Five of my favourite from the "best" UFO sightings/encounters

So, I've been thinking, as there is a current slump (it appears) in UFO activity (I believe such things are cyclic, and possibly next year will be a big year), and there are so many hoaxes out there on the net these days, I thought I'd revisit some old cases and list five that really stand the test of time for me. They probably aren't what you expect, but here goes....



Cash Landrum
Possibly not extraterrestrial, but certainly unknown, what Betty Cash and Vickie Landrum experienced definitely had an effect on them physically and mentally - there is no doubt they experienced exposure to some kind of radiation/chemical agent. This incident happened the day after the Rendlesham Incident in the UK. I've always wondered if what they encountered was actually one of ours - possibly a test article of some kind of new nuclear propulsion system (although there apparently was no trace of abnormal radioactivity in the area) or, possibly a live test of some form of chemical warfare/hallucinagen spraying where they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Certainly a UFO in the true sense of being unidentified and irrefutable that something happened to them.



JAL 1628
When an experienced ex-fighter pilot turned Heavy Cargo jet Captain goes public and tells you his aircraft was followed by an object the size of two aircraft carriers over Northern Alaska, its time to sit up and take notice. When the whole incident is recorded on audio, and on radar, and corroborated by ground controllers and the rest of the aeroplane crew, and is unwavering to this day, its time to wonder what the hell these people encountered. What started as two lights ahead of the plane and a question of whether there was military traffic in the area certainly escalated, and pretty quickly. There are drawings out there made by the captain of what he saw, and it must have been terrifying and exquisitely tantalising at the same time.



Zimbabwe School Landing
Kids make things up, right? Everyone knows kids are prone to flights of fancy. However, when 62 of them all claim that a UFO landed right next to their school, the day after a mass UFO sighting in Zimbabwe, and that some form of alien entity approached them, scaring them half to death you have to start to wonder what they saw. This case has baffled psychiatrists who have investigated it and walked away believing that the children are definitely scarred from some kind of incident. The story has also stood the test of time, with the witnesses never changing any details as they have grown up. It makes for interesting and (potentially) chilling reading.



Lonnie Zamora Incident
In recent years, people have tried to explain this case away, suggesting that Lonnie Zamora was the victim of a prank. I say that those explanations are crap, bought about by someone trying to make a name for themselves in UFOlogy. Zamora was a well respected cop with no reason whatsoever to lie about what he saw and this case has all the hallmarks of something unusual. Police officer sighting, corroborating witnesses to something unusual in the area, ground evidence and traces of activity - so much so that J.Allen Hynek described it as a genuine unknown.



The Cosford Incident
This is one of EX-MOD investigator turned UFO researcher Nick Pope's favourite UFO incidents. That should be enough to pique anyone's curiosity and it seems that something really rather huge and triangular shaped traversed a large chunk of British airspace in 1993. It was sighted by multiple independent witnesses, including RAF personnel at two separate bases. Made even more unusual by the fact that there was satellite debris re-re-entering the atmosphere at one point during the evening (the times of sightings differ from that of the re-entry) AND even more extraordinary by the responses to Nicks investigation and answers/questions from the US government, this is one my standout cases, and one that keeps me looking up hoping it'll come back one day.



There are other compelling cases, but I won't run through them all because I'm interested in what you guys might want to add to the list of "the best" with one caveat - no Roswel (its been done to death) - throw some more of your faves at me, or give me your thoughts on what I've listed above?

3 from OZ


Gosford
Westfall
Frederic Velentich

a reply to: neformore

Nice list, I'm going to give some further reading to the lot of them. Hopefully I'll be allowed enough kid nap time reading to get it in soon and report back.

a reply to: neformore

This is exactly what I have been SO missing -- the very thing that drew many of us to ATS in the first place.

At least two of those incidents I was completely unaware of. Thank you SO much for reengaging my UFO/visitor studies, Nef.

I have a few favourites that many people are probably not aware of:



The Gulf Breeze Six a story linked to the events around UFO sightings in Gulf Breeze and a mission to kill the antichrist. Various characters deserted from 701st Military Intelligence Brigade in Germany and miraculously made it back to the States without ever being tracked. That is until a dud headlight was spotted by a local police officer as the group headed towards Gulf Breeze.

The Dechmont Woods (Bob Taylor) UFO A true Twilight Zone type sighting of a very strange daylight UFO encounter including physical traces, injuries to the witness and the object(s) reported were not like your regular saucer or triangle sightings.The only UFO case were a criminal investigation was carried out in Britain.

And finally one I did a thread on myself

The Phantom Helicopters over the UK in the mid-1970s.

Possibly not considered by many to be true "UFOs" but someone or something was flying over the Cheshire plains and the Derbyshire peaks in late 1973 and early 1974. At times in very bad weather and in darkness. Something very dangerous and reckless. The sightings strangely tailed off just after the alleged Berwyn Mountains UFO crash in the early months of 1974. UK Special Branch eventually closed the file admitting that the objects and perpetrators were never traced.

The Cash Landrum case has always fascinated me. In my head it is like a scene from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. That is exactly how I picture it. I also think it was some kind of prototype tech that had problems.

I think my favourite case though has to be the so called "Belgian wave" of the early 90's. Again I lean towards tech demonstration with that one but even if that is the case it still wows me. I would link to a thread about it but I do not know which one is the best, there are quite a few!

And the Valentich case is just...bizarre and extremely sad, as well as quite scary.

I will read (again in most cases) the links you guys post on here. This should be great fun.

a reply to: neformore

Dammit, you've posted as I'm logging out of here so I'll be quick and flesh out the post tomorrow...if anyone cares.

Minot AFB, 1968.

A wild bunch of stuff happening that included radar and visuals of an airborne object as well as a landed object on the base - multiple witnesses in different areas.

Jacques Vallee's and Michael Swords' saucer sightings.

Whatever they saw inspired them to create some seminal works and become credible proponents of a mystery on our planet. I think their sightings are key to trying to understand an overlooked aspect.

Colares, Brazil 1977

Like Minot AFB, these were wild events that don't easily fit into one explanation or follow a typical narrative. Yeah, it could have been some CIA mischief, but to what end and why were there no similar events? It could have been aliens and yet why act like that in Colares and nowhere else on Earth? Maybe it was collective hysteria? Then again there were educated professionals there who weren't prone to fairy tales. The military guys arrived and took photos of lights in the skies and locals described flying objects with human-looking beings in board. Too much in there to feel secure with hoax, misperception, psy-ops or aliens as explanations.

Will post another couple tomorrow if possible.

a reply to: mirageman

....and what you said

Good choices.

a reply to: neformore

The Csoford UFO did come back. I witnessed it personally it seems.

It was the reason for my first post on ats.

a reply to: mirageman

Regarding the Phantom Heli's - I am from Cheshire originally, and can attest to those sightings - I remember vividly my parents discussing them even though I was 4/5 years old at the time, and have discussed it with them as I got older and more into the subject matter - There was a lot of speculation that they were IRA gun running helicopters, but it was never proven. I'd actually forgotten about that case so now I'm going to go do some reading of my own! Thank you!!!

a reply to: Kandinsky

Wow... had never heard of Colares... more reading for me

Cheers!!!

a reply to: Jonjonj

I left out the Beligian wave in the hopes that someone would bring it up.

I'd dearly love to have been out there when that stuff was going on. There is a lot of speculation that it was some form of Stealth aircraft but I think that's baloney - would love to hear your take on it

Thank you for this post! I had just been sighing over the lack of anything new and I hadn't heard of a couple of these.

MIne would come under the list of abductions and it would be the Betty and Barney Hill Incident. Still stands the test of time, at least I think for the grandaddy of all abduction incidents. Honorable mention would go to Whitely Streiber and his incidents.

a reply to: Kandinsky

I remember that one in Minot, from stories my Dad and my Uncle Tom, my moms little brother, told me.

It occurred just two years after my dad was transferred out to Fairchild AFB for his final stationing, I think. Around that long, anyway...

It was of great concern to the Air Force, despite soothing words to the contrary. Both were members in good standing of the senior NCO network, and there was serious concern, bordering on panic, not just about Minot, but other bases, which included Fairchild, where we were.

a reply to: neformore

There was one here in Walla Walla back in the early 70's that had people talking.

It was seen by numerous officers at the Penitentiary, and farmers from the local area. I'll see what I can find...I don't believe any of the witnesses are still alive.

One of my favorites is the Malmstrom AFB/nuke ufo flap. link

During the early morning hours, more than one report came in from the security patrols and maintenance crews that they had seen UFOs. A UFO was reported directly above one of the E-Flight (LF) or silos. It turned out that at least one security policeman was so affected by this encounter that he never again returned to missile security duty.

When Figel spoke with the on-site security guard, he reported that they had not yet performed any maintenance that morning. He also stated that a UFO had been hovering over the site. Figel recalls thinking the guard must have been drinking something. However, now other missiles started to go off alert in rapid succession! Within seconds, the entire flight of ten ICBMs was down! All of their missiles reported a "No-Go" condition. One by one across the board, each missile had became inoperable. When the checklist procedure had been completed for each missile site, it was discovered that each of the missiles had gone off alert status due to a Guidance and Control (G&C) System fault. Power had not been lost to the sites; the missiles simply were not operational because, for some unexplainable reason, each of their guidance and control systems had malfunctioned.

a reply to: neformore

First thanks so much for this interesting thread.

There is a case from 1936 I have always found interesting.
Link

Eklutna, AK

Sighted on Thursday 15. October 1936
Reported on Monday 05. February 2001
Shape: Cigar | Duration: 3 minutes.
Source: NUFORC

Two men approached by a cigar-shaped object in the night sky.I happened to be in Alaska because I had been working for Washington Fish & Oyster Co...

... we flattened ourselves in the snow when it passed overhead. In the few moments I looked at it, it was to all appearances cigar-shaped with the bluish light on the side.


... We spoke with Mr. Berg on many occasions about his sighting, and we found his story to be most compelling

Some info about the old Eklutna Power Plant.

I find a lot of these older events to be more interesting than the seemingly never ending reports now. It used to be that making a UFO report labeled a person, unlike now.

That Mr. Berg thought it important enough to report after all those years I find interesting.

There's quite a few cases here that I had never heard of. Good reading ahead.

Shag harbour I think was quite interesting and I don't think that UFO was man made. I live close to that area and that may be why I find that incident interesting. As far as I know, it was never debunked.

Russian Roswell. I apologize for the poor format and lack of bbcoding, I'm using a phone.


"According to the reports, not far from the city of Prohlandnyi at 1:00 AM, on August 10, 1989, Soviet military radar units picked up an unidentified flying object. An attempt was made to contact the craft, without success. The UFO was classified as "hostile." Russian defenses were put on alert, and Mig-25s were put in the air to find and identify the UFO."


Accounts seem to vary a little especially concerning dates, it would seem, however its something to look into if you have the time.


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