Incredible Yet True UFO Reports From Pilots and Astronauts

UFO encounters are often dismissed by skeptics as the product of attention-seekers, hoaxes, or simply overactive imaginations.  But what happens when the UFO is seen by some of the most trained and trustworthy professionals around?   Compared to encounters by ground-dwelling civilians, cases of UFOs seen by pilots and astronauts are some of the most credible UFO stories around.

These UFO sightings are, perhaps, the most convincing because these witnesses are highly respected professionals whom we trust with our lives.  These individuals have nothing to gain by putting their careers and reputations on the line reporting bizarre happenings in the skies.

More shocking is the sheer volume  of these reported incidents that happen every year.  Here’s a list of some of the more notable sightings of alien spacecraft by pilots and astronauts.

The granddaddy of all UFO encounters has been giving professionals the chills for decades because of the credibility of the witnesses and the fact that it proceeded “UFO mania” in the popular media.

The event happened in the early morning hours of July 24, 1948. Clarence Chiles, chief pilot, and John Whitted, co-pilot, were flying an Eastern Airlines passenger plane near Montgomery, Alabama, at about 5,000 feet altitude on a clear night.

At about 2:45 am, Chiles “saw a dull red glow above and ahead of the aircraft.” He told Whitted, “Look, here comes a new Army jet job.”

The object closed on their DC-3 in a matter of seconds, and flew past the right side of their plane before it pulled “up with a tremendous burst of flame out of its rear and zoomed up into the clouds.”  The pilots said that the object looked like a flying cigar with two decks and windows.

One of the plane’s passengers, C.L. McKelvie, also reported seeing a “bright streak of light” that flashed by his window.

The military and scientific skeptics later challenged the account, saying that it was probably a meteor the pilots and passenger saw – although it must be pointed out that few meteors have windows for passengers or zoom straight up in a rapid climb, rather than falling down to earth.  Additionally, both men claimed they got a good, long (10 to 15 seconds) look at the object. The event remains one of the most cited examples of credible “UFO” encounters.

In 2005, astronaut Leroy Chiao, commander of the International Space Station, reported a UFO encounter during a space walk.  He and a colleague were installing navigation antennas when something unusual caught Chiao’s eye.  Below him in the Earth’s atmosphere he saw a line of lights that looked like “an upside-down question mark.”

One non-UFO explanation for Chiao’s sighting offered by skeptics is that Chiao simply saw the bright lights of a fishing boat hundreds of miles below him.  Of course, those would have to be some pretty insanely powerful fishing lights to be seen all the way in outer space – and why Chiao didn’t see the lights of other boats all over the ocean has never been explained.

One of the most well-known early UFO encounters involved Lieutenant George F. Gorman of the North Dakota Air National Guard, who said he had a twenty-seven minute “dogfight” with a UFO in the skies above Fargo.

On the night of October 1, 1948, Gorman was preparing to land his P-51 when he saw a light aircraft outlined plainly about 500 feet below him.  He called the tower, but the operator there told him they knew of no other planes in the area.

Gorman informed the tower that he was going to investigate.  He closed to within about 1,000 yards and took a good look at the object.

It was about six to eight inches in diameter, clear white, and completely round without fuzz at the edges. It was blinking on and off. As I approached, however, the light suddenly became steady and pulled into a sharp left bank. I thought it was making a pass at the tower.

Gorman says the light suddenly charged him. When collision seemed imminent, the object suddenly shot straight up into the air in a steep climb-out, disappearing overhead. Gorman again attempted to pursue it, but his plane went into a power stall at about 14,000 feet, and the object was not seen again. It was then 9:27 pm.

In the airport control tower, traffic controllers Lloyd D. Jensen and H. E. Johnson also saw a strange light near the airfield.  In a statement to Major D. C. Jones, commander of the 17th Fighter Squadron at Hector airport, Gorman said he was convinced that there was “thought” behind the maneuvers.

George F. Gorman retired from the Air Force in 1969 with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and settled in Texas.

Even the original Mercury astronauts had strange encounters in outer space.  Major Gordon Cooper (who was later famously played by actor Dennis Quaid in the blockbuster film The Right Stuff) had more than one UFO encounter.

The most well-known one took place on May 15, 1963, when he was shot into space in a Mercury capsule for a 22-day journey around the world. During the final orbit, Cooper told the tracking station at Muchea (near Perth, Australia) that he could see a glowing, greenish object ahead of him that was closing fast on his spacecraft.  The UFO was picked up by Muchea’s tracking radar – so there is no doubt it actually existed.

Cooper’s sighting was reported by NBC, but when Cooper landed, reporters were told that they would not be allowed to question him about the UFO sighting.

Major Cooper later testified before the United Nations on the subject, saying:

I believe that these extra-terrestrial vehicles and their crews are visiting this planet from other planets… Most astronauts were reluctant to discuss UFOs… I did have occasion in 1951 to have two days of observation of many flights of them, of different sizes, flying in fighter formation, generally from east to west over Europe.

On February 10, 1951, US Naval Reserve Lieutenant and co-pilot Graham Bethune was occupying the captain’s seat near Newfoundland, Canada, when he spotted a huge floating object (he claimed it was 300 feet in diameter) on a near collision course with their aircraft.

The co-pilot stated in his official report:

I observed a glow of light below the horizon about 1,000 to 1,500 feet [330-470 meters] above the water. We both [the pilot as well] observed its course and motion for about 4 or 5 minutes before calling it to the attention of the other crew members…

Suddenly, the object changed direction at incredible speed, and began to pulsate and change its colors, as well.  Then it somehow reversed its course and tripled its speed until it at last disappeared over the horizon.

Bethune’s report says that the object came within five miles of  his aircraft  – a fact proven by radar evidence provided by the DEW Line Ground Radar at the base in Goose Bay, Labrador, that tracked the object.

Pilots from Turkish Airlines were flying from the Turkish resort town of Bodrum to the country’s largest city, Istanbul.  Suddenly, a mysterious green light appeared over the plane.  As the pilot later testified,“An unidentified object with green lights passed 2- to 3,000 feet above us. Then it disappeared all of a sudden. We are guessing that it was a UFO.”

The UFO was also reported to be seen around Istanbul’s Silivri district.

The General Directorate of State Airports Authority denied spotting any image that fitted the description of the pilot. Doubters claim that the pilots saw a green laser pointer that was reflecting off a cloud. However, it seems pretty hard to believe pilots would never have seen a laser pointer before – plus, that would have had to be a pretty huge laser pointer to create an effect such as they described.

For the record, pilots do not generally report fleeting flashes of light as UFOs.

This famous encounter was recounted by pilot Andrew Danziger.  It happened during a routine flight on  April 10, 1989. It was about 8 pm on a clear night with a full moon.  Shortly after take-off from the Kansas City International Airport, Danziger saw a white disc clearly visible through the clouds just off to his right.  It appeared to be flying parallel to them, matching their speed and direction.

The captain of the flight admitted he had noticed the same thing since they had leveled off. The pilots describe the light:

It looked similar to the moon faintly visible though thin fog, except the two were visible at the same time on opposite sides of our cockpit…. The captain and I had cumulatively spent many years flying and were accustomed to seeing – day and night – all manner of airplane, blimp, hot air balloon, satellite, and bird. But neither of us had any idea what this disk could be.

All of a sudden, the white disk turned into a giant red ball of light.  The red light hovered in the air and then disappeared into some clouds as the plane descended for landing.

Danziger explains how common this is for pilots:

I’m not going too far out on a ledge to say that virtually all pilots believe in UFOs. Little green men, ‘close encounters,’ alien kidnappings… not so much. But with billions of stars and trillions of planets out there, ‘ya gotta believe,’ and almost all of us do.