had been seen gleaming in the sky").[20] | |||
| Spark from a falling star | , Roman Republic; Asia | According to Pliny the Elder, a spark fell from a star and grew as it descended until it appeared to be the size of the Moon. It then ascended and transformed into a torch. Astronomer Richard Stothers interpreted the report as a description of a bolide.[21] [22] | |||
| Flame-like wine-jars from the sky | , Roman Republic; Phrygia, Asia | According to Plutarch, a Roman army commanded by Lucullus was about to begin a battle with Mithridates VI of Pontus when "the sky burst asunder, and a huge, flame-like body was seen to fall between the two armies". Plutarch reports the shape of the object as like a wine-jar (pithos).[23] | |||
| data-sort-value="0065" | AD 65 | Sky army | , Roman Empire; Judaea | Romano-Jewish historian Flavius Josephus reported chariots "hurtling through the clouds" prior to the First Jewish–Roman War.[24] | |
| data-sort-value="0196" | AD 196 | Angel hair | , Roman Empire; Rome, Italia | Historian Cassius Dio described a "fine rain resembling silver [that] descended from a clear sky upon the Forum of Augustus." He wrote that he was able to plate some of his bronze coins, but four days later, the silvery coating was gone. | |
| data-sort-value="0740" | AD c. 740 | Air ship of Clonmacnoise | , Ireland; Teltown in County Meath, and Clonmacnoise in County Offaly | Several sets of Irish annals, those of Ulster, Tigernach, Clonmacnoise, and the Four Masters, have entries to the effect that "ships with their crews were seen in the air".[25] |
| Date | Name | Location | Description | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1561- | 1561 celestial phenomenon over Nuremberg | , Holy Roman Empire; Nuremberg, Bavaria | Residents of Nuremberg described an aerial battle, followed by the appearance of a large black triangular object, and then a crash outside of the city. A broadsheet recorded that witnesses observed hundreds of spheres, cylinders and other odd-shaped objects that moved erratically overhead.[26] | |
| 1566- | 1566 celestial phenomenon over Basel | , Switzerland; Basel, Basel | A broadsheet published in 1566 depicted numerous spherical objects appearing out of the sun. The event was recorded and depicted by Samuel Coccius, "a student of the Holy Scripture and of the free arts, at Basel".[27] | |
| 1609- | Gwanghaegun period UFO Turmoil | , Joseon (Korea); Gangwon Province | On September 22, 1609, multiple witnesses in Goseong, Wonju Gangneung, Chuncheon County and Yangyang County described a Halo or washbowl that was divided in two in the sky.[28] |
| Date | Name | Location | Description | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1803- | Utsuro-bune at Haratono-hama | , Japan; Hitachi Province | In 1803, local fishermen reportedly found a closed vessel with small windows adrift. They said when they investigated it that "a beautiful young woman" with red and white hair and dressed in strange clothes emerged, holding a square box "that no one was allowed to touch" and that she spoke to them in a language they had never heard before.[29] | |
| 1883- | Bonilla observation | , Mexico; Zacatecas Observatory, Zacatecas | On August 12, the astronomer José Bonilla photographed hundreds of dark objects crossing the sun while observing sunspot activity at Zacatecas Observatory in Mexico. Bonilla published an account of the event three years later in L'Astronomie.[30] [31] | |
| 1896- | Mystery airships | , United States | Newspapers across California, and later other states, especially the Midwest, printed reports of strange airships and lights. Common elements of the descriptions included bright lights, cigar-shaped bodies, movable wings and a metallic hull.[32] | |
| 1897- | Aurora, Texas, UFO incident | , United States; Aurora, Texas | Local correspondent S.E. Hayden reported the crash of an airship piloted by an alien. According to Hayden, the pilot was buried in the local cemetery. Residents of Aurora embrace the story without taking it seriously.[33] [34] |
| Date | Name | Location | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1907 | Mihal Grameno UFO | , Ottoman Empire; Albania | Mihal Grameno a distinguished Albanian journalist, writer, and activist writes in The Albanian Uprising, "One night, while the fighters of Çerçiz were stationed at the top of a high mountain, a shiny object flew in front of us, stood suspended in the air for several minutes, and then disappeared."[35] [36] [37] |
| 1908- | Tunguska event | , Russian Empire; near the Podkamennaya Tunguska river | A fireball crossed the sky above Siberia, exploded, and flattened approximately 80 million trees.[38] Researchers in the 1950s and 1960s found microscopic silicate and magnetite spheres, consistent with a meteor air burst.[39] The area became a drop zone for Soviet rockets launched from Baikonur. In the 2000s, the Tunguska Space Phenomenon, a team of Russian ufologists, explored the area to search for remnants of a supposed alien spaceship, and they may have found pieces of these discarded rocket components.[40] [41] |
| 1909 | New Zealand airship sightings | , New Zealand; Otago | In August 1909, moving and whirring lights were reported in the sky around Otago. In the following months, many sightings were reported across New Zealand with varying descriptions of the craft and crew.[42] [43] [44] |
| 1917- | Miracle of the Sun | , Portugal; Fátima, Santarém District | Thousands of people gathered in Fátima based on reported Marian apparitions and claimed to see bizarre solar activity. Catholic bishop José Alves Correia da Silva declared the miracle "worthy of belief" on 13 October 1930, and the primarily Catholic witnesses described the event in religious terms. Despite the many photographers present in the crowd, no unusual photo of the sun was captured. Later, Jacques Vallée, Joaquim Fernandes and Fina d'Armada would interpret it as a mass UFO sighting.[45] [46] [47] [48] |
| Nicholas Roerich UFO sighting | , Tibet | During his Asian expedition, Russian theosophist Nicholas Roerich reported an oval in the sky above his caravan, which was later interpreted as a "flying saucer" by Roerich's Russian followers.[49] [50] [51] | |
| 1933 | Magenta Italy UFO Incident | Magenta, Lombardy - Italy | The 1933 Magenta UFO incident is a rumored event in which an aircraft of unknown origin crashed in the Italian town of Magenta. The aircraft was initially suspected to be a failed launch from the German "Die Glocke" experimental aircraft. In 2000, Roberto Pinotti published material regarding the so-called "Fascist UFO Files", which dealt with a flying saucer that had crashed near Milan in 1933, and of the subsequent investigation by a never mentioned before Cabinet RS/33, that allegedly was authorized by Benito Mussolini, and headed by the Nobel scientist Guglielmo Marconi. A spaceship was allegedly stored in the hangars of the SIAI-Marchetti in Vergiate near Milan.[52] [53] |
| 1933 | Frank Smythe UFO sighting | Mount Everest in the Himalayas | On June 1 of the 1933 Mount Everest expedition, Smythe sighted two dark-coloured unidentified flying objects hovering and pulsating in the sky.[54] [55] |
| Foo fighters | , Over World War II theaters | During World War II, allied fighter pilots above Europe reported colorful balls of light following their aircraft at high speeds.[56] | |
| Cape Girardeau UFO legend | , United States; Cape Girardeau, Missouri | A local legend gained wider attention in the 1980s when resident Charlotte Mann claimed in interviews that her father, Reverend William Huffman of the Red Star Baptist Church, had administered last rites for the dying crew of a crashed flying saucer.[57] [58] [59] | |
| 1942- | Battle of Los Angeles | , United States; Los Angeles, California | Just months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, U.S. radar stations picked up an unidentified aerial object in the early morning. For several hours, anti-aircraft artillery fired thousands of rounds, and the LA Times reported that “the air over Los Angeles erupted like a volcano.”[60] [61] |
| 1945 | Trinity UFO Case | , United States; New Mexico | In 2003, two men began telling conflicting accounts of an avocado-shaped craft piloted by insectoid aliens crashing at the site of the first atomic bomb detonation. Despite a lack of evidence or internal consistency, the case was cited in the UFO investigation section of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023.[62] [63] |
| 1946 | The Ghost Rockets | , Scandinavia and other parts of Europe | Thousands of UFO sightings were reported over Europe. Due in part to concerns that foreign governments were testing recovered experimental German technology, the Swedish and Greek governments investigated the reports separately.[64] |
| 1946- | Ängelholm UFO memorial | , Sweden; Ängelholm, Kristianstads County | Swedish entrepreneur Gösta Carlsson, attributed his success to a 1946 UFO encounter, that he commemorated with a concrete monument. Independent investigations did not verify his account.[65] [66] [67] |
| 1947- | Kenneth Arnold UFO sighting | , United States; North of Mount Rainier, Washington | Private pilot Kenneth Arnold was flying near Mount Rainier when he reported seeing a group of reflective craft moving at high speeds and flashing in the sun like mirrors. Bill Bequette of the East Oregonian, who first interviewed Arnold, summarized the sighting as, "nine saucer-like aircraft flying in formation." This introduced the term flying saucers, and Arnold's sighting sparked an explosion of UFO reports around the country.[68] [69] [70] [71] |
| 1947 flying disc craze | , United States; Washington and other states | After the Kenneth Arnold sighting was reported in the news, over 800 similar sightings were reported throughout 1947.[72] [73] | |
| 1947- | Flight 105 UFO sighting | , United States; En route from Boise, Idaho to Pendleton, Oregon | A United Airlines crew including Captain Emil Smith, co-pilot Ralph Stephens, and flight attendant Marty Morrow witnessed nine unidentified objects. Believing them to be aircraft, Smith flashed the plane's landing lights intending to alert the objects which he described as "smooth on the bottom and rough appearing on top".[74] [75] |
| 1947- | Rhodes UFO photographs | , United States; Phoenix, Arizona | Inventor and amateur astronomer William Albert Rhodes took photographs of what he described as a silent grey object that appeared after a thunderstorm. The Air Force investigated the photographs and concluded that they showed airborne "paper swept up by the winds".[76] [77] [78] |
| 1947- | The Roswell Incident | , United States; about 30 mi. north of Roswell, New Mexico | Walter Haut, a United States Army Air Forces spokesperson, issued a press release announcing the "capture" of a "flying saucer". Hours later, the Army announced that the find was a crashed weather balloon. In 1978, the case regained attention after Jesse Marcel, the Army Officer who recovered the wreckage, told UFO researchers that the weather balloon explanation was a cover story. In 1994, the Air Force attributed the incident to the previously classified Project Mogul.[79] |
| 1947- | Maury Island hoax | , United States; Puget Sound near Maury Island, Washington | Fred Crisman mailed an account from employee Harold A. Dahl, along with a cigar box of metal wreckage, to Raymond A. Palmer who had previously published the Shaver Mystery stories. Dahl claimed that his dog was killed and his son was injured by debris in an encounter with six flying doughnut-shaped objects. He also reported that he was subsequently threatened by Men in Black. On July 31, 1947, Palmer arranged a meeting between Crisman, Dahl, Air Force investigators, and flying saucer witnesses Kenneth Arnold & Emil Smith.[80] [81] |
| The Green Fireballs | , United States; New Mexico and other parts of the Southwestern United States | The US Air Force investigated reports of green flares streaking across the sky after an Air Force C-47 transport encountered a green ball of fire on 5 December 1948. The pilot, Captain Goede, described the object as larger than a meteor and not arching downward as a meteor would. The Air Force investigation was inconclusive.[82] [83] | |
| 1948- | Mantell UFO incident | , United States; Kentucky | Captain Thomas F. Mantell, a Kentucky Air National Guard pilot, died in the crash of his P-51 Mustang fighter plane near Franklin, Kentucky, United States, after being sent in pursuit of an unidentified flying object. While following the object, he climbed beyond 25000feet and blacked out from a lack of oxygen. The military later identified the craft he was pursuing as likely a Skyhook weather balloon.[84] [85] [86] |
| 1948- | Aztec, New Mexico UFO hoax | , United States; New Mexico | Conmen Silas Newton and Leo Gebauer sold "magnetic oil-detecting machines" based on the story that they had replicated technology from a crashed spaceship. The pair were convicted of fraud in 1953. Elements of their story regarding a crashed ship with occupants were later entangled in the Roswell narrative.[87] [88] [89] |
| 1948- | Chiles-Whitted UFO encounter | , United States; Montgomery, Alabama | Clarence Chiles and John Whitted, American commercial pilots, reported that their airplane had nearly collided with a UFO near Montgomery. According to the pilots the object "looked like a wingless aircraft...it seemed to have two rows of windows through which glowed a very bright light, as brilliant as a magnesium flare."[90] [91] |
| 1948- | Gorman dogfight | , United States; North Dakota | A US Air Force pilot sighted and pursued a UFO for 27 minutes over Fargo, North Dakota. According to US Air Force officer Edward J. Ruppelt, this was one of three cases, along with the Mantell incident and Chiles-Whitted encounter, that shifted the Air Force's attitude about UFO reports leading to the creation of Project Blue Book.[92] [93] |
| Date | Name | Location | Description | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1950- | McMinnville UFO photographs | , United States; a farm near McMinnville, Oregon | A farmer took pictures of a purported "flying saucer". These were the first flying saucer photographs since the coining of the term.[94] | |
| 1950- | Mariana UFO incident | , United States; Great Falls, Montana | The manager of Great Falls' pro baseball team took color film of two UFOs flying over Great Falls. The film was extensively analyzed by the US Air Force and several independent investigators.[95] [96] | |
| 1951- | Sioux City mystery plane incident | , United States; Sioux City, Iowa | Two pilots and a military officer passenger aboard a commercial DC-3 reported being buzzed by an unidentified straight-winged plane both larger and more maneuverable than a B-29. | |
| 1951- | Lubbock Lights | , United States; Lubbock, Texas | Several Lights in V-Shaped formations were repeatedly spotted flying over the city. Witnesses included W.I. Robinson, A.G. Oberg, and W.L. Ducker, professors of geology, chemical engineering, and petroleum engineering respectively. Teenage student Carl Hart Jr. photographed the lights[97] | |
| 1952- | Wonsan-Sunchon UFO incident | , Korea; Wonsan and Sunchon | Four American military personnel aboard two different B-29 bombers reported seeing an orange globe-shaped light over two different cities in northern Korea | |
| 1952- | 1952 Washington, D.C. UFO incident | , United States; Washington, D.C. | A series of sightings in July 1952 accompanied radar contacts in the Washington area. These were the first sightings to be widely and seriously reported as potentially physical craft operated by intelligent life from another planet. In response, the CIA formed the Robertson Panel which advised Project Blue Book to "strip the Unidentified Flying Objects of the special status they have been given and the aura of mystery they have unfortunately acquired."[98] [99] [100] | |
| 1952- | Nash-Fortenberry UFO sighting | , United States; Norfolk, Virginia | William B. Nash and William H. Fortenberry, pilots of a DC-4 airliner of Pan American Airways, radioed the Norfolk civil aviation authority to report eight large, round, glowing red objects.[101] [102] | |
| 1952- | The Flatwoods Monster | , United States; Flatwoods, West Virginia | Three local boys followed a bright object into the forest to what they believed was a UFO landing. They went to the nearby home of Kathleen May who accompanied them back to the spot along with two other children and teenage National Guardsman Eugene Lemon. In the forest, they smelled a foul odor and saw what May described as a tall figure with claws and "a head that resembled the ace of spades".[103] | |
| 1954- | Marius Dewilde sighting | , France; Quarouble, Nord | French metalworker Marius Dewilde claimed to have become a contactee in 1954. Local newspapers and Radar magazine covered Dewilde's story of small humanoid figures landing a ship on the abandoned railroad tracks near his home. The coverage of Dewilde and other 1950s contactees spurred the careers of French ufologists Aimé Michel and Jacques Vallée.[104] | |
| 1954- | Fiorentina Stadium Mass Sighting | , Italy; Stadio Artemio Franchi in Florence | A football game between Fiorentina and Pistoiese was under way at the Stadio Artemio Franchi when a group of UFOs traveling at high speed abruptly stopped over the stadium. The stadium became silent as the crowd of around 10,000 spectators witnessed the event and described the UFOs as cigar shaped.[105] [106] | |
| 1955- | Kelly–Hopkinsville encounter | , United States; A farmhouse near Hopkinsville, Kentucky | At a rural farmhouse, eleven people witnessed creatures in the night. Two of the men opened fire with a shotgun and rifle, and the entire group later fled to the Hopkinsville police station. The creatures have been variously described as goblins, aliens, "little green men", owls, and circus monkeys. Four officers, five state troopers, three deputies, and four military police investigated the farmhouse finding bullet holes but no monsters. The story has had a broad impact on popular culture.[107] [108] [109] | |
| 1956- | Lakenheath-Bentwaters incident | , United Kingdom; Suffolk, England | United States Air Force (USAF) and Royal Air Force (RAF) radar operators (from Lakenheath RAF Station, Bentwaters RAF Station, and Sculthorpe RAF Station) detected up to 15 objects over Suffolk. An RAF pilot was sent out from Waterbeach RAF Station in a de Havilland Venom, a jet aircraft with aircraft interception radar. The pilot reported spotting the object on radar and visually observing a luminous white object that moved behind his craft when he attempted to intercept. | |
| 1956- | Elizabeth Klarer | , South Africa; Drakensberg | A series of photos depicting a supposed UFO, were taken on 24 July near Rosetta in the Drakensberg region. The photographer, meteorologist Elizabeth Klarer, claimed detailed adventures with an alien race including having had an alien lover, Akon, who would have fathered her son Ayling.[110] [111] | |
| 1957- | Gordon Cooper UFO Sightings | , United States; Edwards Air Force Base, California | Gordon Cooper, one of the original Project Mercury astronauts, witnessed a type of metallic craft without wings flying over Germany in the 1950s. At the time, Cooper believed these to be Soviet aircraft. His attitude later changed after an incident at Edwards Air Force Base. Cooper sent a crew of James Bittick and Jack Gettys out to a dry lake bed to set up data-recording photography equipment. Cooper said the two men, both familiar with experimental aircraft, came back shaken and talking about witnessing a wingless aircraft with retractable legs silently land and take off near them. Cooper reported the incident to The Pentagon which asked for all photographs of the craft. Cooper looked at the photos before sending them off and felt that the government covered up a UFO encounter.[112] [113] | |
| 1957- | Milton Torres 1957 UFO Encounter | , United Kingdom; East Anglia | U.S. Air Force fighter pilot Milton Torres reports that he was ordered to intercept and fire on a UFO displaying "very unusual flight patterns" over East Anglia. Ground radar operators tracked what was believed to be an unidentified aircraft for some time before Torres' plane was scrambled to intercept.[114] [115] [116] [117] | |
| 1957- | Antônio Vilas-Boas Abduction | , Brazil; Near São Francisco de Sales, Minas Gerais | Law student, Antônio Vilas-Boas, described being abducted by humanoid aliens and taken aboard their egg-shaped craft. He also said that he was confined within a small round room where he was compelled to have sex with a four foot tall alien woman.[118] | |
| 1957- | Levelland UFO case | , United States; Levelland, Texas | Drivers observed cigar-shaped lights above the highway, followed by electrical failures.[119] | |
| 1957- | Kirtland AFB UFO sighting | , United States; Albuquerque, New Mexico | Through binoculars, two Civil Aeronautics Administration tower operators reported seeing an egg shape emitting a white light beneath it.[120] [121] | |
| 1961- | Betty and Barney Hill abduction | , United States; South of Lancaster on Route 3, New Hampshire | The Hills reported the first alien abduction experience to be widely spread in English-language publications. While driving home, they observed a light move through the sky and land ahead of them. Barney Hill said that, against his will, he turned the car down a side road towards the light, where he found six small humanoid beings waiting for them. Betty Hill reported that they inserted a needle through her navel among other vaguely medical tests.[122] | |
| 1963 | Kallamishtez UFO incident | , Albania; Kurvelesh | Residents of Kallamishtëz in the Kurvelesh region reported a bright object in the sky. Albanian authorities said that it was a new jet plane used by the Albanian Air Force. | |
| 1964- | Lonnie Zamora incident | , United States; Socorro, New Mexico | Police officer Lonnie Zamora investigated a roaring sound. Zamora and a nearby tourist found a craft that took off shortly after their arrival. The craft left impressions in the ground that did not aid in identification.[123] | |
| 1964- | Solway Firth Spaceman | , United Kingdom; Cumbria, England | While on a day trip with his family, fireman Jim Templeton took a photo of his daughter, that when devloped showed a mysterious figure in the background. Templeton believed it to be a "spaceman", but later analysis showed it was most likely his wife.[124] | |
| 1964- | Dwikora Operation UFO incident | , Surabaya, Indonesia | Officer Jacob Salatun - founder of the National Institute of Aeronautics and Space in Indonesia - wrote several books on UFOs and founded an organization to study UFO reports after he served as Minister of Industry. According to Salatun, one night during the Indonesia-Malaysia Confrontation, pilots reported seeing and shooting at a dark, mango-shaped craft with colored lights. Salatun claims that fragments of the military's shells struck individuals outside of their homes in Sidoarjo.[125] | |
| 1965- | Project Gemini UFO | , Low Earth orbit; Above Hawaii | During Gemini 4, astronaut James McDivitt spotted a white cylinder with a protruding arm traveling in his orbit. McDivitt has said that it was impossible for him to assign scale to the object against the black background of space, saying that it could have been small enough to hold in his hands or "the size of the Empire State Building."[126] | |
| 1965- | The Incident at Exeter | , United States; Exeter, New Hampshire | Numerous people reported pulsating UFOs in Exeter, New Hampshire. The events were the subject of The Incident at Exeter by John G. Fuller.[127] | |
| 1965- | The Valensole UFO incident | , France; Valensole, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur | French farmer, Maurice Massé, witnessed a spherical vehicle in his lavender field. He noticed and approached two individuals that he observed near the vehicle, but after one pointed a tube in his direction, he stood still feeling paralyzed. He described the beings as child-sized, pale, large-headed, with only holes where a mouth should be. Massé said that after they left in their vehicle, he was never again able to grow a healthy plant in the area where the craft had landed. He did not personally comment on the effect this had on him, saying, "One always says too much." His wife reported that the man was plagued with exhaustion for months, that he had confessed some type of communication to her, and that it was a "spiritual experience" for her husband.[128] [129] | |
| 1965- | Kecksburg UFO incident | , United States; Kecksburg, Pennsylvania | Local newspapers and newscasts reported a fireball observed in the skies over Kecksburg. According to some residents, they found an acorn-shaped object in the woods. The U.S. military closed off the area to investigate and reported no evidence of a crash. A model built for Unsolved Mysteries is kept on display by the fire department, which leads an annual UFO celebration.[130] [131] [132] | |
| 1966- | Michigan "swamp gas" UFO reports | , United States; Dexter, Michigan and Hillsdale, Michigan | Two mass sightings above wetlands were dismissed at a press conference as "marsh gas".[133] | |
| 1966- | Westall UFO | , Australia; Clayton South, Victoria | Several hundred students and school faculty from Westall High School watched an object land at the nearby Grange Reserve.[134] | |
| 1966- | Lead masks case | , Brazil; Niterói, Rio de Janeiro | The bodies of two recently deceased men were found on a hillside in Rio de Janeiro. They wore raincoats and handmade lead masks. A mutual friend, Elcio Gomes, said that the men had been "scientific spiritualists", members of a religious group that attempted to contact extraterrestrials using hallucinogens[135] [136] | |
| 1967- | Falcon Lake Incident | , Canada; Falcon Lake, Manitoba | Prospector Stefan Michalak attributed unusual burns on his body to a purported UFO sighting near Falcon Lake.[137] [138] Radiation tests done at Misericordia General Hospital came back negative. Higher levels of soil radiation at the area where Michalak said he was burned were traced to an underground vein of radium.[139] [140] | |
| 1967- | Close encounter of Cussac | , France; near Cussac, Auvergne | A 13-year-old boy and his younger sister reported an incident to their father, local police, and investigators. According to police reports, they witnessed a brilliant sphere and four small black occupants while herding cattle outside their village.[141] | |
| 1967- | 1967 British flying saucer hoax | United Kingdom; Southern England | Apprentices from the Royal Aircraft Establishment constructed six fake flying saucers out of metal-clad fiberglass. They filled them with flour, water, and electronic components, and dropped the saucers off in fields during the night. When a Scotland Yard bomb disposal squad was called in, X-Ray tests revealed the presence of Eveready brand batteries, and the hoax was exposed.[142] [143] | |
| 1967- | Shag Harbour UFO incident | , Canada; Gulf of Maine near Shag Harbour, Nova Scotia | Royal Canadian Mounted Police and six civilians reported that a large illuminated object crashed into Shag Harbour. A Department of National Defence underwater search followed, but located no physical evidence.[144] [145] | |
| 1969- | Jimmy Carter UFO incident | , United States; Leary, Georgia | While governor of Georgia, future president Jimmy Carter filed a written report of a "luminous, not solid" light over Leary, Georgia in 1969.[146] | |
| 1969- | Finnish Air Force sighting | , Finland; Pori | Finnish pilot Jouko Kuronen overheard a radio conversation between air traffic control and fighter pilot Tarmo Tukeva. Tukeva was ordered to investigate "seven balloons" visible from Kuronen's position in the sky. Kuronen described the objects as discs that accelerated in formation against the wind at speeds not feasible for balloons.[147] | |
| 1969- | Labor Day 1969 UFO Incident | , United States; Berkshire County, Massachusetts | Four families with no prior connection alleged that they saw a UFO, were moved by a beam of light, and lost several hours of time. The Great Barrington Historical Society recognized the accounts as a "historical event" in 2015.[148] | |
| 1973- | Pascagoula Abduction | , United States; Pascagoula, Mississippi | Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker were fishing from a pier on the Pascagoula River when they say that they heard whirring sounds and witnessed a craft over 30 feet long with flashing lights. Both men say they were paralyzed and then taken by humanoids with "robotic slit-mouths" and "crab-like pincers".[149] [150] | |
| 1974- | Berwyn Mountain UFO incident | , United Kingdom; Llandrillo, Merionethshire, North Wales | An alleged UFO crash involving lights in the sky moments before a large impact shock. The cause of the incident was however soon revealed as a 3.5 magnitude earthquake.[151] [152] | |
| 1974- | John Lennon UFO incident | , United States; New York City, New York | Musician John Lennon and then-assistant May Pang report seeing a craft emitting lights that changed color in the night sky above their Manhattan penthouse. Lennon would later reference this experience in his song "Nobody Told Me".[153] [154] |
| Date | Name | Location | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1975- | North Hudson Park UFO sightings | , United States; North Bergen, New Jersey | George O'Barski reported seeing a dark object with lit windows near the Stonehenge building adjacent to North Hudson Park. His story was covered by ufologist Budd Hopkins and local newspapers.[155] [156] [157] |
| 1975- | Travis Walton | , United States; Near Turkey Springs in Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, Arizona | Logger Travis Walton disappeared for over 5 days resulting in a police investigation of his coworkers. When questioned on where he had been, Walton said that he had been taken aboard a spacecraft by nearly human creatures.[158] Walton's alien abduction account is the basis for the book The Walton Experience (1978), the film Fire in the Sky (1993), and the documentary "Alien Abduction: Travis Walton" (2022).[159] |
| 1976- | 1976 Tehran UFO incident | , Iran; Tehran, Tehran province | The 1976 Tehran UFO Incident was a radar and visual sighting of a UFO over the capital of Iran, during early morning hours. Two Imperial Iranian Air Force F-4 Phantom II jet interceptors reported losing instrumentation and communications as they approached the object.[160] |
| 1977- | Petrozavodsk phenomenon | , Soviet Union, Finland, Lithuania, and Denmark | Residents of Petrozavodsk reported a giant glowing "jellyfish" of light (visible for over ten minutes) looming in the early morning sky. The light was seen and photographed in several Baltic Sea countries. In response to the phenomenon, the Soviet Union created a government program to study anomalous atmospheric phenomena. This program would later attribute the Petrozavodsk sightings to the secret night launch of the Kosmos 955 spy satellite. According to Soviet astrophysicist, Yuli Platov, sunlight can cause the giant plumes of gas and dust produced by rockets to glow, especially "in twilight hours, when the rocket streaks through sunlit regions and the observer is on the nighttime side of the Earth."[161] |
| 1977- | Council Bluffs, Iowa fireball | Council Bluffs (Iowa) US | Local residents reported seeing a reddish fireball approximately 500 to 600 feet in the air falling straight down and disappearing behind trees, followed by a flash of bluish-white light suggesting an impact. The fire department was called to extinguish a grass fire where it recovered molten metal. Samples of the metal were analyzed and determined to be a simple high-carbon steel of a type common in manufacturing.[162] |
| 1977 to 1978 | Operação Prato | , Brazil; Colares, Pará | The Colares UFO refers to an outbreak of UFO sightings that occurred in 1977 on the Brazilian island of Colares. During the outbreak, the UFOs allegedly attacked the citizens with intense beams of radiation that left burn marks and puncture wounds. These sightings led to the Brazilian government dispatching a team to investigate under the codename "Operation Saucer", but the government later recalled the team and classified the files until the late 1990s. This was the first operation of the Brazilian Air Force conducted only to investigate UFO-related issues.[163] [164] [165] |
| 1978- | Emilcin Abduction | , Poland; Emilcin, Lublin Voivodeship | Polish farmer Jan Wolski reported that while returning home, two "short, green-faced humanoid entities" wearing black overalls jumped onto his horse-drawn cart and started speaking an incomprehensible language. After about 1000 ft (300 m), he reported seeing a white flying object, from which an alien creature came out and invited Wolski inside. The farmer said that they examined him once inside.[166] |
| 1978- | Valentich disappearance | , Australia; Victoria | Frederick Valentich left Moorabbin Airport in a Cessna 182 Skylane, a single-engined light aircraft. At 7:06 pm, he began reporting a strange craft to Melbourne air traffic control. Valentich's last words were, "That strange aircraft is hovering on top of me again … it is hovering and it's not an aircraft."[167] Neither the pilot nor the plane were ever found.[168] |
| 1978- | Zanfretta UFO Incident | , Italy; Torriglia, Genoa | Italian nightwatchman Pier Fortunato Zanfretta perceived a red, oval object and phoned his supervisor. During the call, he described non-human creatures that he said were attacking him. He was later found in a state of shock and his experience was adapted into a stage play.[169] |
| 1978- | Kaikoura lights | , New Zealand; South Island | The crew of a cargo aircraft spotted lights above the Kaikōura Ranges on New Zealand's South Island. A news team from TV1 and Channel 0 arrived to record footage for a story about the sighting, and were able to capture the lights on camera. The New Zealand Department of Scientific and Industrial Research investigated and did not find evidence that the lights were solid objects.[170] [171] [172] |
| 1979- | Val Johnson incident | , United States; Marshall County, Minnesota | Sheriff Val Johnson attributed minor injuries and the shattered windshield of his squad car to a beam of light.[173] [174] |
| 1979- | Robert Taylor incident | , United Kingdom; Livingston, West Lothian, Scotland | Forestry worker Robert Taylor was walking near Dechmont Law when he said that he saw a flying dome descend, was approached by floating spheres, smelled a foul odor similar to "burning brakes", and blacked out. Ufologists erected a plaque at the site. Physicians have noted that Taylor's account matches an episode of temporal lobe epilepsy.[175] [176] [177] |
| 1979- | Manises UFO incident | , Spain; Valencia, Valencian Community | En route to Las Palmas, commercial pilot Francisco Javier Lerdo de Tejada radioed air traffic control regarding a pair of red lights approaching his TAE Supercaravelle. Neither air traffic control in Barcelona nor the military identified the object. Tejada made an emergency landing at the nearby airport in Manises.[178] |
| 1980- | Arequipa UFO incident | , Peru; Arequipa Region | Early in the morning of April 11, La Joya Air Force Base ordered fighter pilot Oscar Santa María Huertas to intercept an object in restricted air space. Huertas pursued the object in a Sukhoi Su-22 and fired a barrage of 30mm shells into it. According to Huertas the object did not seem damaged and rose to 19,200 meters. He described it as similar in shape to an incandescent lightbulb with a much wider circular silver base and said that it "lacked all the typical components of aircraft. It had no wings, propulsion jets, exhausts, windows, antennae, and so forth".[179] [180] [181] [182] |
| 1980- | Rendlesham Forest incident | , United Kingdom; Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk, England | United States Air Force personnel reported various unusual observations at RAF Woodbridge and RAF Bentwaters, two American air bases located in England. Their reports included lights in the sky, a metallic triangular object in the forest, multi-colored lights moving through the forest, and higher levels of radiation.[183] |
| 1980- | Cash–Landrum incident | , United States; near Dayton, Texas | Betty Cash and Victoria Landrum unsuccessfully sued the United States government in 1981. The two women attributed various symptoms to a diamond-shaped UFO they claimed to have seen pursued by air force helicopters the previous year. The judge dismissed their case due to a lack of evidence.[184] [185] |
| 1981- | Trans-en-Provence case | , France; Trans-en-Provence, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur | Retired contractor, Renato Nicolai reported the landing of a flying object near his home to local police. Renato believed it to be a military craft. Groupe d'Étude des Phénomènes Aérospatiaux Non-identifiés (GEPAN), a branch of French Space Agency created to investigate UFOs, conducted an investigation, photographed circular impressions on the ground, and took samples of the area.[186] Skeptics have been critical of the GEPAN investigation which took place 40 days after the initial sighting.[187] [188] |
| Hudson Valley Sightings | , United States; Hudson Valley, New York | State police discovered that widespread reports of a massive object—described by one observer as a "city of lights" hanging silently above their home—were caused by a group of pilots flying small aircraft in formation. The events were the subject of an Unsolved Mysteries episode and Night Siege, a posthumous collaboration between ufologists including J. Allen Hynek.[189] [190] [191] [192] | |
| 1986- | "Night of the UFOs" in Brazil | , Brazil; São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais and Goiás | Radar and visual contacts were obtained with multiple 'bright colorful objects' in the sky across several states. Mirage IIIE and F-5 fighters were scrambled but failed to intercept, with pilots describing the objects as capable of impossible maneuvers and rapidly accelerating to as much as Mach 15 once approached.[193] |
| 1986- | Japan Air Lines Cargo Flight 1628 incident | , United States; Alaska | While piloting a Japanese Boeing 747-200F cargo aircraft on a polar route from France to Narita International Airport in Japan, the flight crew witnessed several unidentified objects over eastern Alaska. Captain, co-pilot, and flight engineer reported rectangular arrays of what Captain Terauchi described as glowing nozzles or thrusters.[194] [195] |
| 1987- | Ilkley Moor UFO incident | , United Kingdom; Ilkley Moor | Retired police officer, Philip Spencer, took a photograph of what he said was a strange being on the moor. According to Spencer, the being fled after being photographed and left in a domed craft.[196] [197] |
| 1987 to 1988 | Gulf Breeze UFO incident | , United States; Gulf Breeze, Florida | Florida contractor Ed Walters took a series of photographs that he claimed were of a spacecraft piloted by alien creatures that paralyzed him with a blue beam of light. After Walters moved, the next homeowners found a small model that resembled the purported spacecraft. The model had been hidden beneath insulation in the attic. Newspaper photographers were able to "nearly duplicate" Walters' photographs using the model.[198] [199] [200] |
| 1989- | Voronezh UFO incident | Soviet Union; Voronezh | In the early days of glasnost, the Russian state news agency TASS reported a sensationalist tale from 3 schoolchildren who said a glowing "banana-shaped" object landed in a park where a "three-eyed creature, about nine feet tall and fashionably dressed in silvery overalls and bronze boots and with a disk on its chest" exited with its robot. Tass reported common hematite at the park as rocks that "cannot be found on Earth".[201] [202] [203] |
| 1994- | 1994 Michigan UFO event | , United States; Western Michigan | Several hundred residents reported something resembling flickering Christmas lights in the sky. Religious residents interpreted them as a sign of the Biblical "end times". The Holland, Michigan police department contacted the National Weather Service who reported unusual radar blips. Aircraft were ruled out, but the specific cause of the lights was not determined.[204] [205] |
| 1994- | Ariel School UFO incident | , Zimbabwe; Ruwa | Over sixty students reported seeing a silver craft land in a field near the school. They described occupants dressed in all black that exited the silver object.[206] |
| 1995- | Feira de Santana UFO incident | Feira de Santana, Bahia Brazil | In the early hours of January 12, 1995, a luminous object was seen falling vertically onto a farm in the Jaíba district, east of the city. Shortly after the UFO fell, a major power outage occurred that spread across dozens of nearby cities.[207] |
| 1996- | Varginha UFO incident | , Brazil; Varginha, Minas Gerais | Varginha Incident or Incident in Varginha, as it became known by the Brazilian press, was an alleged series of sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs), which generated conspiracy theories about the capture of extraterrestrial beings (ETs) by Brazilian military authorities in January 1996, in the municipality of Varginha, south of the state of Minas Gerais.[208] [209] [210] |
| 1997- | Phoenix Lights | , United States; Phoenix, Arizona | Many residents photographed lights in a "V" pattern moving through Arizona,[211] during a night that the Air National Guard stationed in Tucson, Arizona, were conducting training exercises.[212] |
| Date | Name | Location | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000- | Bonsall UFO sighting | , United Kingdom; Bonsall, Derbyshire | Resident, Sharon Rowlands, filmed a luminous object in the night sky starting around 9:15 pm and continuing for several minutes. Various other residents reported strange lights including a man who described a "pink glow, vertically shaped like a shoe box".[213] [214] [215] |
| 2004- | Tinley Park Lights | , United States; Illinois | On Halloween night (2004), residents were outside trick-or-treating on the streets of Tinley Park and other Chicago suburbs, when thousands of people watched, photographed, and filmed a formation of red lights above them.[216] [217] [218] |
| 2004- | 2004 Mexican UFO incident | , Mexico; Campeche | Mexican Air Force pilots filmed (initially unidentified) lights in the sky using infrared cameras while searching for drug-smuggling planes. Multiple subsequent investigations identified these as massive burn-off flares from a cluster of off-shore oil platforms in the Bay of Campeche.[219] [220] [221] |
| 2004- | USS Nimitz UFO incident | , United States; Off the coast of San Diego, California | Several pilots from VFA-41 squadron flying Super Hornets from the USS Nimitz, were directed by the USS Princeton to intercept one of several unidentified flying objects detected by radar. The pilots reported a visual encounter and recorded an infrared video. The Navy has verified that the video was taken by Navy personnel and has stated that it has not yet identified the nature of the sightings which they classify as unexplained aerial phenomena.[222] [223] [224] |
| 2006- | 2006 O'Hare International Airport UFO sighting | , United States; Chicago, Illinois | United Airlines employees and pilots reported sightings of a saucer-shaped, unlit craft hovering over a Chicago O'Hare Airport terminal, before appearing to leave with a rapid vertical rise.[225] |
| 2007- | 2007 Alderney UFO sighting | , Bailiwick of Guernsey; Alderney | On separate flights, two airline pilots and multiple passengers reported a "sunlight-coloured" object off the coast of Alderney. One of the pilots, Ray Bowyer, filed a report with Britain’s Civil Aviation Authority upon landing.[226] [227] [228] |
| 2007- | Dudley Dorito | , United Kingdom; West Midlands conurbation | The "Dudley Dorito" refers to a series of black triangle sightings reported in the West Midlands conurbation.[229] [230] |
| 2008- | Wales UFO sightings | , United Kingdom; Various cities, Wales | Over the Bristol Channel, a South Wales Police helicopter took evasive actions to avoid what the crew described as a saucer-shaped UFO.[231] [232] [233] [234] |
| November 2008 | Cláudio UFO Incident | Cláudio, Minas Gerais Brazil | The Claudio Case is one of the most well-documented and recent UFO cases in the world. It occurred on November 19 and 20, 2008, in Claudio, Minas Gerais, when the Military Police chased luminous humanoid creatures and photographed UFOs. The case report was signed by seven military personnel and includes three photographs and a police report.[235] [236] |
| 2009- | Morristown UFO hoax | , United States; Morristown, New Jersey | In the evening, citizens in Morristown and other town in Morris County, New Jersey saw five red lights in the sky. After three months, two men from the Morristown area announced that they had organized a UFO hoax, meant as a "social experiment".[237] |
| 2009- | 2009 Norwegian spiral anomaly | , Norway; Trøndelag and Northern Norway | A failed Russian missile test produced a massive spiral light in the sky, visible from the northern counties of Norway and parts of Sweden.[238] [239] [240] |
| 2010- | Harbour Mille incident | , Canada; Harbour Mille, Newfoundland and Labrador | At least three UFOs that looked like missiles but emitted no noise were spotted over Harbour Mille.[241] |
| 2010- | Hangzhou Airport UFO | , China; Hangzhou, Zhejiang | Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport was shut down for at least one hour after reports of something flying near the airport, a reaction blamed on similar reports being publicized in the British tabloid The Sun.[242] |
| 2014- | USS Theodore Roosevelt UFO incidents | , United States; East Coast of the United States | Navy pilots from the Theodore Roosevelt began to notice unexplained objects on their radar after an equipment upgrade. Some pilots were unable to see the objects. Others captured video footage, later released to the public. The pilots reported these incidents to the then-obscure Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program resulting in new guidelines regarding unexplained aerial phenomena sightings.[243] |
| April 2016 | Mosul UFO | Mosul, Iraq | A metallic-looking orb was filmed by a U.S. military spy plane in an active conflict zone, the four-second clip of the Unidentified Anomalous Phenomenon, a government-coined phrase that means UFO, was recorded by a reconnaissance plane moving over Mosul, Iraq, in April 2016.[244] [245] [246] |
| October 2018 | The Jellyfish UFO | Iraq | An unidentified flying object seen in a video hovering over a US base in Iraq has been officially named the UAP "the jellyfish", it is seen in "RAW" footage haunting the Marine base[247] |
| July 2019 | USS Russell UFO incident | Pacific Ocean | An 18-second video shows what is described as three pyramid-shaped UFOs flying over the USS Russell warship at night in July 2019 off the coast of San Diego. At one point, the pyramid-shaped object was said to be about 650 feet above the Russell's "tail."[248] |
| July 2019 | USS Omaha UFO incident | Pacific Ocean | In July 2019, the USS Omaha recorded a UFO – or UAP (unidentified anomalous phenomena) – that buzzed a Navy fleet off San Diego and disappeared into the ocean without a trace.[249] |
| May 12 and 13, 2020 | The Magé Case | Magé, Rio de Janeiro Brazil | The Magé Case was a "sighting" of lights in the sky that occurred on the night between May 12 and 13, 2020, in the city of Magé, a metropolitan region in Rio de Janeiro. During the early hours of the morning, residents of the city recorded videos showing lights in the city's sky and flashes on the horizon and shared them on their social networks. The main conspiracy theory would be that a UFO was shot down by the military in the city.[250] |
| Jetpack man | , United States; Los Angeles, California | The FBI and Federal Aviation Administration investigated reports from multiple professional pilots who, beginning in 2020, began to report something hovering over Los Angeles that looked like a man wearing a jet pack. Investigators said that it was unlikely to be a person and more likely to be a balloon or dummy attached to a drone.[251] [252] | |
| 2023- | List of high-altitude object events in 2023 | , United States, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, and Venezuela | Multiple airborne objects, sometimes reported as UFOs, were observed and shot down by military aircraft. Many of the objects were identified as meteorology or espionage balloons.[253] [254] [255] |
| November 2024 | 2024 US air base drone incursions in the United Kingdom | United Kingdom | Between November 20 and 26, 2024, a series of unauthorized drone activities was reported over and near four US Air Force bases in the United Kingdom: RAF Lakenheath, RAF Mildenhall, RAF Feltwell, and RAF Fairford.These installations, located in Suffolk, Norfolk, and Gloucestershire, are critical to US military operations in Europe.The drone activity persisted for several days, raising concerns about the coordination and intent behind the incursions.[256] [257] |
| December 2024 | 2024 United States drone sightings | United States | A large number of sightings of lights in the sky over New Jersey and other states, primarily in the Northeastern United States. The reported objects were generally referred to as "drones", and thousands of sightings were reported. The US Air Force denied any responsibility for the events.[258] [259] [260] [261] |
The lists below contain UFO reports mentioned above, along with less notable UFO reports from the specific areas.
