0316 - Pilots - Europe
In the chapter he wrote for “UFOs,” Airline Captain Júlio Miguel Guerra relives his lengthy encounter with a highly active UFO while serving as a flight instructor for the Portuguese Air Force in 1982.
He writes: “At various times the object had been very close to me and I was able to verify that it was round with two halves shaped like two tight-fitting skullcaps. I carefully looked at the lower one, which seemed to be somewhere between red and brown with a hole or dark spot in the center.
"The center band looked like it had some kind of a grid, and possibly a few lights, but it was hard to tell since the sun was so bright and was reflected.”
The object circled his small airplane for 15 minutes while he was alone in the sky, in his DHC-1 Chipmunk. He made this drawing the day after the encounter and submitted it with his report to the Portuguese Air Force.
(Júlio Guerra, CNIFO Case Report)
Guerra states that the object “flew at a fantastic speed in a large elliptical orbit to the left, between 5,000 feet to the South and approximately 10,000 feet to the North, always from left to right, repeating this route over and over.
"I tried to keep it in sight.”
Two fellow Air Force officers, Carlos Garcês and António Gomes, flew to the location, and they too watched the object repeat its elliptical course, passing between the two planes on each return, for about 10 minutes. They were able to estimate the size, given its proximity to the two aircraft: about eight to 10 feet.
After landing, all three pilots filed detailed, independent written reports with the Air Force. General José Lemos Ferreira, the Portuguese Air Force Chief of Staff at the time, authorized the release of all the records to a team of scientists and experts, which conducted a lengthy scientific investigation.
The group estimated that the unidentified object was flying at over 300 MPH vertically and its velocity when it circled Guerra’s aircraft was about 1550 MPH.
Since leaving the Air Force in 1990 after 18 years of service, Júlio Guerra has been a Captain with Portugália Airlines (TAP), Portugal’s largest commercial airline. He has 17,000 hours of flight experience, and in 2009 he received an aeronautic science degree from the Lusofona University of Oporto. (Courtesy Júlio Guerra)
Transcription de la reconstitution et du témoignage des pilotes. Émission de la RTP2 " Fenòmemo - OVNI" - Reconstitution :
Julio Guerra - Le 2 novembre 1982 j'avais planifié un vol d'entrainement... Vers la zone ECO dans la zone de travail de Ota. C'est une zone qui se trouve à l'Ouest de la montagne de Monte Junto et Torres vedras.
- Qui vient de décoller maintenant ?
- C'est Guerra.
- T'as vu cette boite de conserve, on n'est dans les années 80 et on continue à utiliser des choses comme celle-là !
- Tu veux quoi ? Que Guerra prenne un F-16 pour un vol d'instruction, c'est ça ?
Julio Guerra - Ici Alpha 5, je survole Monte Junto, Roger !
- Est-ce que tout est ok ?
Julio Guerra - A ton avis, roger !
- Roger Roger Roger, finalement c'est qui ce Roger ?
Julio Guerra - Garcês est là ? Roger !
- Il insiste !
Garcês - Écoute, je t'es déjà dis plusieurs fois que je ne connais aucun Roger ! Roger...
- Vas s'y dit moi Garcês, quand est-ce qu'on fait petit match contre les contrôleurs ?
Garcês - Quand vous voulez, c'est vous qui êtes toujours en train d'ajourner !
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Jùlio Guerra :
"lorsque je suis en train de monter vers l'altitude de travail qui est dans cette zone de 6000 pieds soit 1800 mètres d'altitude. Lorsque j'allais passer entre 5000 et 5500 pieds au tour de 1500 mètres, je suis surpris car je regarde le côté droit, et je vois et reflet comme si c'était le reflet d'un cockpit d'un avion jet.
Et moi, lorsque j'ai regardé j'ai pensé à ce qu'est-ce que j'avais vu, j'ai remarqué qu'en vérité que ce que j'avais vu n'avait pas d'ailes ne de fuselage
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Reconstitution :
Julio Guerra - Je demande à tous de m'informer si j'ai de la compagnie ?
- Négatif, le radar dis que tu es tout seul
Julio Guerra - T'es certain ? C'est dans mon champs de vison.
- Absolument, tu dois être en train de voir des trucs (t'as des visions)
Julio Guerra - Mais oui ! C'est plus proche, c'est un...
- Un quoi ?
Julio Guerra - Putain, cette merde c'est pas un avion !
- Alors c'est quoi ?
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Julio Guerra :
" Et là cela me surpris encore plus, car je suis revenu avec l'avion à 160° vers la gauche au dessus de l'objet, qui pointait à ce moment vers le Nord, et je suis retourné à 180° et c'est à ce moment que je suis retourné sur l'objet qui pour moi j'estimais être près du sol... au même temps que je pointe l'avion sur l'objet je sors de la position où j'étais vers mon altitude, ça prend à peine 10 secondes... C'est tour très serré avec la vitesse de l'avion. Et ça c'est le temps que prend l'objet pour s'élever jusqu'à une altitude de 5000 pieds, c'est à dire 1500, 1800 mètres d'altitude.
J'ai continué à voler en direction de l'objet, et l'objet qui s'est montré par instants instable à commencé à gagner de la stabilité, arrêté au même endroit, fixe dans l'espace, et d'un moment à l'autre il a commencé à décrire un mouvement circulaire, des ellipses vers la gauche, et moi pour ne pas perdre l'objet j'ai commencé à voler derrière lui. Et à partir du moment ou il commence à décrire la première ellipse, il fait ces ellipses à une vitesse folle.
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Reconstitution :
- Je demande la description de l'appareil, Roger !
Julio Guerra - C'est une espèce... c'est une sphère !
- Ah ah ah !
- Eh les mecs, venez écouter ce que Guerra est en train de dire !
- C'te merde c'est un ballon de foot mec !
Julio Guerra- Bon si vous me croyez pas envoyez ici un autre avion !
- Julio, Julio, tu es sérieux ?
- Il est en train de se foutre de ta gueule jeune homme !
Julio Guerra - Viens ici Garcês ! Faut que tu voies c'te merde mec !
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Carlos Garcês : Commandant d'avion commercial.
" La deuxième fois que Julio parla avec la tour en disant ce qu'il se passait, on a décidé d'aller voir, car on a trouvé ça très étrange. Et on a accéléré comme on pu droit sur eux. Et l'on a vu sur Monte Junto décrivant des tours sur la gauche, et il y avait au loin une petite boule qui tournait au tour de lui avec une vitesse extrêmement élevée.
Je dois dire que je ne pilotait pas l'avion, j'étais à peine assis c'est Gomes qui pilotait.
Nous sommes arrivé près de Julio Guerra et avons commencé à faire des tours sur la gauche, ça a toujours été avec des tours sur la gauche.
Quand nous sommes rentré dans les tours, nous étions à l'opposé de Guerra, nous nous sommes rendu compte qu'il y avait quelque chose qui volait.
En terme de taille, pour donner une idée, au début je ne me suis pas rendu compte, car le ciel était totalement dégagé, sans aucunes référence de contraste, une chose ronde de cette nature peut être très grande et être très loin comme très petite et près de nous, ainsi nous n'avons pas la notion de la taille.
Nous sommes rentré dans les tours, et j'en ai profité pour parler avec la tour de contrôle, que nous étions là avec deux de plus et confirmions ce qui ce passait.
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Garcês - Imaginez un hamburger, c'est exactement ça, c'était une chose avec deux calots
Guerra - Après nos dépositions nous avons fait des dessins séparément, puis ils sont arrivé à la conclusion de réaliser une maquette, plus ou moins approximative de ce que ça serait l'objet. Ce sera ce que je vais décrire et de ce qui s'est passé par la suite, de ce que j'ai vu avec les informations que Garcês à donné à l'aide de ce qui est dessiné dans le procès, ce serait plus ou moins un objet de ce genre, vu de la partie inférieure.
Garcês - En considérant qu'il y a une partie inférieure et une partie supérieure
Guerra - Considérant qu'il y a deux calots. Je dis ça c'est moi qui es donné une idée plus ou moins de la forme du calot inférieur, car après que l'on est fait tout ces petits tours, et moi qui commençais à être fatigué, j'ai dis à Garcês que j'allais en finir avec ça, je dois mieux voir qu'est-ce que c'est que cet objet qu'est-ce que c'est que ça. Alors ce qu'il m'est venu à l'esprit c'est de faire l'interception de l'objet. L'interception n'est rien d'autre que d'aller par le chemin le plus court au plus près de l'objet.
Guerra - Je commence ça à penser, et de quelque manière je voulais en savoir plus, quelque chose de plus sur l'objet. On ne voyait que cette boule brillante décrivant des cercles. Parfois j'avais l'impression qu'elle avait des mouvements oscillatoires ou rotatifs..
Garcês - Oui oui..
Guerra - De rotation du propre objet, ce serait un mouvement de translation au tour des avions, nous étions à l'intérieur du cercle, et l'objet montrait parfois des mouvements de rotation
Garcês - Et si tu te souviens ils désaccélérait et parfois il accélérait
Guerra - Et parfois ils désaccélérait, alors je ne sais pas si cette sensation serait de l'aproximation où ...
Garcês - Il m'est apparu sur le moment, puis nous avons parlé de tout ça qu'il désaccélérait entre les avions, puis il accélérait pour aller nous rattraper plus en avant.
Guerra - Car l'objet à réussi à maintenir une des calottes la supérieure toujours tournée vers nous. Il a toujours maintenu cette calottes vers car, enfin c'est une idée qui m'est apparu pendant l'enquête qui fût faite, car il était 11 heures du matin, le Soleil était vers le sud et l'objet a toujours maintenu une de ses calottes tournée vers le Soleil, nous n'avons jamais vu l'autre partie considérée comme celle de derrière.
C'est à ce moment que je dis que je vais tenter m'approcher de l'objet, tenter de voir ce que c'est... je pensais qu'est-ce que nous faisons avec ça à la fin de 20 minutes en train de faire des tours, on doit décider quelque chose.
J'ai dis à Garcês, écoute je vais m'approcher de l'objet, je vais l'intercepter, et Garcês me dis ne fais pas une chose pareille, je lui répondu je suis fatigué et je ne lui ai plus répondu.
Alors imaginez l'objet passant derrière nous... et lorsqu'il va passer dans mon dos je pointe l'avion tout droit vers la zone où il irait plus ou moins à passer...
En pensant, logiquement lorsque l'on prend une telle décision, je pense que même si l'objet me fonce dessus ou qu'il rentre en conflit avec moi que j'aie des réflexes suffisants pour que je puisse me dégager, ce qui n'est pas arrivé.
Garcês - Ce fût le contraire
Guerra - Je me suis fait une grande frayeur. L'objet pour moi était une petite boule de la taille d'une voiture, est apparu alors dans des dimensions avec lesquelles nous sommes arrivé à la conclusion comme Garcês l'avait vu lorsque l'objet fût plus ou moins à plat, et l'objet est passé d'une petite boule à un objet de 2 ou 3 mètres de diamètre. Et c'est là que j'ai eu une grande frayeur car l'objet ne me percute pas car il fait cette manœuvre que nous appelons de type aéro-break comme font les hélicoptères quand ils s'approchent du sol, il freine dans les aires.
Et c'est là qu'il montre cette partie de l'autre calotte en virant par dessus moi, Garcês c'est lui qui a vu ça mieux que moi l'objet. Je trouve que l'objet est resté un peu, disons désorienté ou c'est un peu déstabilisé, c'est l'idée que j'ai eu lorsque il est passé par dessus moi, et je suis resté sous l'objet sans aucune capacité de réaction, logiquement l'avion ne s'est pas arrêté il a continué à voler, et il m'est resté cette image de l'objet au dessus de ma tête et moi sans aucune réaction, je n'est rien fais, je n'avais aucune chance avec la vitesse d'approche de l'objet.
Garcês - Il convient de dire que à postériori les spécialistes en la matière en parlant avec eux nous disent si ce cas se répète de ne plus jamais tenter une manoeuvre comme celle-là.
Guerra - Mais bon, c'est la manœuvre que j'ai pensé que je devais faire, tenter m'approcher de l'objet pour arrivé à une quelconque conclusion, j'allais pas resté là indéfiniment jusqu'à ce que ce termine le carburant, j'ai été voir ce qui se passait avec l'objet, logiquement l'objet passe par dessus moi je me retrouve devant et je cesse de voir l'objet, et je demande à Garcês où est l'objet ? ... qu'est-ce qui c'est passé ?
Garcês - L'objet a freiné devant Julio, est passé au dessus de lui, a refait encore un tour au tour de nous, et est parti en direction de la Serra de Sintra dans une trajectoire rectiligne et a disparu.
Guerra - Comme un éclair... je crois que j'ai une idée de le voir disparaitre
Garcês - Oui, il a pointé vers la Serra de Sintre dans une trajectoire rectiligne et a disparu
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Garcês - Ce qui rend cette histoire inexplicable, c'est qu'une vitesse au tour de celle là, un objet évoluant dans notre milieu dans notre air aurait provoquer un bang supersonique... les gens qui ont enquêté on été au sol où nous nous trouvions et personne n'a rien entendu, et ils aurait dû être plusieurs car même une balle de fusils provoque un bang supersonique comme vous savez à cause de l'onde de choque que ça provoque.
Il n'y a eu aucun bang supersonique, il n'y a eu aucune altération dans le comportement des avions ni sur nous même, nous sommes à peine resté éberlués avec ça.
Au delà qu'il n'y a pas eu de bang... qui que ce soit de vivant comme nous, un organisme vivant terrestre, thoracique aurait du subir des accélérations de près de 20 G.
Guerra - Un truc fou... nous dans les avions les plus sophistiqué on peut atteindre 9
Gracês - Tout ce qui serait vivant à l'intérieur serait littéralement broyé
Flight 1515 Pilot Reports An UFO Sighting ATC Recording
Flight 1515 reports a UFO sighting and the tower does as well. This may have occurred over Schipol airport in the Netherlands late at night.
Captain Poggi is a senior 747 captain for Alitalia . He relates an event where when flying from Rome to Sao Paolo in July of 1999 he witnessed a glowing green halo soaring past just 500 feet below his 747. The aircraft experienced a sudden jump when this UFO passed underneath. Very noisy static came through his headphones during this experience. At another time while flying over Turin Italy in 1992, he saw a distant elliptical sphere maintaining a very steady position relative to the clouds as if stationary. He saw this UFO through a spotting scope. After looking away to briefly speak to his co-pilot, he looked back and it was gone.
My name is Massimo Poggi. I am a senior captain, of a Boeing 747 in Alitalia, Italy’s airline.
On the 1st of July, 1999, I was flying from Rome to Sao Paolo, Brazil. Almost at the mid-Atlantic position we had a background noise on our headphones which was increasing and became very, very noisy with static. Then in a couple of seconds we saw a halo, a glowing green, glowing light, diffuse, just flying very fast below our nose, below our aircraft. At the same time the 747 had a sudden jump, just one, only one jump. Half a second later the noise and light had disappeared. That’s the only jump we had in eleven hours [of] flight.
This object was very, very near. We were flying at 930 kilometers per hour, about 500 knots, and the object that crossed under us was a lot faster - I think 1,000 knots, or much more.
The object was below us but not by much - maybe 500 feet. It was very near, yes. For an aircraft flying, it was a near collision.
"I'm 65 years old and flew for 40 years in the Air Force and then for Iberia. I now run a piloting school. I was born in Madrid, my father was a general in the Air Force. The day I saw a UFO from my aircraft I wasn't able to sleep00I havent stopped thinking about it all this time. I've just completed [my book] "Destino Cielo" about all my years of piloting and my UFO Encounter".
--Juan Lorenzo Torres: "It was on a collision course."
The son of an Air Force general, a combat pilot over the Sahara, companion in arms of the King (I see him, with his wife in several photos sharing a meal with Their Majesties), an Iberia pilot, director of an aviation academy...It could not have been easy for this military man to wax eloquent on the "UFO subject" as he calls it. It must be equally embarrassing for his former comrades to discuss Juan's calm "wackiness" as he declassifies documents and recalls distant lights. However, I've enjoyed more his memoirs about the Sahara and the Spanish occupation, his obedient "little moors" and his dandruff-covered camels than dizzying myself with the pages of the UFO universe.
--Luis Amiguet
Q: Why do you insist on remembering those lights now?
A: I think many people would like to know that my crew and I saw something that no one has been able to explain to this very day.
Q: When [was this]?
A: November 4, 1968 at 18 hours and 23 minutes.
Q: Where?
A: Over Sagunto, Valencia. I was the captain of a Caravelle 6-R, a very modern vehicle at the time, covering the Iberia route between London and Alicante (IB Flight 249). There were no incidents until we reached Barcelona. At some 100 miles away, the Barcelona tower ordered us to abandon level 310 -- 31,000 feet-- and descend to level 280.
Q: Why?
A: British Caledonia was heading for us in the opposite direction, so we were asked to descend to avoid a possible collision.
Q: So?
A: Well, I had already ordered dinner and the trays were in the cabin, but a that atltitude we were shaving the clouds, which produce a slight though uncomfortable turbulence. Having one's dinner that way was thoroughly disagreeable. I asked my co-pilot to visually monitor if the opposing traffic could be seen, in order that we could return to our proper level to have a peaceful dinner.
Q: Did he see it?
A: We thought so. He said: "I have it in sight", but what we saw instead was a flash and a light coming toward us at an impressive speed.
Q: {Were you] startled?
A: And scared. That thing was on a collision course.
Q: What did you do?
A: We dumped the trays and our jaws dropped, since that blinding light was nothing we'd seen before. We called the stewardess to witness the thing. None of us knew what it could be.
Q: What did the light do?
A: It stayed 10 meters from my plane's nose cone. It went up and down and moved from right to left, but always returned to the same spot, 10 meters away from my plane.
Q: Did you contact the Barcelona tower?
A: Well, it wasn't so easy. What could I say? We were all afraid of ridicule. I tried contacting the object in both English and Spanish, then I contacted the Barcelona VOR and asked if there was air traffic in the area. I was told that their radar coverage was limited to 60 miles.
Q: So what did you do then?
A: I made an emergency broadcast on the 121.5 channel so that all nearby aircraft could communicate with us.
Q: And after that?
A: We all stared at the lights. There was a large light and two small ones on the sides. I attempted a primitive communication system using my landing lights. I told it in Spanish: "On and off twice means no, on and off once means yes."
Q: And did you get along?
A: I think we did. I asked it several questions, among others: "Friend or foe?"
Q: What did you answer?
A: There was logic in their movements.
Q: How long did the sighting last?
A: Somewhat more than ten minutes.
Q: That's a long time.
A: Yes.
Q: What did you do upon landing?
A: That night we all slept poorly, as my crew told me the next day. We all made a pact of silence, but lieutenant colonel Abreu of the Barcelona tower, called me when I landed at El Prat and told me that the radar coverage for eastern Spain had recorded those "UFOs". I asked for a copy of these records and he gave me one.
Q: Do you still have that copy?
A: No, because 4 month later, another Caravelle piloted by commander Ordovas had another sighting in the area, flying with the same flight engineer, Jose Cuenca! The news made it into the media because one of the flight attendants had a boyfriend who was a journalist.
Q: So the rumor spread...
A: Yes. Journalists began calling and four months later Lt. Col Ugarte and a lawyer showed up and the copy was confiscated.
Q: Well!
A: After reporting the sighting, Lt. Col Ugarte concluded that what the co-pilot, engineer, flight attendant and I had seen was in fact Venus!
Q: Venus?
A: Yes, Venus. Venus was stuck to my plane's nose, I never realized it!
Q: What made them say that?
A: I guess that their military culture finds it very embarrassing not to have an explanation. Venus is as good an answer as any.
Q: And what do you think?
A: I thought it could have been--why not?--an alien craft or something by alien creatures. When military intelligence desclassified the documents on the sightings, I noticed the radar records were absent. Lt. Col. Abreu told me the radar had recorded three UFOs.
Q: Do you believe in them?
A: I think I saw something from a non terrestrial culture.
Q: Do you have any other data?
A: I'd say the same thing. The ones in charge will deny what they see before accepting what they can't explain or control. And of course, it was Venus.
Translation (c) 2000. Institute of Hispanic Ufology (IHU) Special thanks to Javier Garcia Blanco (LACIP)
Location: Pori airport, Finland
Date: April 12, 1969
Pori, a city on the southwestern coast of Finland, has an airfield used by both civilian and military airplanes. On April 12, 1969, the Finnish Air Force was holding a training camp there.
About 20 pilots observed 7 yellow spheres appearing in the sky and hovering above the field.
Around noon that day, FAF pilot Jouko Kuronen and his co-pilot were setting out on a routine navigational flight. The weather was clear and sunny. At ground level there was a only a light breeze, but at 3000 m altitude a strong northerly wind prevailed, measured at 185 km/h.
As directed by flight control, Kuronen taxied onto the runway to await permission for takeoff. While engaged in this he happened to overhear a radio communication between the controller of the Fouga Magister training jets concurrently doing target practice, and fighter pilot Tarmo Tukeva, who was just about to go into a bombing dive maneuver.
"Attention 286, interrupt and go check on those seven or so balloons above you."
"Okay, interrupting - circling around towards them from my right."
"Objects stationary right here above the field - might be at about 1500-3000 meters - looks like there's seven of them."
"Okay - beginning climb now."
While listening in on the radio traffic Kuronen put his own jet through a turn on the runway so as to get a view of these "balloons." Sure enough, he could now see a group of seven yellow, sphere - or disc-shaped objects sitting still above the airfield, as if observing it.
Then he saw Tukeva's Fouga jet approaching the objects and heard radio traffic picking up again. First flight control, then immediately afterwards the radar center, announced they had positive visual contact with the objects.
As instructed, Tukeva had turned his jet back towards the airport to investigate the situation. When the objects came into his sight he reported them to be a pale yellow, generally round in shape, yet somewhat blurry and indistinct in outline.
He was unable to estimate their distance for lack of reference points while climbing.
Then came a surprising turn of events. Abruptly, the spheres arranged themselves into formation and shot off towards the north with rapidly accelerating speed.
They were flying against the strong north wind, which did not seem to affect them in any way.
"You're not going to catch up with them anymore," the controller advised Tukeva, "they're disappearing northwards."
And in fact, the "balloons" had gained such speed that the jet trailing them at 700 km/h was left standing. The incredible careering of these objects is illustrated by the fact that within a minute they were again spotted on radar at Vaasa airport - almost 200 kilometers farther north.
At 19:21, four bombers aircraft took off the Ota Air Base, in Portugal.
They were under Captain José Lemos Ferreira control. The others pilots were sergeants Alberto Gomes Covas, Salvador Alberto Oliveira e Manuel Neves Marcelino.It was a routine mission to practise a nocturnal flight at 25.000 feet high between the Ota Air Base, the Spanish city of Granada, the Portuguese city of Portalegre and finally the Portuguese city of Coruche. The night was clear and the moon was almost full. The first part of the operation was successful, and so they turned towards the city of Portalegre.
At this point, Captain Ferreira noticed a light above the horizon. After observing it for 3 or 4 minutes, he warned the others about what he had just seen. The object looked like a very shining star, but much bigger than normal. Its center changed colors constantly, going from green to blue, and also some yellow and red tones. Suddenly the object increased its size, becoming 5 or 6 times bigger than before. Right after doing so, the object decreased its size until becoming an almost invisible shining point. The UFO kept on increasing and decreasing its size, and was holding position at 40° left. After 7 or 8 minutes, the object started getting smaller, going down at the horizon, now at 90° left.
Little before reaching Portalegre, at 22:30, Captain Ferreira abandoned his mission, and turned 50° left. At this moment the object was red and much deeper than 25000 feet. After several minutes on this route, the pilots noticed a small yellow circle getting out of the craft. Just some seconds later, 3 more circles appeared. The main object seemed to be 15 times bigger than the smaller ones, and it was probably the mother ship, as the others were flying around it. When the UFOs were next to Coruche, the big one suddenly descended and then climbed very quickly, intending to cross the pilots way, in a way that they could see the big UFO passing through them, as the smaller ones disappeared. The bombers landed without any problems, after a forty-minute flight. They all agreed that there wasn't any easy explanation to the objects. Captain Ferreira declared: "We got no conclusions, except after this, do not give us the old routine of Venus, weather balloons, aircraft and the like which has been given as a general panacea for almost every case of UFOs".[1] Captain Ferreira was interviewed at the Ota Air Base by the magazine Flying Saucer Review in Lisbon.
Page 147-148 ABOVE TOP SECRET (Timothy Good)
On the night of 4 September 1957 a flight of four US-built F-84 Thunderjets took off from Ota Air Base, Portugal, on a routine practice navigation mission. It was a clear night with an almost full moon, and the air to ground visibility reported in flight was well over fifty statute miles. The pilots were Captain Jose Lemos Ferreira, the flight commander, Sergeant Alberto Gomes Covas, Sergeant Manuel Neves Marcelino and Sergeant Salvador Alberto Oliveira. Captain Ferreira takes up the story.
After we reached Granada, at 2006 hours, and started a port turn to change course to Portalegre I noticed on my left and above the horizon a very unusual source of light . . . after three or four minutes I decided to report it to the other pilots. At that time the pilot flying on my right wing told me he had already noticed it. The other two pilots flying on my left wing had not yet seen it. Together we started exchanging comments over the radio about our discovery and we tried several solutions but none seemed to be a reasonable explanation for the thing we were observing at the moment. The thing looked like a very bright star unusually big and scintillating, with a colored nucleus which changed color constantly, going from deep green to blue to passing through yellowish and reddish colorations.
The pilots dismissed the possibility that the object could have been either Venus or another planet or star, or a balloon or aircraft. Captain Ferreira continued:
All of a sudden the thing grew very rapidly, assuming five or six times its initial volume, becoming quite a spectacle to see . . . [then] fast as it had grown, [it] decided to shrink, almost disappearing on the horizon, becoming a just visible, small, yellow point. These expansions and contractions happened several times, but without becoming periodic and always having a pause, longer or shorter, before modifying volume. The relative position between us and the thing was still the same, that is about 40° on our left, and we could not determine if the changing dimensions were due to very fast approaches and retreats on the same vector or if the modifying took place stationary. . . . After about seven or eight minutes of this the thing had been gradually getting down below the horizon and dislocated itself for a position about 90° to our left. ... At 2038 hours I decided to abandon the mission and to make a port turn in the general direction of Coruche since nobody was paying any attention to the exercise. We turned about 50° to port but still the thing maintained its position of 90° to our left which could not be possible with a stationary object.
By now the phenomenon was well below our level of 25,000 feet and apparently quite near, presenting a bright red and looking like a curved shell of beans at an arm's length. After several minutes on our new course we discovered a small circle of yellow light apparently coming out of the thing and before our surprise elapsed we detected three other identical circles on the right of the thing. The whole was moving with their relative positions changing constantly and sometimes very rapidly. Still we could not estimate the distance between us and them, although they were below us and apparently very near. In any case the big "thing" looked ten to fifteen times greater than the yellow circles and apparently was the director of operations since the others were moving around it.
As we were near Coruche the "big thing" suddenly and very rapidly made what looked like a dive, followed up by a climb in our direction. Then everybody went wild and almost broke formation in the process of crossing over and ahead of the UFO. We were all very excited and I had a hard time to calm things down. As soon as we crossed over everything disappeared in a few seconds and later we landed without further incident. Since the first moment we detected the UFO to the final show a registered time of forty minutes had elapsed, and during it we had ample opportunity to verify every possible explanation for the phenomenon. We got no conclusions, except that after this do not give us the old routine of Venus, balloons, aircraft and the like which has been given as a general panacea for almost every case of UFOs. [Emphasis added]
At the same time that the pilots had their encounter, the Coimbra Meteorological Observatory registered extraordinary localized variations in the earth's magnetic field, as proven by charts at that establishment.
Four pilots observe a flying object
Written by Clas Svahn 08:55, 29 October 2009 in the category Ufo
Regarding ufoobservationer no trained witnesses. Neither police officers, pilots, or we journalists are trained to observe the unknown, especially when the unknown additionally occur without warning and are over in seconds.
But there are also events that stand out. Events where several people at the same time and for a relatively long period of time can observe an unknown object from close range. For a good many years ago I unexpectedly an anonymous letter sent to me. In the envelope was copied five A4 pages of information that made me as soon as I could pick up the phone to call the people involved.
In the envelope was namely an account of the four pilots a few years earlier had met an unknown flying objects over Sweden and have been able to observe it at close quarters.Some after I received the documents I had spoken with four very confused pilots who still had the event in clear memory. So here's what happened: At 19:03 August 18, 1985 was the four on the road in a Cessna 172 from Umeå and south towards Rörberg between Gävle and Sandviken, where they planned to land on Gestrike Airport. The altitude was 3,000 feet, which is about one kilometer, and so far the flight had been undramatic. But when the small plane was over the forests just south of STRÅTJÄRA southwest of Soderhamn so got someone in the plane view of an object half a kilometer further down. This is how one of the men who sat in the right seat next to the pilot, it happened in a declassified report to the defense: "Then suddenly I saw what I thought was a strong flashing lights or light reflection from a skylight that was moving, the sun was low in the west.
I followed the oncoming blinking his eyes certainly 10 kilometers before I could distinguish a flying object on the opposite course. With a cry, I called for the others' attention in particular pilot. " During the four could now see an object they could not identify. Since they became curious pilot turned the plane and turned it completely and turned toward the object. When I spoke with him a few years after the incident, he told me the following: - When we got closer, we saw that it was a robot of metal with control fins at the rear. Now and then corrected the price after the terrain and I perceived it as if it followed a power line that we saw below us.
- We tried to follow but could not. We simply did not have enough engine power. The only sticking away from us a few hundred meters above the ground. The object of the four saw resembled an elongated metallic tube with two delta-shaped wings at the back. Right at the back were flaps that could be used to adjust the course which the object is also made with up to 20 degrees on some occasions. When the four had lost eye contact with the craft called the pilot control tower in Sundsvall and asked if the air traffic controllers which had no information on other traffic in area and the tower could see something on their radar screens.
But no. Cessna with the four was lonely aircraft in the area as far as air traffic control could see. The day after the incident, which was a Monday, I called one of the men to the defense headquarters, where he was sent around to different departments before someone finally advised him to contact FOA ufoansvarige Sture Wickerts. By sending him there showed defense staff that did not consider the men's observation had no military interest, a decision that you can ask yourself the least doubtful. Wickerts checked if there were any radar data showed the unidentified object but after a few phone calls were observers told that nothing appeared on the current radar films.
There was the question hanging in the air until one of the men mentioned the event of a lieutenant colonel in Boden and then was advised to write down what happened and submit it to the defense. 26 May 1986 landed as the report on the strange object at the head of the Intelligence and Security Section of the milostaben Upper Norrland table."We think it is strange that so little interest has been shown to have the incident clarified and investigated," the men of his report. And the head of the Intelligence and Security Section agreed: "Försvarsstabens handling of the matter seems strange," he wrote critically on the report's cover page. When the report ended up on flygstabens table was contacted last the four men. But despite several attempts to find an explanation for the observation of pilots joined the military bet. Something Swedish flight this was not on, so far, it was clear.
But what was it? The men's observationamong the better when it comes to Swedish ufo observationer. Since they first caught sight of "missile" as they could in just over a minute to follow the subject while they flew snugly against it and then for an additional minute at so closely that they saw the details on the hull. Once they were from genuine could see that for an additional minute. You can see their subscription above. That it was a controlled or programmed by anyone, there is no doubt. "We saw 2 clear course changes with the return to northerly course," the men in his report to the defense. And so it seemed then follow the power line. When the power line took another direction veered too object. This report traveling many interesting questions at the same time says a lot about the Swedish military's interest in the unknown objects over Swedish territory. An interest that was shown to be the least lukewarm. Maybe the focus was more on the unknown submarines that still raged in Swedish waters.
The object looked like a cruise missile for the tank to a violation of a foreign power. But who would in peacetime dare to fly over neutral territory with all the risks it entails in terms of diplomatic complications. And what if the offending missile would fail?One must also ask whether there may have been a link between the men and the submarine observation reports from the east coast. There are signs that even the military saw this connection when the event was well taken seriously. Aerospace Defence Command were never up to what the craft that had spent over Sweden that August evening in 1985.
UFO-Sweden, through the interviews we did with the four on board and after talks with Flygstabens investigators and full access to the previously secret material also not been able to come anymore. Still to archive the report under the uFO. An unknown object that despite careful investigation have not been identified.