GOD'S EYE // UAP › Browse › by kind of encounterUFO and UAP cases: aviation encounters
31 well-documented UFO/UAP encounters of the kind “aviation encounter”, 1947 to 2025: 15 disputed, 15 unresolved, 1 explained. Each case has its sources, timeline and the official or best explanation.
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31 cases
Kenneth Arnold — "flying saucers" over Mount Rainier 24 June 1947 · Mount Rainier, Washington DISPUTED Chiles–Whitted encounter 24 July 1948 · Near Montgomery, Alabama EXPLAINED U.S. Navy R5D — object over the North Atlantic 10 February 1951 · North Atlantic, east of Newfoundland DISPUTED Mitchel AFB — a Navy TBM chases a “parachute” over Long Island 21 January 1952 · Mitchel Air Force Base, Hempstead, Long Island, New York DISPUTED Nash–Fortenberry sighting 14 July 1952 · Chesapeake Bay near Newport News, Virginia UNRESOLVED Carson Sink — two colonels in a B-25 meet three deltas 24 July 1952 · Over the Carson Sink, Nevada, on the airway to Salt Lake City UNRESOLVED West Malling Vampire sighting 3 November 1953 · Over RAF West Malling, Kent DISPUTED BOAC Stratocruiser paced by seven objects 29 June 1954 · Gulf of St. Lawrence, near Sept-Îles, Quebec UNRESOLVED Salandin near-miss over Southend 14 October 1954 · Over Southend-on-Sea, Essex UNRESOLVED Portuguese Air Force F-84s — the Lemos Ferreira sighting 4 September 1957 · Over the Portuguese–Spanish border region, returning to Ota air base UNRESOLVED American Airlines Captain Peter Killian’s three lights 24 February 1959 · Over central and northern Pennsylvania, between Philipsburg and Bradford DISPUTED Disappearance of Frederick Valentich 21 October 1978 · Bass Strait, off Cape Otway, Victoria UNRESOLVED Kaikōura lights 31 December 1978 · Kaikōura coast, New Zealand DISPUTED Manises — airliner diversion & Mirage intercept 11 November 1979 · Over Ibiza → Valencia-Manises Airport, Spain DISPUTED VASP flight 169 — the light that paced a Boeing 727 8 February 1982 · Night flight from Fortaleza to Rio de Janeiro, first seen near Petrolina, Pernambuco DISPUTED Aeroflot Tu-134 over Minsk — the light that became a cloud 7 September 1984 · Over Minsk, Byelorussian SSR, on the flight to Tallinn DISPUTED Japan Air Lines Flight 1628 17 November 1986 · Over north-east Alaska DISPUTED Alitalia MD-80 near miss over Kent 21 April 1991 · Near Lydd, Kent, England UNRESOLVED British Airways 5061 near miss over the Pennines 6 January 1995 · About 8 nautical miles south-east of Manchester Airport UNRESOLVED America West Flight 564 over the Texas Panhandle 25 May 1995 · Over Bovina, Texas, near the New Mexico border UNRESOLVED Bariloche — the blackout and Aerolíneas Argentinas 674 31 July 1995 · San Carlos de Bariloche airport, Río Negro, Argentina UNRESOLVED Río de la Plata — two airliners and a rising light 4 April 2005 · Over the Río de la Plata between Ezeiza (Buenos Aires) and Carrasco (Montevideo) UNRESOLVED Chicago O’Hare disc 7 November 2006 · O’Hare International Airport, Gate C-17 DISPUTED Alderney airline sighting 23 April 2007 · English Channel near Alderney & Guernsey UNRESOLVED Hangzhou Xiaoshan Airport closure 7 July 2010 · Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport DISPUTED Jeffreys Bay — a cargo crew’s green light 12 December 2016 · About 10 nautical miles off Jeffreys Bay, Eastern Cape UNRESOLVED Learjet and American 1095 over Arizona — “something just passed over us” 24 February 2018 · Over southern Arizona, east of the Sonoran Desert National Monument DISPUTED Ireland — airline pilots report fast lights 9 November 2018 · Atlantic off County Kerry, Ireland DISPUTED American Airlines 2292 — “cruise-missile type of thing” 21 February 2021 · Northeastern New Mexico, at about 36,000 ft UNRESOLVED Porto Alegre — airline pilots report blinking lights 5 November 2022 · Approach to Salgado Filho airport, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul DISPUTED The drones that closed Europe’s airports 22 September 2025 · Copenhagen Airport first; then Oslo, Aalborg, Billund, Munich, Brussels and Liège UNRESOLVED
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