UFO and UAP cases with radar tracking

48 well-documented UFO/UAP encounters backed by radar tracking, 1946 to 2023: 21 unresolved, 18 disputed, 6 explained, 3 identified. Each case has its sources, timeline and the official or best explanation.

48 cases

• Ghost rockets — Lake Kölmjärv 19 July 1946 · Lake Kölmjärv, Norrbotten, Sweden UNRESOLVED
• Fort Monmouth radar and T-33 sighting 10 September 1951 · Fort Monmouth and the Jersey Shore, New Jersey EXPLAINED
• Long Beach — six F-86s chase an object they cannot reach 23 September 1951 · Over Long Beach, California DISPUTED
• Washington, D.C. radar-visual sightings 19 July 1952 · Washington, D.C. DISPUTED
• Little Rissington Meteor encounter 21 October 1952 · Over Gloucestershire from RAF Little Rissington UNRESOLVED
• Ellsworth AFB — the Black Hawk light and the F-84 chase 5 August 1953 · Black Hawk and Ellsworth Air Force Base, Rapid City, South Dakota; later Bismarck, North Dakota DISPUTED
• Kinross F-89 disappearance over Lake Superior 23 November 1953 · Lake Superior, off the Keweenaw Peninsula, Michigan UNRESOLVED
• The Nowra Sea Fury — two lights on the radar 31 August 1954 · South-west of Goulburn, New South Wales, on the way back to Naval Air Station Nowra UNRESOLVED
• Lakenheath–Bentwaters radar-visual case 13 August 1956 · RAF Bentwaters & RAF Lakenheath, Suffolk UNRESOLVED
• West Freugh radar incident 4 April 1957 · RAF West Freugh, near Stranraer, Scotland UNRESOLVED
• Milton Torres — ordered to fire on a UFO 20 May 1957 · Over East Anglia, from RAF Manston DISPUTED
• RB-47 radar–ECM–visual encounter 17 July 1957 · Gulf Coast to Oklahoma UNRESOLVED
• Kirtland Air Force Base tower sighting 4 November 1957 · Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico EXPLAINED
• Coast Guard cutter Sebago — radar contacts in the Gulf of Mexico 5 November 1957 · USCGC Sebago, about 200 miles south of the mouth of the Mississippi, Gulf of Mexico EXPLAINED
• Redmond, Oregon — an FAA station reports a hovering light 24 September 1959 · Redmond Airport, Redmond, Oregon DISPUTED
• August 1965 — lights over Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas 1 August 1965 · Oklahoma City and across Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas and New Mexico DISPUTED
• Minot AFB — B-52 radar and missile-field sightings 24 October 1968 · Minot AFB and missile field, North Dakota DISPUTED
• Wurtsmith Air Force Base and the KC-135 chase 30 October 1975 · Wurtsmith Air Force Base, Oscoda, Michigan UNRESOLVED
• Malmstrom AFB — objects over the missile fields, November 1975 7 November 1975 · Malmstrom Air Force Base and its Minuteman missile fields, Montana UNRESOLVED
• CFS Falconbridge — the NORAD message from Ontario 11 November 1975 · 30 nautical miles south-south-west of Canadian Forces Station Falconbridge, near Sudbury, Ontario UNRESOLVED
• Tehran F-4 Phantom intercepts 19 September 1976 · Tehran, Iran UNRESOLVED
• Petrozavodsk phenomenon 20 September 1977 · Petrozavodsk, Karelia, USSR DISPUTED
• Kaikōura lights 31 December 1978 · Kaikōura coast, New Zealand DISPUTED
• Cecconi G.91R photographs over Treviso 18 June 1979 · Treviso Sant'Angelo air base, Veneto 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
• Hessdalen lights 1 February 1984 · Hessdalen valley, Norway UNRESOLVED
• Aeroflot Tu-134 over Minsk — the light that became a cloud 7 September 1984 · Over Minsk, Byelorussian SSR, on the flight to Tallinn DISPUTED
• Brazil’s "Official UFO Night" 19 May 1986 · São José dos Campos – Rio de Janeiro – Goiás UNRESOLVED
• Japan Air Lines Flight 1628 17 November 1986 · Over north-east Alaska DISPUTED
• Pereslavl-Zalessky — the Soviet air defence report 21 March 1990 · Pereslavl-Zalessky region, north-east of Moscow UNRESOLVED
• Belgian UFO wave — F-16 intercepts 30 March 1990 · Brussels – Wavre – Gembloux, Belgium DISPUTED
• Alitalia MD-80 near miss over Kent 21 April 1991 · Near Lydd, Kent, England UNRESOLVED
• Air France 3532 — radar-visual over Coulommiers 28 January 1994 · Near Coulommiers, Seine-et-Marne, France UNRESOLVED
• Lake Michigan lights — 911 calls and a weather radar 8 March 1994 · The Lake Michigan shore of Ottawa and Muskegon counties, Michigan (Grand Haven to Holland) UNRESOLVED
• America West Flight 564 over the Texas Panhandle 25 May 1995 · Over Bovina, Texas, near the New Mexico border UNRESOLVED
• The Wash incident 5 October 1996 · The Wash, Lincolnshire coast EXPLAINED
• USS Nimitz "Tic Tac" 14 November 2004 · Pacific Ocean ~100 mi SW of San Diego UNRESOLVED
• Alderney airline sighting 23 April 2007 · English Channel near Alderney & Guernsey UNRESOLVED
• Stephenville, Texas 8 January 2008 · Stephenville / Dublin, Erath County, Texas DISPUTED
• The “mystery missile” off Los Angeles — an airliner’s contrail 8 November 2010 · Over the Pacific about 35 miles west of Los Angeles, north of Santa Catalina Island IDENTIFIED
• USS Theodore Roosevelt — Gimbal & GoFast 21 January 2015 · Atlantic warning areas off Jacksonville, Florida DISPUTED
• USS Omaha sphere & USS Russell "pyramids" 15 July 2019 · Off San Diego, California DISPUTED
• Three objects on a Western U.S. military range 1 June 2021 · Military range, Western United States (withheld) EXPLAINED
• AARO’s “Eglin UAP” — a lighting balloon 26 January 2023 · Eglin Air Force Base training range, over the Gulf off north-west Florida EXPLAINED
• Chinese surveillance balloon 28 January 2023 · Aleutians → Montana → Carolina coast IDENTIFIED
• The balloon over Colombia — China’s second airship 3 February 2023 · Northern Colombian airspace; also reported over Costa Rica and on towards Venezuela IDENTIFIED
• February 2023 shoot-downs (Alaska, Yukon, Lake Huron) 10 February 2023 · Deadhorse AK · Yukon · Lake Huron UNRESOLVED

By evidence

• Official government documents 158
• Many independent witnesses 135
• Military witnesses 74
• Pilot and aircrew witnesses 57
• Photographs 55
• Video footage 53
• Physical traces 39
• Police witnesses 36
• Infrared or other sensor data 21
• Audio recordings or radio transcripts 15
• Reported electromagnetic effects 13
• Documented physiological effects 11
• Motion-picture film 6