Airline UFO Encounters
Countless airplanes have reported seeing UFOs and UAPs.
What could these mysterious aircraft being witnessed by airline pilots, crew, and passengers be? Could they be spaceships from outer space or just military jets?
Listen now to find out.
Have you ever been on an airplane and witnessed an unidentified object out of the window?
What was that strange light you just saw zip by? Could there be biological creatures floating in the clouds?
What is up, Bizarros?! This week we dive into UFO encounters witnessed on airplanes.
This is a unique episode and super fun because it’s not our typical episode where we introduce an urban legend or cryptid, describe its history, and a few encounters.
You know what airplanes are, and if you’re watching movies, tv shows, and listening to podcasts – you know what UFOs are.
So, this entire episode is a bunch of people in planes or flying planes claiming that they witnessed a UFO – an unidentified flying object or UAP – an unidentified aerial phenomenon.
Sources include NY Post, Mysterious universe, Forbes, Infinity Explorers, Anchorage Press, and Reddit.
UFO Encounters
1947
The encounters are in chronological order; as you know, that’s how I like doing it, so let’s start way back in 1947.
This is a pretty popular case; I had heard about it before researching, and I’ll be curious to hear if you are familiar.
On July 4, 1947, pilot Captain Emil J. Smith was on Flight 105 from Boise, Idaho, toward Seattle, Washington.
During the flight, actually, it was pretty shortly after takeoff that Captain Smith and his crew reported seeing two separate formations of wingless discs.
They were described as being flat on the bottom and rounded on the top. They were significantly larger than ordinary aircraft.
This led co-pilot Ralph Stevens to turn on the landing lights, but when they did, they soon saw that these crafts were unlike anything they’d ever seen.
They had no wings, tails, or a noticeable way to propel itself in the air.
Confused, they radioed to ground control to confirm what they were seeing. As they did, the formation of the flying objects flew away with a burst of incredible speed.
The second formation of flying objects stuck around a little longer before also speeding away. Faster than any traditional aircraft should have.
Just a short period of time later, the light formations came back.
They called for a stewardess to come up to the cockpit just so they could have a third valid witness to what they were seeing.
They tried again for ground confirmation, but the flying objects sped off to the west before they could receive any clear results.
Dr. James McDonald’s had this quote as a statement on the matter to the US House of Representatives, Committee on Science and Astronautics of what happened:
“Smith emphasized to me that there were no cloud phenomena to confuse them here and that they observed these objects long enough to be quite certain that they were no conventional aircraft.
They appeared “flat on the bottom, rounded on top”, he told me, and he added that there seemed to be perceptible “roughness” of some sort on top, though he could not refine that description.
Almost immediately after they lost sight of the first five, the second formation of four (three in line and a fourth off to the side) moved in ahead of their position, again traveling westward but at a somewhat higher altitude than the DC-3’s 8000 ft.
These passed quickly out of sight to the west at speeds that they felt were far beyond then-known speeds.
Smith emphasized that they were never certain of sizes and distances but that they had the general impression that these disc-like crafts were appreciably larger than ordinary aircraft. Smith emphasized that he had not taken seriously the previous week’s news accounts that coined the since-persistent term “flying saucer.”
But, after seeing this total of nine unconventional, high-speed wingless craft on the evening of 7/4/47, he became much more interested in the matter.
Nevertheless, in talking with me, he stressed that he would not speculate on their real nature or origin.
I have spoken with United Airlines personnel who have known Smith for years and vouch for his complete reliability.”
1950 UFO Encounter On A California Central Airliner
In October of 1950, Captain Cecil Hardin and his co-pilot Jack Conroy were flying a California Central Airliner.
They reported during their flight from Burbank-Hollywood airport to Oakland that they witnessed a “lighted object approaching head-on.”
This was estimated to be around San Fernando. The object was projected to be about 85 feet long with 6 to 8 bright, blinking lights strung across the top.
Fearfully, the pilots actually braced for impact due to the flying object’s speed and trajectory, but at the last second, it passed beneath them and disappeared.
A quote from Jack Conroy:
“It was impossible to say exactly how fast it was going or how big and far away it was. But it appeared to be large, quite speedy, and pretty close—perhaps 500 feet away.
It was traveling at a terrific speed, and the thing that was really odd was that it didn’t appear to have any fuselage. We also felt no propeller wash as the object passed under our left wing.”
When they landed, they checked aircraft schedules and flights, and they were shocked to see that no other aircraft was intended to be in that area at that time.
So, just based on these first couple of encounters, isn’t it crazy to think what your pilots may be seeing on a flight that you know nothing about?
While passengers are passing out, listening to music and podcasts, or creeping on the little video screens of the passengers in front of them, the pilot and flight crew could be saying a prayer and preparing for collision with aliens.
Crazy stuff.
1958 American Airlines UFO Sighting
We might have a familiar character here! What is the officer you remember the UFO Chase the Pennsylvania Border?
Neff! Right.
So, in April of 1958, American Airlines Captain Raymond Ryan and Officer William Neff were flying over Albany, NY.
As they were flying, they witnessed a super bright white light that they logically assumed was another plane with its landing lights on.
But, as they got closer to the flying object, they noticed that it wasn’t a plane. In fact, it wasn’t even moving. It was hovering completely still.
Upon getting even closer, the flying aircraft went through a 90-degree arc and shot directly off to the west at a ridiculous speed.
Here is a quote from Captain Ryan:
“The initial speed, l would say, probably was 800 to 1000 miles an hour. How fast can it–it’s hard to say, just to compute that speed. Oh, much faster, much faster than a jet.
Couldn’t be a jet, not at that altitude, because their fuel is so critical. It changed color after it got to the west of us, probably 8 to 10 miles. It went out momentarily, and we knew there was something up there, and now here we were with a load of passengers with something on our course up ahead, and what are we going to do, so we watched this where the light went out, and this orange object came on–this orange light.
They radioed the nearby Griffiss Air Force Base, which did not have its satellite radar on at the time and could not confirm.
But, they told the airliner to keep the mysterious object in sight, and as they followed the object, the base was able to get their radar going and detect it, and it was now being seen by several observers on the ground at both the airport and the Air Force Base.
Here is another quote from Captain Ryan about what happened next:
“It stayed just that far ahead of us, and they asked us what our point of next intended landing was, and I told them Syracuse, and they wanted to be identified–our aircraft, number and serial number, and they said, “well abandon that next landing temporarily and maintain the course and your altitude,” so we did.”
“It was low, and it was also low for a jet. There happened to be an overcast that evening which eliminated the possibility of a star right off the bat, and the way I understand it a jet burns up three or four times the amount of fuel at low altitude than it does at high altitude.
I don’t think a jet could stay down that long without using up a considerable amount of gas.
Then they must have slowed down.
“They” or ‘it” must have slowed down.
We trailed out as far as Oswego, which is right on the south shore of Lake Ontario, and we passed up our point of landing at Syracuse. We weren’t sure we should hold the passengers up any longer, and of course, we didn’t advise them.
We called them (Griffiss AFB), and they said they were “about off, “and that was about 8 minutes, and we couldn’t work them any longer, and we turned over with Syracuse tower, and they were giving–relaying the messages back and forth, and it was then about 10 to 12 minutes, and they’re still not off yet.
And we can’t – -I don’t, I just don’t know where the jets were. Why didn’t they get the jets up? It went off, it just went to the northwest, and it went out of sight.”
1959 American Airlines Sees Three Bright Lights
During the night of February 23, 1959, Captain Peter W. Killian and First Officer James Dee were flying an American Airlines aircraft from Newark to Detroit.
The flight path was from Newark to Detroit. It was a clear night and a new moon, so the stars were shining, and everything was pretty dark.
Over Williamsport, PA, the two pilots witnessed three bright lights, which were initially mistaken as stars.
However, the lights then moved towards them to pull ahead of the wingtip.
So, not only were these not stars, but based on their movement, they also knew they weren’t normal aircraft.
They contacted two other American Airlines planes in the area to find out that the other crews had spotted the objects as well, and meanwhile, the UFOs occasionally pulled ahead and dropped back to their original position.
Throughout the incident, the objects reportedly continuously changed brightness, flashing and dimming, alternating in color between yellow-orange to a brilliant blue-white.
When they landed in Detroit later that night, they learned that several other airline crews had reported being similarly followed around by the objects, yet the Air Force was quick to write it off as a refueling operation involving their planes.
American Airlines also dismissed it as other aircraft as well.
Captain Killian was not down with this theory and is quoted saying:
“If the Air Force wants to believe that, it can. But I know what a B-47 looks like, and I know what a KC-97 tanker looks like, and I know what they look like in operation at night. And that’s not what I saw.”
1973 A Cargo Flight Sees A Steady Amber Light
On February 14, 1973, an airline DC-8 routine cargo flight was flying from St. Louis to Dallas when the crew saw an object below them that they first assumed to be another aircraft, which seemed to be matching their speed and pacing them.
As they observed the mysterious object, they found its “steady amber light” to be “unconventional,” and then it suddenly and without warning quickly rose straight up “like an elevator,” then made a sharp turn and approached the plane.
The crew could now see that it was a silver, metallic disc-shaped craft with a transparent dome on top.
A moment later, the object shot straight up and went over the airline and briefly out of sight before reappearing, descending straight down, and taking up a new position just below the leading edge of their left wing. This gave the pilots a unique viewpoint, though.
They could now look down directly into the dome to see “two or three shadowy entities moving around.”
The object then shot ahead out of sight.
Ground control would confirm that they were able to track the object for 50 miles before losing it.
1981 A Silber Object Reported By Pilots
On July 4th, more fireworks – you hear them, in 1981, Captain Phil Shultz was flying over Lake Michigan from San Francisco.
I checked my notes, and I don’t think I covered this in the Lake Michigan Triangle episode, but the name sounds familiar.
But, anyway, Captain Shultz described seeing a large, round, silver object with six black portholes descend from high above.
The speed and maneuverability of the flying object completely astounded him.
1989 Alaska Airlines Encounter
On November 17, 1989, JAL 1628 was flying just south of Fort Yukon and Fairbanks.
Captain Terauchi witnessed unidentified lights outside his window on the left. Immediately, he thought they were military planes and ignored them.
A few moments later, he realized these aircraft were pacing him.
They contacted the Anchorage Center twice quickly and asked if there were any other aircraft intended to be in the area.
The Anchorage Center responded that there were no military aircrafts there, and they also did not pick up any other aircrafts on their radar other than Flight 1628.
Shortly after this radio signal, the captain noticed the lights began moving in an erratic manner.
Here is the official report that was given:
“The distance from the lights was far enough from us, and we felt no immediate danger.
I thought perhaps it is a UFO. The lights were still moving strangely. Most unexpectedly, two spaceships appeared [directly in front of the plane], shooting off lights.
The inside cockpit shined brightly, and I felt [the warmth of the UFO’s thrusters] on my face.
Then, three to seven seconds later, the fire — like from jet engines — stopped and became a small circle of lights as they began to fly in level flight at the same speed as we were. The middle of the body of the ship sparked an occasional stream of lights, like a charcoal fire.
Its shape was a square, flying 500 feet to 1,000 feet in front of us, very slightly higher in altitude than us. Its size was about the same size as the body of a DC-8 [similar in size to a Boeing 707].
It is impossible for any manmade machine to make a sudden appearance in front of a jumbo jet that is flying 910 kilometers per hour and to move along in a formation paralleling our aircraft.
But we did not feel threatened or in danger. Honestly, we were simply astounded. I have no idea why they came so close to us.
There was a pale white flat light in the direction where the ships flew away, [pacing us]. The Anchorage Center replied that they saw nothing on their radar. I set our digital weather radar distance to 20 miles and the radar angle to the horizon. There it was, on the screen: a large, green, round object had appeared seven or eight miles away in the direction of the object.
We arrived at the sky above the Eielson Air Force Base and Fairbanks.
It was a clear night. We were just above the bright city lights, and we checked the pale white light behind us. There was a silhouette of a gigantic spaceship! We must get away quickly!”
The caption attempted evasive maneuvers, but the gigantic UFO, which he described as the size of two aircraft carriers, stayed on their trail.
At about that time, a United Airlines passenger jet flew into the same air zone and was requested the ATC to get a visual on the situation.
The captain reported, “When the United plane came by our side, the spaceship disappeared suddenly. The strange encounter ended 150 miles away from Anchorage.”
1997 Swissair UFO Encounter
On August 9, 1997, when Swissair 127, a Boeing 747 piloted by Capt. Phil Bobet was flying near Kennedy Airport, New York, on its way to Boston in clear weather.
At some point during the flight, an object flew fast right over the plane, startling the crew and causing Bobet to radio into ground control.
A quote from Bobet:
“l don’t know what it was, but it just overflew just like a couple of hundred feet above us. I don’t know if it was a rocket or whatever. But incredibly fast. Opposite direction, and the time was two-one-zero -seven [5:07 p.m. local time]. It was too fast to be an airplane.”
Feb 2021 American Airline Cylindrical Object
Forbes
In February of 2021, Flight 2292, an American Airline traveling from Cincinnati, Ohio, to Phoenix, Arizona, made the following radio transmission:
“Do you have any targets up here? We just had something go right over the top of us,” said the pilot at 1:19 p.m. CST on Sunday. “I hate to say this, but it looked like a long cylindrical object that almost looked like a cruise missile type of thing moving really fast right over the top of us,”
Shortly after, the FAA released a short statement: “A pilot reported seeing an object over New Mexico shortly after noon local time on Sunday, Feb. 21, 2021. FAA air traffic controllers did not see any object in the area on their radarscopes.”
While authorities may never be able to explain what the missile-like object was, it’s not the first time a pilot has spotted unexplained flying phenomena.
July 29, 2021 Unusual Shape-Shifting UFO
I’m going to read this article from Infinity Explorer –
“An airplane passenger was taken aback after seeing what appeared to be a shape shifting UFO flying tens of thousands of meters above the ground. It was filmed by a German tourist aboard a plane who claimed that the UFO accompanied the aircraft for seven minutes.
In the video, which was recorded with a Nikon P900 camera on June 28 over Racine, Wisconsin, USA, a white illuminated object is seen flying at a higher altitude than the plane. The outline of the object appears to be similar to a drone or a flat shape, but it soon begins to transform and lengthen. The bright white lights of the mysterious ship turn into a Y-shaped figure.
While the passenger of the plane tries to focus the zoom on the UFO, it goes back from vertical to horizontal way. The object or creature captured on camera could be a plasma-based life form that inhabits the upper atmosphere.
The altitude of the plane is between 3,000 and 10,000 meters, and this object is recorded for seven minutes above the altitude of the plane and appears to move along with the plane.
Some people are going to call this a UFO, well, technically, it is, but others lean more towards it being a biological entity or a plasma-based life form that lives in our upper atmosphere.
The images quickly went viral among the ufological community, where many offered their own theories to explain the sighting.
Some agreed with the theory that is a UFO, while some said that it appears hyperdimensional, an extraterrestrial creature that interacts with our 3D space.
Mar 7, 2022 Geometric Metallic Object In the Air
A pilot flying an Airbus A320 on a routine flight over Medellin, Colombia, looked out the cockpit window and, among the clouds, claimed to spot a UFO.
He quickly grabbed his phone and filmed what he was witnessing, first pointing the camera at his altimeter, which shows he was flying at about 30,000 feet, then aiming it out the window towards the clouds.
He zooms in, and a strange, geometric-shaped, metallic object flies in a straight line in the opposite direction.
https://wbznewsradio.iheart.com/content/2022-03-07-ufo-filmed-by-airline-pilot-deemed-a-genuine-ufo/
Airport-related, not necessarily in an airplane, but still wanted to share –
Saw a UFO this past weekend and wondering if anyone else has had an experience like this..
I’m being pretty vague with my location intentionally in this post because I don’t want my Reddit account to have much personally identifiable info.
I am recounting the actual experience exactly as it happened, though.
So I was doing some funtivities close by to a major airport in the US in a city that has a very large military presence (which is also stationed very close to the said airport).
When all the other people I was with started chatting amongst themselves, I looked to the sky (it was around sunset) and noticed that there was a very strange object that looked to be hovering and turning 180 degrees about 1000 feet above the runway of the airport.
I immediately thought something was strange because the FAA would not allow something like that, especially in the presence of landing commercial aircraft – which there was plenty of in the 15 minutes or so this sighting took place. There were no take-offs from the airport that I noticed (dunno if that’s relevant or not).
Anyway, we were probably located about a mile or two from the airport, and there thing just hung there for about 13 minutes, and in the last two minutes, it rose up through the clouds slowly and disappeared.
As for what it looked like – keep in mind I was far away enough, and it was small enough that with my iPhone camera, all I have is a tiny black speck on a zoomed-in photo.
However, I have very good eyesight and could make out in much greater detail than what showed up in the live photos.
It was jet black and looked like a seahorse. It sounds stupid, but that’s the best way I can describe it.
Now I’m not saying I saw it close enough to make out specific details that would have it looking exactly like a seahorse up close, but I could clearly see the general shape of it with a ‘head’ like area with kind of a snout, a long body with kind of a more puffy chest area, and then the bottom that stuck out in the same direction as the snout, and boxier than a curly seahorse tail.
In fact, it did seem like there were sharp angles on each part I’m describing instead of the soft angles you’d see on an actual seahorse.
Now, I have great eyesight, and when I pointed it out to my friend (who I know to not have great eyesight), he said it was probably just a paraglider, but I know what those look like, and there was no separate parachute and cage on this thing.
It was a solid black mass.
Anyway just wanted to document it here for anyone that might be interested. Thanks for reading!
Come Fly The Alien-Friendly Skies!
What do you think, Bizarros?
Are commercial pilots seeing UFOs on a regular basis?
Do UFOs buzz control towers at maximum speed, like a bunch of Mavericks from out of this world?
Will there be an increase in UFO sightings from air traffic control now that UFOs seem to be accepted?
Let us know in the comments if you’ve seen an alien spacecraft while on a plane.