Tag: Corroborated

Status: Corroborated — radar operators and pilots reported it. The Air Force publicly attributed it to temperature inversions and misidentified lights.

On two consecutive weekends in July 1952, unidentified objects were reported over the nation's capital. At 11:40 p.m. on July 19, air traffic controller Edward Nugent at Washington National Airport saw seven unidentified targets on his radar south-southwest of the city. His supervisor Harry Barnes watched them, and Barnes had the equipment checked and found it working normally. Controllers in the airport tower also reported blips and a bright light, and radar at Andrews Air Force Base also tracked an object at one point.

Airline crews and a base airman reported glowing lights matching some of the radar contacts. Two F-94 jet interceptors were sent up, and the targets reportedly vanished from the scopes as the jets arrived and returned after they left. A second round of sightings followed on July 26 and 27.

The story made front pages nationwide. On July 29, Air Force intelligence chief Maj. Gen. John Samford held a well-attended Pentagon press conference. He said the visual sightings could be explained by misidentified stars, meteors and other lights, and the radar targets by temperature inversions that bend radar beams. Many witnesses and researchers have not accepted that explanation, and the episode is often cited as the climax of the 1952 UFO wave.

Sources: Wikipedia: 1952 Washington, D.C., UFO incident

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Status: Corroborated — investigators recorded physical traces at the site; the Air Force listed the case as “unknown.” Several conventional explanations have been proposed.

On the evening of April 24, 1964, Socorro police officer Lonnie Zamora was chasing a speeding car when he heard a roar and saw flame in the sky to the southwest. He turned off to investigate and later reported a shiny, egg- or O-shaped object sitting in a gully, and what looked like two figures in white coveralls beside it. He said the object gave off a roar and blue-orange flame and then rose and flew away.

Zamora radioed for help, and a New Mexico State Police sergeant named Chavez came to the scene. Officers noted burned brush and shallow depressions in the ground. An FBI agent who visited that evening recorded four rectangular depressions and burned grass clumps and described Zamora as a sober, conscientious officer. Air Force investigators from Project Blue Book later found no other witnesses to the object itself, no unusual radar returns, and no foreign material or radiation in soil samples.

Project Blue Book listed the case as “unknown.” Explanations that have been suggested include a mirage of the star Canopus, a lunar-lander test by White Sands Missile Range, and a prank by local college students; none has been proven.

Sources: Wikipedia: Lonnie Zamora incident · FBI Albuquerque report, May 8, 1964 (via The Black Vault)

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Status: Corroborated — investigated by the RCMP, Coast Guard and Canadian military; the object was never identified.

On the night of October 4, 1967, a number of witnesses in southwestern Nova Scotia reported an object in the sky that descended toward the sea near the fishing village of Shag Harbour. About eleven people saw lights dip toward the water at about 11:20 p.m. Earlier that evening, an Air Canada crew had reported an unusual object in the sky, and a fishing vessel captain, Leo Howard Mersey, filed a report with the RCMP about four bright lights he and his crew had watched.

Local resident Laurie Wickens and four friends saw the object floating on the water about 250 to 300 meters offshore, and they called the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, believing an aircraft had crashed. Two RCMP officers arrived within about fifteen minutes and saw a glowing light on the water. As boats approached, the object began to sink.

Fishing boats and a Coast Guard vessel searched the area. Canadian civilian and military agencies, and later the U.S. Condon Committee, investigated. Divers searched the water over the next few days and found nothing, and no aircraft were reported missing. The object was never identified. The village now has a museum and an incident park.

Sources: Wikipedia: Shag Harbour UFO incident

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Status: Corroborated — reported by civilians, air traffic control, and military pilots, and documented in a U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency report. Not conclusively explained.

In the early hours of September 19, 1976, air traffic controller Hossein Pirouzi at Tehran's Mehrabad Airport received reports from at least four civilians of a shining object over the Shemiran area. He saw it himself and described it as rectangular, with two large lights and a small red light circling its middle. A general of the Imperial Iranian Air Force also saw it from his balcony and ordered an interception.

At about 1:30 a.m., an F-4 Phantom II took off and could see the object from about 70 miles away. At 25 nautical miles, the crew lost instruments and communications, which returned when they broke off. A second F-4, flown by Maj. Parviz Jafari, got a radar lock at 27 nautical miles, with a return similar in size to a Boeing 707. The crew said a smaller object separated from the main one and came toward the jet. When Jafari tried to fire, his weapons panel and communications failed. Both returned after the pilot turned away.

A U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency report on the incident was later released, and the case has been cited as a well-documented military encounter. Skeptics, including Philip Klass, have argued that the witnesses may have mistaken bright stars or planets, such as Jupiter, for something unusual.

Sources: Wikipedia: Tehran UFO incident

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Status: Corroborated as a documented event — a USAF deputy commander wrote a memo to the UK Ministry of Defence. Skeptics attribute the sightings to a fireball, a lighthouse and stars.

Rendlesham Forest lies outside RAF Woodbridge in Suffolk, which was used by the United States Air Force in 1980. Around 3 a.m. on December 26, a security patrol saw lights that appeared to descend into the forest. Believing a plane had crashed, servicemen went in to look, and they later reported a glowing object with colored lights that seemed to move through the trees. Local police who arrived after 4 a.m. said the only lights they could see were from the Orford Ness lighthouse.

In daylight, servicemen found three small impressions in a clearing, along with burn marks and broken branches. Two nights later, deputy base commander Lt. Col. Charles Halt led a second party and recorded his observations on tape. In a memo to the UK Ministry of Defence, he described the events and said radiation readings in the depressions were slightly above background.

The Ministry of Defence stated that the event posed no threat to national security and was not investigated as a security matter. Skeptics explained the lights as a fireball, the lighthouse and bright stars. Often called “Britain's Roswell,” it is the best known UFO case in the United Kingdom, and the forest now has a UFO trail and a sculpture.

Sources: Wikipedia: Rendlesham Forest incident

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Status: Corroborated — multiple Navy personnel, radar and an official video; the Pentagon calls the object “unidentified.” Explanations such as sensor artifacts and drones have been proposed.

On November 14, 2004, Cmdr. David Fravor of the USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group, flying a Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet, investigated radar indications of a possible target off the coast of southern California. He said the cruiser USS Princeton had been tracking unusual aircraft for about two weeks before. Fravor reported a white, oval object hovering above a disturbance in the ocean and estimated it at 40 feet long. Four aircrew in two jets watched it for about five minutes. As he spiraled down to get closer, the object ascended and mirrored his path before disappearing.

A second flight, which included weapons systems officer Lt. Cmdr. Chad Underwood, was equipped with an infrared camera. Underwood recorded the video known as “FLIR1” and coined the name “Tic Tac” for the image. He did not see the object with his own eyes. Radar and combat-system technicians have since said the strike group had tracked similar contacts for about a week.

The video leaked in 2007 and was published by The New York Times in December 2017. The Department of Defense said in 2020 it was releasing it to clear up misconceptions, and the objects in it remain characterized as “unidentified.” Possible explanations offered include drones, camera artifacts and misinterpretation.

Sources: Wikipedia: Pentagon UFO videos · DVIDS: FLIR1 — UAP

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