List of reported UFO sightings

Date	Name	City, State	Country	Description	Sources	Hynek Scale
ca. 1440 BCE	Fiery disks	Lower Egypt	Ancient Egypt	It was reported by the scribes of the pharaoh, Thutmose III encountered "fiery disks" floating over the skies. It was later recorded on the Tulli Papyrus.	[1][2]	1
Date	Name	City, State	Country	Description	Sources	Hynek Scale
214 BCE	ships in the sky	Rome, Italia	Roman Republic	Livy records a number of portents in the winter of this year, including navium speciem de caelo adfulsisse ("an appearance of ships had shone forth from the sky").	Livy's Ab Urbe Condita Libri[3]	1
74 BCE	flame-like "pithoi" from the sky	Phrygia, Asia	Roman Republic	According to Plutarch, a Roman army commanded by Lucullus was about to begin a battle with Mithridates VI of Pontus when "all on a sudden, the sky burst asunder, and a huge, flame-like body was seen to fall between the two armies. In shape, it was most like a wine-jar, and in colour, like molten silver." Plutarch reports the shape of the object as like a wine-jar (pithos). The apparently silvery object was reported by both armies.	[4][5]	1
66 BCE	sparks of growing light	Rome	Roman Republic	The Roman author and naturalist, Pliny the Elder, described a "spark" fell to earth, becoming as large as the moon before returning to the sky.	[1]	1
70	signs in the sky during the siege of Jerusalem	Jerusalem, Iudaea	Roman Empire	A bright light over the Temple in Jerusalem. On a later day, "ὤφθη μετέωρα περὶ πᾶσαν τὴν χώραν ἅρματα καὶ φάλαγγες ἔνοπλοι διᾴττουσαι τῶν νεφῶν καὶ κυκλούμεναι τὰς πόλεις" ("there appeared in the air over the whole country chariots and armed troops coursing through the clouds, surrounding the cities").	The Jewish War[6]	1
ca. 150	100 foot "beast" accompanied by a "maiden"	Via Campana, Latium et Campana	Roman Empire	On a sunny day near the Via Campana, a road connecting Rome and Capua, a single witness, probably Hermas the brother of Pope Pius I, saw "a 'beast' like a piece of pottery (ceramos) about 100 feet in size, multicolored on top and shooting out fiery rays, landed in a dust cloud, accompanied by a "maiden" clad in white. Vision 4.1-3. in The Shepherd of Hermas.	[5]	3
196	angel hair	Rome	Roman Empire	Historian Cassius Dio described "A fine rain resembling silver descended from a clear sky upon the Forum of Augustus." He used some of the material to plate some of his bronze coins, but by the fourth day afterwards the silvery coating was gone.	[5]	2
Date	Name	City, State	Country	Description	Sources	Hynek Scale
776	Flaming shields of reddish color	Sigiburg, Throtmanni	Francia	According to a section from the Annales Laurissenses maiores, Saxons besieging the Sigiburg Castle, encountered a craft bearing "the likeness of two large flaming shields reddish in color" floating overhead, thus frightening off the invaders.	[7] [8][9]	2
Date	Name	City, State	Country	Description	Sources	Hynek Scale
815	Magonia	Lyons, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes	Francia	The Carolingian archbishop, Agobard of Lyons, described in his De Grandine et Tonitruis ("On Hail and Thunder") of a "certain region called Magonia from whence come ships in the clouds", and how he prevented the stoning death of "three men and a woman who said they had fallen from these same ships."	[10] [11]	1
Date	Name	City, State	Country	Description	Sources	Hynek Scale
1561-04-14	1561 celestial phenomenon over Nuremberg	Nuremberg	Holy Roman Empire	At sunrise on the 14th April 1561, the citizens of Nuremberg beheld "A very frightful spectacle." The sky appeared to fill with cylindrical objects from which red, black, orange and blue white disks and globes emerged. Crosses and tubes resembling cannon barrels also appeared whereupon the objects promptly "began to fight one another." This event is depicted in a 16th-century woodcut by Hans Glaser.	[12]	1
1566-08-07	1566 celestial phenomenon of Basel	Basel	Switzerland	At the morning of 7 August 1566 the citizens of Basel saw numerous sphaerical objects appear in the sky. These objects flew at high speed and seemed to do a fight in the sky. This event is depicted in a 16th-century woodcut by Samuel Coccius (Samuel Koch) and Samuel Apiarius.	[13]	1
1609-09-26	shiny object like "a bowl/washbasin" making "a thunderous sound" and flying "fast like an arrow"	Ganseong-gun, Wonju-mok, Gangreung-bu, Chuncheon-bu, & Yangyang-bu; Gangwon-do Province, Kingdom of Joseon (all of them located in present-day Gangwon Province (South Korea)).	Kingdom of Joseon	Belatedly recorded in the Annals over a month late,[14] on September 26, 1609,[15] over "clear and cloudless" skies (three places recorded Sa hour (9-11 AM), one recorded Oh hour (noon), and one recorded Mi hour (1-3 PM)), a shiny object resembling "a bowl" or "a washbasin", suddenly appeared over the skies, made "a thunderous sound" and flew "fast like an arrow", and that "heaven and earth shook". It looked "as if it would land", but then it "tilted and rose", and then "it disappeared into sparks", with a comment that "it looked as if it was in the air by some energy".	Annals of the Joseon Dynasty, Diary of Gwanghaegun of Joseon[16]	1
Date	Name	City, State	Country	Description	Sources	Hynek Scale
1803-02-22 or 03-24	Utsuro-bune at Haratono-hama	Eastern shore	Japan	On February 22 (or March 24) in 1803 local fishermen reportedly saw a vessel drifting in close-by waters. They say when they investigated it, "a beautiful young woman" they described as having red and white hair and dressed in strange clothes appeared. The fisherman claim she held a square box "that no one was allowed to touch" and she spoke to them in a language they never heard before. Modern UFO believers think this story was a credible document of a close encounter of third kind in early Japan. Historians and Ethnologists consider it to be folklore.	[17][18]	3
1883-08-12	José Bonilla Observation	Zacatecas Observatory, Zacatecas	Mexico	On August 12, 1883, the astronomer José Bonilla reported that he saw more than 300 dark, unidentified objects crossing the sun disk while observing sunspot activity at Zacatecas Observatory in Mexico. He was able to take several photographs, exposing wet plates at 1/100 second. It was subsequently determined that the objects were highflying geese.	[19]	0
1886-10-24	Maracaibo	Maracaibo	Venezuela	A letter from the US consulate in Maracaibo Venezuela was printed in the December 18, 1886 issue of Scientific American reporting a meteorological occurrence described as a bright light accompanied by a humming noise that caused occupants of a hut to become ill.	[20]	2
1896–1897	Mystery airships		United States	Numerous reports of UFO sightings, attempted abductions that took place around the United States in a 2-year period.		1,2 and 3
1897-04-17	Aurora, Texas, UFO incident	Aurora, Texas	United States	A tale of a UFO crash and a burial of its alien pilot in the local cemetery was sent to newspapers in Dallas and Fort Worth in April 1897 by local correspondent S.E. Hayden	[21][22]	3
Date	Name	City, State	Country	Description	Sources	Hynek Scale
1909	Mystery airships	Otago	New Zealand	Strange moving lights and some solid bodies in the sky were seen around Otago and elsewhere in New Zealand, and were reported to newspapers	[23][24]	1
1917-08-13, 09-13, 10-13	Miracle of the Sun	Fátima, Santarém District	Portugal	Thousands of people observed the sun gyrate and descend. This was later reinterpreted by Jacques Vallée, Joaquim Fernandes and Fina d'Armada as a possible UFO sighting, but not recognized as such due to cultural differences.	[25][26][27]	1
1940s	Foo fighters		over World War II theaters	Small metallic spheres and colorful balls of light repeatedly spotted and occasionally photographed worldwide by bomber crews during World War II.	[28][29]	2
1941	Cape Girardeau UFO crash	Cape Girardeau, Missouri	United States	First responders and Baptist minister allegedly view crashed spacecraft and alien bodies. Military arrives and swears witnesses to silence.	[30][31][32]	3
1942	Hopeh Incident	Tsientsien, Hebei	Republic of China	Photographs show what is reported to be a UFO.	[33]	2
1942-02-24	Battle of Los Angeles	Los Angeles, California	United States	Unidentified aerial objects trigger the firing of thousands of anti-aircraft rounds and raise the wartime alert status.	[34]	2
1946	The Ghost Rockets		mostly in Scandinavia, but also other European countries	Numerous UFO sightings were reported over Scandinavia, causing the Swedish Defense Staff to express concern.	[35]	2
1946-05-18	UFO-Memorial Ängelholm	Ängelholm, Kristianstads County	Sweden	Gösta Karlsson reports seeing a flying saucer and its alien passengers. A model of it is now erected at the site.	[36]	3
1947-06-21	Maury Island incident	Puget Sound near Maury Island, Washington	United States	Harold A. Dahl reported that his dog was killed and his son was injured by debris in an encounter with four to six flying doughnut-shaped objects. He also claimed that a witness was subsequently threatened by the Men in Black.	[37]	2
1947-06-24	Kenneth Arnold UFO sighting	north of Mount Rainier, Washington	United States	The UFO sighting that sparked the name flying saucers. This sighting is considered as the start of the "Modern UFO era".	[38]	0
1947-06/07	1947 UFO sightings	mostly Washington	United States	Several UFO sightings reported after the sighting of Kenneth Arnold.	[38]
1947-06	Roswell UFO crash	about 30 mi north of Roswell, New Mexico	United States	United States Army Air Forces allegedly captured a crashed flying saucer and its alien occupants. The find was soon explained to be a weather balloon but regained attention since 1978 after investigation of S. T. Friedman.	[39][40]	3
1947-07-23	Bauru Close Encounter	Bauru, São Paulo	Brazil	José Higgins, a topographer, reports a close encounter with three humanoid figures emerged from a UFO.	[41]	3
1948	The Green Fireballs		United States	Objects were reported over several United States military bases; an official investigation followed.	[42][43]	2
1948-01-07	Thomas Mantell	Kentucky	United States	US Air Force sent a fighter pilot to investigate a UFO sighting over Fort Knox, Kentucky; his aircraft crashed and the pilot was killed while pursuing the UFO.	[44]	2
1948-07-24	Chiles-Whitted UFO encounter	Alabama	United States	Chiles and Whitted, American commercial pilots, reported that their airplane had nearly collided with a UFO		1
1948-10-01	Gorman dogfight	North Dakota	United States	A US Air Force pilot sighted and pursued a UFO for 27 minutes over Fargo, North Dakota.	[45][46]	1
1948-10-15	Fukuoka Incident	Kyushu Island	Japan	The radar of a F-61 Black Widow detected a target below the aircraft. While the aircrew tried to intercept it, the pilot saw the object, which appeared as a stubby cigar; then the object accelerated and disappeared.	[47]	2
1949	Aztec, New Mexico, UFO incident	New Mexico	United States	An alleged retrieval of a grounded UFO and its occupants from a plateau in New Mexico		3
1950-04-24	Varese Close Encounter	Abbiate Guazzone, Lombardy	Italy	A factory worker reported that he sighted three "humanoids" near a craft and one "shot him with a beam".	[unreliable source?][48]	3
1950-05-11	McMinnville UFO photographs	a farm near McMinnville, Oregon	United States	A farmer took pictures of a purported "flying saucer". These are among the best known UFO pictures, and continue to be analyzed and debated to this day.	[49]	2
1950-08-05 or 15	Mariana UFO incident	Great Falls, Montana	United States	The manager of Great Falls' pro baseball team took color film of two UFOs flying over Great Falls. The film was extensively analyzed by the US Air Force and several independent investigators.	[50]	2
1951-08-25	Lubbock Lights	Lubbock, Texas	United States	Several Lights in V-Shaped formations were repeatedly spotted flying over the city. Witnesses included professors from Texas Tech University and photographed by a Texas Tech student.	[51]	2
1951-09-10	Fort Monmouth UFO Case	Monmouth County, New Jersey	United States	At Fort Monmouth Base, a radar operator picked up an unknown target. Seventeen minutes later, the crew of a T-33 saw a discus-shaped unidentified object.	[52]	2
1952-07-12 to 29	1952 Washington, D.C. UFO incident	Washington, D.C.	United States	A series of sightings in July 1952 accompanied radar contacts at three separate airports in the Washington area. The sightings made front page headlines around the nation, and ultimately lead to the formation of the Robertson Panel by the CIA.	[53]	1
1952-07-16	1952 Salem, Massachusetts UFO incident	Coast Guard Air Station Salem	United States	Coast Guard photographer Shell Alpert took a photograph of four roughly elliptical blobs of light in formation through the window of his photographic laboratory. A Coast Guard press release described the lights as "objects", however Seaman Alpert subsequently issued a statement saying, "I cannot in all honesty say that I saw objects or aircraft, merely some manner of lights."	[54]	1
1952-07-24	Carson Sink UFO incident	near Carson Sink, Nevada	United States	Two pilots saw three unusual Delta wing aircraft flying in a V-formation over Carson Sink.	[55]	1
1952-09-12	The Flatwoods Monster	Flatwoods, West Virginia	United States	Six local boys and a woman report seeing a UFO land, and saw a spade-headed creature near the landing site.	[56][57][58]	3
1953-05-21	Prescott Sightings	Prescott, Arizona	United States	Three Prescott residents sight a total of eight craft at Del Rio Springs Creek, 20 miles north of Prescott.	[59]	0
1953-08-12	Ellsworth UFO sighting	Bismarck, North Dakota	United States	A UFO appearing as a red glowing light is witnessed by 45 people. The sighting takes place for two nights.	[60]	1
1953-11-23	The disappearance of Felix Moncla and Robert Wilson	near the Soo Locks over Lake Superior	United States/Canada	U.S. Air Force pilot and radar operator and their F-89C disappeared while pursuing an unidentified radar return.	[61]	0
1953-12-16	Kelly Johnson/Santa Barbara Channel Case	Seen from Agoura, California, and from aircraft flying over Pacific Ocean	United States	Legendary Lockheed aircraft engineer Clarence "Kelly" Johnson, designer of the F-104, U-2, and SR-71, and his wife observed a huge Flying Wing over the Pacific from the ground in Agoura. Meanwhile, one of Johnson's flight test crews aboard an WV-2 (see EC-121) spotted the craft from Long Beach, California. USAF concluded these trained observers had seen a lenticular cloud, even though Johnson considered and ruled out that explanation.	[62][63]	1
1954-08-16	Tananarive UFO incident	Tananarive	Madagascar	At 5:00 p.m. a green ball was seen in the sky and disappeared behind a hill. It reappeared a minute later and flew over the higher part of Tananarive. When the object flew in front of them, some witnesses could see a lentil-shaped device with silvery metallic aspect enveloped in electric luminous gas.	[64][65]	1
1954-09-15	Manbhum UFO sighting	Manbhum, Bihar	India	A UFO was seen in the afternoon by about 800 people living in three villages in Manbhum district of Bihar. According some witnesses the UFO was shaped like a saucer about 12 feet in diameter and grey in colour.	[66]	1
1954-09-12 to 1954-11-30	Autumn 1954 European UFO wave	South and west of Europe	France, Italy and other countries	In the autumn of 1954 there was a great wave of UFO sightings in the countries of the south and the west of Europe. Most of the sightings occurred in France, followed by Italy. This wave was the first large-scale European UFO wave.	[67]	1,2 and 3
1955-08-21/22	Kelly–Hopkinsville encounter	A farmhouse near Hopkinsville, Kentucky	United States	After the sighting of a disc-shaped aircraft a group of strange, goblin-like creatures are reported to have repeatedly approached a farm house and looked inside through the windows. Members of the two families present shot at them several times with little or no effect. The encounter lasted from evening to dawn.	[68]	3
1956-07-24	Drakensberg Contactee	Drakensberg	South Africa	A well-known photo series depicting a supposed UFO, was taken on 24 July near Rosetta in the Drakensberg region. The photographer, meteorologist Elizabeth Klarer, claimed detailed adventures with an alien race, besides having had an alien lover, Akon, who would have fathered her son Ayling.	[69]	1, 5, 7?
1957-05-03	Edwards Air Force Base flying saucer filming	Edwards Air Force Base (about 22 mi northeast of Lancaster, California)	United States	Jack Gettys and James Bittick, who were filming base installations on behalf of test pilot and later astronaut Gordon Cooper, observed the landing and departure of a silent flying disk. Their film evidence was sent to Washington, D.C.	[70]	2?
1957-05-20	Milton Torres 1957 UFO Encounter	East Anglia	United Kingdom	U.S. Air Force fighter pilot Milton Torres reports that he was ordered to intercept and fire on a UFO displaying "very unusual flight patterns" over East Anglia. Ground radar operators had tracked the object for some time before Torres' plane was scrambled to intercept.	[71]	2
1957-06-17	The RB-47 UFO Encounter	Forbes Air Force Base, Topeka, Kansas	United States	Often listed as a "top ten" ufo case, a U.S. Air Force RB-47, equipped with the most advanced monitoring equipment of the era, was tracked for 700 miles by a ufo.	[72]	2
1957-09	Ubatuba UFO Explosion	Ubatuba	Brazil	Two fishermen watched a UFO crash and explosion, and retrieved fragments of the object.	[73]	2
1957-09-04	Portugal "mothership" sighting	Between Granada and Portalegre	Spain / Portugal	The crews of 4 fighter-bombers watched a large luminescent UFO and smaller attendant UFOs during a nighttime flight at 25,000 ft.	[74]	0
1957-10-16/17	Antonio Vilas Boas Abduction	Near São Francisco de Sales, Minas Gerais	Brazil	One of the very first abduction claims. Farmer Antonio Vilas Boas claimed to have been abducted and examined by humanoid aliens while working in the fields at night. He also claimed to have had sex with an alien woman aboard the egg-shaped aircraft.	[75]	4
1957-11-02	Levelland UFO Case	Levelland, Texas	United States	Numerous people describe seeing a glowing, egg-shaped object and a cigar-shaped object which caused their vehicle's engines to shut down.	[76]	2
1957-12	Old-Saybrook UFO incident	Connecticut	United States	Reports of an elliptically-shaped UFO with square ports.	[77]	3
1958-01-16	Trindade UFO Incident	Trindade Island	Brazil	9 Separate sightings and 7 photos of UFO's were reported in the Trinidade Island during the meteorological and geological expeditions in the island.	[78]	2
1959-02-02/03	Dyatlov Pass incident	Kholat Syakhl, Sverdlovsk Oblast	Soviet Union	Mysterious deaths of experienced cross-country skiers in the Urals are due to official investigation believed to have been caused by an unknown "compelling natural force". Some claim relation to unidentified orange spheres.	[79]	2
1959-06-26/27	Father William Booth Gill sighting	Boianai, Territory of Papua and New Guinea	Australia	Missionary and many natives saw several UFOs, one of them seeming to be repaired by four human-like occupants; witnesses and aliens waved at each other. The case was investigated by J. A. Hynek and accompanied by other sightings.	[80][81]	3
1961-09-19	Betty and Barney Hill abduction	South of Lancaster on Route 3, New Hampshire	United States	The first widely publicized alien abduction experience. The Hills saw a huge flying disk while driving home in their car at late evening and were abducted and medically examined by small extraterrestrials.	[82]	4
1964-04-24	Lonnie Zamora incident	Socorro, New Mexico	United States	Police officer Zamora reports a close encounter.	[83]	3
1964-09-05	Cisco Grove Encounter	Cisco Grove, California	United States	Hunter Donald Schrum claimed he saw a flying white light in the forest and was pursued by men as well as "robots". Condon Committee investigators were skeptical of Schrum's story because of its inconsistencies.	[84]	3
1965 to 1967	Charles Hall	Las Vegas, Nevada	United States	Charles Hall claimed that while working at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada he had contact with tall white aliens who often traveled to Las Vegas casinos for entertainment with CIA agents.	[85]	3
1965-03-09	The Incident at Exeter	Exeter, New Hampshire	United States	Numerous reports of UFOs in Exeter, New Hampshire.	[86]	2
1965-07-01	The Valensole UFO incident	Valensole, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur	France	Peasant Maurice Massé saw a landed spherical object and was paralyzed by two grey-like occupants.		3
1965-07-03	UFO sightings in Antarctica	Deception Island	Antarctica	At 7.20 P.M. nine meteorological observers of Chilean Scientific Station watched in the sky a yellow-red object travelling at high speed. After about 20 minutes in Argentine Scientific Base 17 people observed a lens-shaped disc.	[87]	1
1965-09-16	1965 Craft Landing	Pretoria–Bronkhorstspruit	South Africa	Police constables Lockem and de Klerk observed a landed, copper-coloured craft on the Pretoria–Bronkhorstspruit freeway. It was described as being 30 feet (9.1 m) wide and left a 6 feet (1.8 m) wide imprint on the asphalt after a rapid, fiery ascent. The incident was confirmed in a press release by Lt. Colonel J.B. Brits, district commandant for Pretoria North	[88]	2
1965-12-09	Kecksburg UFO incident	Kecksburg, Pennsylvania	United States	Mass sighting of a falling brilliant fireball dropping debris and causing sonic booms, followed by a cordoning-off of the probable crash site, alleged intimidation of a reporter by men in black and cover-up and the unresolved death of said witness.	[89]	2?
1966	The Mothman Prophecies	Point Pleasant, West Virginia	United States	A wave of reported sightings of a winged humanoid are connected to other mysterious events including sightings of UFOs.	[90]	3?
1966-03	Michigan Swamp Gas Sightings	Washtenaw County & Livingston County, Michigan	United States	Widely reported wave of sightings attributed to swamp gas by J. Allen Hynek.	[91][92]	2
1966-04-06	Westall UFO	Clayton South, Victoria	Australia	A sighting reported by hundreds of people. Witnesses of "The Clayton Incident" still gather for reunions.	[93]	0
1966-04-15	Catalina Island UFO	Catalina Island	United States	Cameraman Leman Hanson shot 10 seconds of 16 mm color footage of a UFO.	[94]	2
1966-04-17	Portage County UFO chase	Ohio	United States	Several police officers pursue what they believe to be a UFO for 30 minutes.	[95]	1
1967-01-25	Betty Andreasson Abduction	South Ashburnham, Massachusetts	United States	A woman claims to have been taken aboard UFOs by aliens many times over a number of years.	[96]	4
1967-05-20	Falcon Lake incident	near Falcon Lake in Whiteshell Provincial Park, Manitoba	Canada	A man is reported to have been burned by the exhaust of a landed cigar-shaped object.	[97]	3
1967-08-29	Close encounter of Cussac	Outside Cussac, Auvergne	France	A young brother and sister claimed to have witnessed a brilliant sphere and four small black occupants while herding cattle outside their village.	[98]	3
1967-09-07	Snippy the Horse Mutilation	Near Alamosa in the San Luis Valley, Colorado	United States	Widely considered to be the first unusual animal death to be related by its witnesses to UFOs and aliens.	[99]	2
1967-10-04	Shag Harbour UFO incident	Gulf of Maine near Shag Harbour, Nova Scotia	Canada	A large lit object was reported to have crashed into waters near Shag Harbour. A Canadian naval search followed, and officially referred to the object as a UFO. Some military persons involved claim the unknown object to be an alien spacecraft. There were other UFO sightings in the area at the time.	[100][101]	2?
1968-02-18	Vashon Island incident	Vashon Island, Washington State	United States	Three men reported seeing a shiny saucer shaped craft, which froze a pond over which it had hovered.	[102][103][104]	2
1968-08-07	Buff Ledge Camp Abduction	North of Burlington at Lake Champlain, Vermont	United States	Two teenage employees of a summer camp reported sighting UFOs over the lake and claimed to have experienced missing time.	[105][106]	4
1968-11-28	The Sverdlovsk Midget	Sverdlovsk (today Yekaterinburg)	Soviet Union	Near Sverdlovsk discovered a falling object in the Roshevski forest.[clarification needed] Some claimed that about the UFO and a Soviet Alien-autopsy survived some film reel.[clarification needed] About the incident made a documentary film with Roger Moore.[clarification needed]	[107]	1
1969-01-06	Jimmy Carter UFO incident	Leary, Georgia	United States	Later U.S. president Jimmy Carter's sighting of a UAP, which he didn't believe to be of extraterrestrial origin and is, contrary to him, thought to be Venus.	[108]	1
1970-01-01	Cowichan District Hospital UFO	Duncan, British Columbia	Canada	Nurse Doreen Kendall claims she looked out a hospital window and saw a UFO containing occupants seated at a control panel. Another nurse called over by Kendall saw only a bright, featureless light.	[109]	3
1972-06-27	1972 UFO sightings in the eastern Cape	Fort Beaufort	South Africa	A craft was observed near Fort Beaufort in the eastern Cape, which attracted the attention of the military.	[110][111][112][113]
1972-11-12	1972 UFO sightings in the eastern Cape	Rosmead	South Africa	A school headmaster seems to have arrived at a still smouldering UFO landing site in the town of Rosmead	[111][114][115][116]
1973-05	The Judy Doraty Abduction	at a road from Alta Loma to Texas City, Texas	United States	While under hypnosis, Judy Doraty claimed to have been abducted by aliens and to have witnessed a cattle mutilation.	[117]	4
1973-09-20	Skylab 3 UFO Encounter	space station Skylab 3 in Earth orbit	outer space	Blurred photographs of an unknown object were taken by astronauts.	[118]
1973-10	Jeff Greenhaw	Alabama	United States	Alabama policeman Jeff Greenhaw claims he encountered a creature dressed in a shiny metal costume while investigating a UFO report.	[119]	3
1973-10-11	Pascagoula Abduction	Near Pascagoula at the Pascagoula River, Mississippi	United States	Two men fishing on the river claimed to be abducted by strange-looking humanoids.	[120]	4
1973-10-17	Eglin Air Force Base Sighting	Florida	United States	An unidentified object was tracked by a Duke Field radar unit during the same time period, and within the same area, that 10 to 15 people observed four strange objects flying in formation between Milton, Florida, and Crestview, Florida, along Interstate 10, according to Eglin officials. Reports from the base indicated that a bright glowing ball of light could be seen travelling parallel with an Air Force C-130 aircraft but at a much higher altitude.	[121]	2
1974-01-23	Berwyn Mountain UFO incident	Llandrillo, Merionethshire, North Wales	United Kingdom	An alleged UFO crash involving lights in the sky moments before a large impact shock. The cause of the incident was however soon revealed as a 3.5 magnitude earthquake.	[122][123]	0
1974-05-31	1974 Abduction Event	Beitbridge	South Africa	Travellers Peter and Frances MacNorman claimed an abduction event on 31 May, which would have started near Fort Victoria in the current southern Zimbabwe, and which would have continued to the vicinity of Beitbridge on the South African border.	[124]	4
1974-08-25	Coyame UFO incident	Coyame, Chihuahua	Mexico	An alleged mid-air collision between a UFO and a small airplane, near the town of Coyame, Chihuahua, close to the U.S.-Mexico border. Some people believe that a UFO crashed and was secretly recovered, but according to local residents, UFO rumors arose after Mexican military authorities conducted a search to recover drugs and money scattered across the landscape in the wreckage of a plane piloted by a U.S. resident in 1980.	[125][126]	4
1975-01-12	Stonehenge incident	North Bergen, New Jersey	United States	A UFO was allegedly sighted in North Hudson Park by a man, George O'Barski, while he was driving home at 2:45 AM.	[127]	2
1975-10-30	Wurtsmith AFB	Near Oscoda, Michigan	United States	USAF security personnel reported an unidentified craft flying within exceptionally-secure Strategic Air Command airspace over a B-52 base housing nuclear weapons and delivery systems. An incoming KC-135 tanker was later ordered to commence pursuit over Lake Huron. The object or objects, last seen back over the base's weapons storage area, were never identified.	[128][129]	1
1975-11-05	Travis Walton	Near Turkey Springs in Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, Arizona	United States	Logger Travis Walton reports being abducted by aliens for five days. Walton's six workmates claimed to have witnessed a bright hovering large silvery disk and fled the scene leaving him lying on the ground. He reappeared on 11-10 at late evening in Heber-Overgaard. Walton described the event and its aftermath in the book The Walton Experience (1978), which was dramatized in the film Fire in the Sky (1993) (with the scenes aboard the extraterrestrials' vessel significantly changed).	[120]	4
1976-01-06/07	Stanford Abduction	Between Stanford and Hustonville on Route 78, Kentucky	United States	Three women claimed to be abducted after seeing a bright red object and a blue light while driving in a car on the highway.	[130]	4
1976-06-22	1976 Canary Isles sightings	Canary Islands	Spain	Several lights and a spherical transparent blue craft, piloted by two beings was reported.	[131]	3
1976-08-26	Allagash Abductions	Eagle Lake on the Allagash waterway, Maine	United States	Four campers claimed to have been abducted by alien beings in the Allagash wilderness.	[132][133]	4
1976-09-19	1976 Tehran UFO incident	North of and in Tehran, Mazandaran and Tehran Provinces	Imperial State of Iran	A very bright object similar to a star was seen from Shemiran; after each approach to the UFO the electronic equipment of two F-4 interceptor aircraft of the Imperial Iranian Air Force was disabled, along with ground control equipment in Mehrabad International Airport, an event thoroughly documented in the U.S. DIA report. The Iranian generals involved in the incident claimed the object was extraterrestrial.	[134]	2
1977	Colares UFO flap	Colares, Pará	Brazil	Claims of UFOs on a river island investigated by the air force in "Operação Prato" and civilian researchers, among them J. F. Vallée.	[135]	2
1977	Broad Haven	Dyfed, Wales	United Kingdom	In the 1970s, the area was the scene of alleged UFO sightings and nicknamed the Broad Haven Triangle	[136][137]	2
1978-05-10	Emilcin Abduction	Emilcin, Lublin Voivodeship	Poland	A farmer in Emilcin is said to have been abducted and medically examined by short, green-faced, humanoid entities speaking an unearthly language in a white, hovering, humming craft. There is now a memorial at the site.	[138]	4
1978-10-21	Valentich disappearance	Victoria	Australia	Contacting air traffic control, an Australian pilot reported seeing a UFO before both he and his aircraft vanished.	[139][140]	2
1978-12-21	Kaikoura lights	South Island	New Zealand	A series of sightings by a Safe Air freight plane; the airplane was escorted by strange lights that changed color and size.	[141]	1
1979-01-03	1979 Mindalore Incident	Krugersdorp	South Africa	A mother and her 12-year-old son of Mindalore, Krugersdorp, both claimed an encounter with a group of human-like entities standing beside a craft. One of them encouraged her to depart with them permanently. After she refused, they entered the craft which then shot upwards and disappeared in 30 seconds.	[142]	5
1979-08-27	Val Johnson incident	Marshall County, Minnesota	United States	A deputy sheriff spotted a bright light which appeared to have collided with his patrol car and damaged it. The deputy also suffered temporary retinal damage from the "light".	[143][144]	2
1979-11-09	Dechmont Woods Encounter	Dechmont Law near Livingston, West Lothian, Scotland	United Kingdom	A forester, Bob Taylor, was pulled by two spiked globes towards a large spheroid object, which hovered on a clearing. He lost consciousness and afterwards had trouble walking and speaking. He was also constantly thirsty for several days.	[145]	2
1979-11-11	Manises UFO incident	Valencia, Province of Valencia	Spain	Three large UFOs forced a commercial flight to make an emergency landing at Manises Airport.	[146]	2
1980-12-24 to 28	Rendlesham-Woodbridge Incident	Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk, England	United Kingdom	A sighting by USAF personnel, which at first appeared to be a downed aircraft.	[147]	2
1980-12-29	Cash-Landrum incident	On state highway FM 1485 in New Caney, Texas	United States	A huge diamond-shaped object expelling flame and emitting heat irradiated three witnesses on an isolated road in dense woods, who all required treatment for radiation poisoning. The UFO was escorted by military helicopters including CH-47 Chinooks. The victims have since sued the United States Government.	[148]	2
1981-01-08	Trans-en-Provence Case	Trans-en-Provence, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur	France	Retired contractor Renato Nicolai said he saw a flying object shaped like two inverted bowls that reportedly left circular traces on the grass.	[149]	2
1981-12-31	Hudson Valley Sightings/Hudson Valley Boomerang	Hudson Valley	United States	A wave of reported UFO sightings in the Hudson Valley which ran until 1987, peaking in 1983-84.	[150]	2, 3 & 4
1983-06-30	Copely Woods Encounter	A suburb of Indianapolis, Indiana	United States	Hundreds of Basketball-Sized ball of lights were sighted around a neighborhood, leaving unusually obvious marks behind. Budd Hopkins wrote his book "Intruders" about the case.	[151][152][153]	4
1985-12-27	Communion	New York	United States	Author Whitley Strieber claims he was abducted by aliens while at his cabin in upstate New York.	[154]	4
1986-01-29	Height 611 UFO incident	Dalnegorsk, Primorski Krai	Soviet Union	The inhabitants of the town watched a reddish ball which crashed into a mount known as Height 611. According some ufologist there was an UFO crash.		2?
1986-05-19	São Paulo UFO sighting	São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro	Brazil	Brazilian Air Force allegedly detect and intercept UFOs in southeastern Brazil.		2
1986-11-17	Japan Air Lines flight 1628 incident	From eastern to south central Alaska	United States	First two square-shaped, then one very large craft witnessed by the crew flew alongside Japan Air Lines Flight 1628 for 50 minutes above Alaska. One of the objects trailing the Boeing 747 was detected by military radar.	[155]	2
1987-11-11	Gulf Breeze UFO incident	Florida	United States	Ed Walters, a building contractor claimed to see a UFO and take photos of it.		2
1990-03-30	Belgian UFO wave	Ans, Wallonia	Belgium	Reports of large, silent, low-flying black triangles, allegedly investigated by Belgium's military.	[156]	2
1990-08-24	Greifswald Lights	Greifswald, Bezirk Rostock	East Germany, Central Europe	At 8,30 p.m. many people saw a group of 7 luminous spheres in the sky. The spheres took the form of a Y and were witnessed for about 30 minutes. Photographic evidence exists.	[157]	2
1991-04-07	Baviaanspoort Sighting	Pretoria	South Africa	A hovering triangular craft with red central light, and white star-like lights on each extremity, was observed by a family at Baviaanspoort, Pretoria. A similar craft was sighted in the nearby Eersterust township on the evenings of 8 and 9 April, either stationary or moving.	[158][159][160]	1
1991-09-15	STS-48 incident	Space Shuttle Discovery while in orbit	Outer space	Video taken during mission STS-48 shows a flash of light and several objects, apparently flying in an artificial or controlled fashion. NASA explained them as ice particles reacting to engine jets.	[161]	0
1993-08-08	Kelly Cahill Abduction	at a road in the Dandenong Ranges near Belgrave, Victoria	Australia	Housewife Kelly Cahill reported seeing a large craft and beings with glowing red eyes.	[162][163]	5
1993-11-18	Sasolburg Sighting	Sasolburg	South Africa	Residents of Sasolburg observed a craft arriving from the direction of Vereeniging. The craft departed in a flash in the direction of Parys, but returned some three minutes later. The craft, similar in appearance to a water droplet, was observed to change colour and shape. With time individual lights were distinguished, and the body was determined to be cigar-shaped. While contained in a yellowish to orange glow, it emitted a downward blue light, before once again departing in a flash, upwards. A nearby town resident claimed to have found imprints of a small craft's landing gear some two months later.	[164][165]	1, 2
1994-09	Warrenton Sighting	Warrenton	South Africa	A farmer claimed to have made repeated observations of a noisy, nighttime craft travelling at great speeds, besides what he described as a 'mother ship'. The craft's noise was compared to the sound of a helicopter or Volkswagen Beetle engine. The farmer's general claims were supported by four independent observers.	[166]	1
1994-09-16	Ariel UFO incident	Ruwa, East Mashonaland	Zimbabwe	62 children saw a landed round aircraft and a small man next to it near their school.	[167][168]	3
1995-03	South Africa UFO Flap	South Africa	South Africa	A UFO flap swept South Africa from late March to mid April 1995, which was widely reported in the media.	[169][170][171]	2
1995-05-25	America West Airlines Flight 564	Bovina, Texas	United States	A 300–400 foot long cigar-shaped UFO with rotating strobe light followed an America West Boeing 757	[172]	2
1996-01-20	Varginha UFO incident	Varginha	Brazil	Brazilian Armed Forces allegedly captured extraterrestrial being after an UFO crash. The Brazilian government has officially denied these claims. According to a military inquest, a local man with disabilities was mistaken for an alien.	[173]	3
1996-07-28	Erasmuskloof Sighting	Pretoria	South Africa	A glowing disc was sighted by Sergeant Becker near the Adriaan Vlok police station, Erasmuskloof, Pretoria. The pulsating light contained a red triangle and emitted bright green tentacles, while a radar operator at Johannesburg International confirmed its presence. A chase ensued involving some 200 policemen and a police helicopter. The helicopter chase was given up at 10,000 ft near Bronkhorstspruit, when the object made a vertical ascent.	[174][175][176]	1
1996-10-05	Westendorff UFO sighting	Pelotas	Brazil	Pilot observes a UFO emerge from a mother craft		1
1996-12-02	STS-80 incidents	Space Shuttle Columbia while in orbit	Outer space	A video taken during mission STS-80 of the Space Shuttle Columbia was analyzed by Mark J. Carlotto. It included three unusual phenomena: two slow-moving circular objects; a strange rapidly moving burst of light near the Earth's surface; and a number of object traces near the shuttle. The first two may be shuttle debris and an unusual atmospheric phenomenon. An analysis of the object traces near the shuttle suggested they were not shuttle debris or meteors, though James Oberg deemed them to be nearby sunlit debris.	[177][178]	2
1997-03-13	Phoenix Lights	Phoenix, Arizona	United States	Lights and craft of varying descriptions, most notably a V-shaped pattern, were seen by thousands of people between 19:30 and 22:30 MST, in a space of about 300 miles, from the Nevada line, through Phoenix, to the edge of Tucson.	[179][180]	1
1997-07	Trichardt Sighting	Trichardt	South Africa	A hovering, cylindrical light or shiny cloud, was filmed by Andreas Mathios in the sky above the town of Trichardt, in the current western Mpumalanga province. Besides Mathios, it was independently observed by three other persons around 6:50am. The light suddenly dropped and rose again before disappearing.	[181]	0
1998-12-27	Graaff-Reinet sighting	Graaff-Reinet	South Africa	The Laubscher family videotaped a group of roundish triangular craft passing over the town of Graaff-Reinet, at about 25,000 ft. These were changing colour and sometimes circled one another, before being overtaken by a much larger, shiny, gold-coloured craft. At this point all the objects departed to a cloud bank on the horizon.	[182][183]	0
2000-05-08	Warden Sighting	Warden	South Africa	Police inspector Kriel claimed to have observed an approaching UFO while travelling on the N3 freeway, 70 km north of Warden in the eastern Free State province. The orange, oval-shaped light was fitted with two cupolas, one above and another below, and was wide enough to cover four lanes of the freeway. After a close approach the craft receded again. A follow up report claimed that the vicinity is known for moving light apparitions.	[184]	1
Date	Name	City, State	Country	Description	Sources	Hynek Scale
2001-07-15	Morristown UFO hoax	Carteret, New Jersey	United States	At least 15 people, including 2 police officers, stopped their cars along the New Jersey Turnpike to view light formations in the night sky.	[185][186]	1
2004-03-05	2004 Mexican UFO incident		Mexico	A drug-smuggling air-patrol recorded on infrared camera what some claimed to be UFOs. The footage was released by Jaime Maussan. The objects were however convincingly correlated with the burn-off flares of oil platforms.	[187]	2
2004-08-21 to 2006-10-31	The Tinley Park Lights	Tinley Park, Illinois	United States	A sequence of five mass UFO sightings, first on August 21, 2004, two months later on October 31, 2004, again on October 1 of 2005, and once again on October 31, 2006, in Tinley Park and Oak Park, Chicago.	[188][189][190]	1
2006-11-07	2006 O'Hare International Airport UFO sighting	Chicago, Illinois	United States	United Airlines employees and pilots claimed sightings of a saucer-shaped, unlit craft hovering over a Chicago O'Hare Airport terminal, before shooting up vertically.	[191]	1
2007-04-23	2007 Alderney UFO sighting	Alderney	Bailiwick of Guernsey	Two airline pilots on separate flights spot UFOs off the coast of Alderney.	[192]	1
2007-10-29	2007 Kolkata UFO sighting	Kolkata	India	A fast moving object was spotted at 30° in the eastern horizon between 3:30AM and 6:30AM and filmed on handycam. Its shape shifted from a sphere to a triangle and then to a straight line. The object emitted a bright light forming a halo and radiated a range of colours. It was spotted by many people and hundreds gathered along the E.M. Bypass to catch a glimpse of the UFO, triggering a frenzy. The video footage was released on a TV News channel and later shown to Dr. D.P. Duari, the director of MP Birla Planetarium, Kolkata, who found it to be "extremely interesting and strange".	[193][194][195]	1
2007-11-28 to 2011-12-13	Dudley Dorito	West Midlands conurbation	United Kingdom	The Dudley Dorito sightings concerns multiple sightings of a black triangle over the West Midlands conurbation of the United Kingdom which began in November 2007. The phrase was coined by the local press after hearing witness descriptions of the object.	[196][197]	1
2008-01-08 to 2008-02-09	Stephenville, Texas UFO sightings	Stephenville, Texas, Dublin, Texas, Crawford, Texas	United States	UFOs were, and are sometimes still reported from this area. One was an object described as 1 mile (1.6 km) by 1.5 miles (2.4 km) in size, spotted over Bush Ranch in Crawford, Texas. The Air Force has identified the objects as training fighter jets that went unreported due to a "communications problem".	[198]	1
2008-05 to 2008-09	2008 Turkey UFO sightings	Istanbul	Turkey	Over a four-month span in 2008, a night guard at the Yeni Kent Compound videotaped one or more UFOs over Turkey at nighttime. Many witnesses confirmed the two and a half hours' worth of video, leading the Sirius UFO Space Science Research Center to dub it the "most important images of a UFO ever filmed".	[199]	2
2008-06-20	Wales UFO sightings	different cities, Wales	United Kingdom	According to media reports, a police helicopter was almost hit by a UFO, before it tried to pursue it. Hundreds of people reported to have witnessed a UFO on the same or preceding days, from different areas of Wales.	[200]	2
2009-02-27	Middelburg Witbank Sighting	Middelburg - Witbank	South Africa	Two formations of high-flying, orange-red objects, were seen by many witnesses, and video-recorded by some, as they traveled between the towns of Middelburg and Witbank, 25 kilometres (16 mi) apart. The first formation of 7 objects were seen at 21:51 on 27 February, as they flew westwards from Middelburg towards Witbank. Due to their altitude they eventually disappeared behind clouds. At 20:00 on 6 March, they were noted again high in the sky, but this time greater in number, 23, and traveling in the opposite direction.	[201][202]	1
2009-12-09	2009 Norwegian spiral anomaly	Finnmark	Norway and Sweden	A large, circular spinning white light, trailed by a long blue tail over the skies of Norway was spotted by thousands for two minutes around 8:45 am on December 9. The Norwegian media and space center were swamped with calls, and the phenomenon was held to be anything from a UFO to a unique aurora borealis event. The following day Russian authorities confirmed a failed Bulava launch, explaining the anomaly.	[203][204]	1
2010-01-25	Harbour Mille incident	Harbour Mille, Newfoundland and Labrador	Canada	At least three UFOs were spotted over Harbour Mille. The objects looked like missiles but emitted no noise.	[205]	1
2010-07-21	Booysens Sighting	Pretoria	South Africa	Residents of Booysens, Pretoria, observed a triangle of bright lights which hung motionless in the sky for two hours. In each instance the object commenced a slow descent towards the horizon at 20:30. Binocular observation revealed nothing more than a blue and emerald light, with a white light which shone straight downwards.	[206]	1
2010-10-23	Warren Air Force Base	Wyoming	United States	UFO sighting coincides with 50 nuclear missiles going off-line.	[207]	1, 2
2011-01-28	Jerusalem Dome of the Rock UFO incident	Jerusalem	Israel	Later shown to be a hoax.	[208][209]	0
2011-02-20	2011 Vancouver UFO sighting	Vancouver, Washington	United States	Reports of purple and red flashing lights appearing in the sky on the evening of February 20, 2011 were revealed as a hoax by the owner of a large Chinese made kite with lights attached.	[210]	0
2011-05-11	Tierpoort Sighting	Pretoria	South Africa	A host of silent, orange lights with consistent luminosity were observed as they traveled faster than a commercial aeroplane over Tierpoort near Pretoria (some 20 objects) and Krugersdorp respectively. On 15 June seven of these objects were observed and some photographed as they crossed the sky in single file over Tierpoort.	[211][212][213]	1
2014-08-11	Mass UFO sighting	Houston, Texas	United States	Many people in Houston, Texas saw a ring of lights, flying during a thunderstorm and this was captured on video, object seemed to be transparent but the lights were arranged in a circle with a central light visible on some pictures.	[214][215]	1
2014-10-03	Colorado UFO sighting	Breckenridge, Colorado	United States	The police in Breckenridge, Colorado received not only one but multiple reports of UFO sightings over the city. The mysterious objects remained stationary for periods of up to 15 minutes at a time. After that, a flash would appear and the “objects would take off across the mountain ridge”.	[216]	1
2014-11-11	Airplane Disc Sighting	Alborz	Iran	Plane passenger records speeding circular 'UFO' zooming beneath the jet he was in as it flies over Iran. According to the Daily Mail, "the most likely explanation is that it is high tech drone being operated by the Iranian military."	[217]	1
2015-06-25	2015 Kanpur UFO sighting	Kanpur	India	A schoolboy claimed to have captured photographs of a UFO.	[218][219][220]	1
2015-11-28	2015 Gorakhpur UFO sighting	Gorakhpur	India	The UFO, a huge disc-shaped flying object, was reportedly caught hovering over Padri market in Gorakhpur. Rumours are doing the rounds on the web that the UFO was the same object that was spotted in Lucknow and Kanpur a few months prior. The viral pictures were clicked by an individual identified as Rinku, who reportedly said the object was rotating on its own. The photos have been widely circulated on messaging apps such as WhatsApp and social networking sites including Facebook and Twitter. However, the district administration has dismissed the rumours, saying it was just another hoax. The viral images are being studied by experts from Gorakhpur University.