If aliens are on Earth, the one domain they definitively rule is the sky. Accounts of
extraterrestrials or otherworldly beings appearing on the ground are rare. But sightings of UFOs
in the air are relatively common. Our own technology is nowhere near as advanced as
what people report seeing overhead - or, in some cases, sharing the airspace with our own planes.
This is Unveiled and today we’re exploring the
extraordinarily bizarre UFOs seen by plane passengers.
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While ancient history does include some accounts of strange objects in the sky, UFOs are primarily
a modern phenomenon. During World War II, fighter pilots reported seeing round, glowing fireballs in
the skies. Referred to as “foo fighters”, they were sometimes described as toying playfully
with Allied aircraft. The military assumed them to be secret German weapons - but it
turned out that the Germans were seeing them too! They’ve been explained away as military rockets,
electrical discharge from airplane wings, or ball lightning. The sighting that really kicked off
the craze though came in June 24, 1947, when pilot Kenneth Arnold spotted nine unusual objects flying
over Mount Rainier, Washington. Another came the following year, when Kentucky Air National Guard
pilot Captain Thomas F. Mantell pursued an unknown object but blacked out, leading to his death.
Yet another famous case is that of Japan Air Lines Cargo Flight 1628. In November, 1986,
the crew claimed that two unidentified objects trailed their plane over Eastern Alaska. They
could reportedly makeout “nozzles”, perhaps for thrusters”, on the ships. The captain claimed
that he could feel the heat from the ships on his face in the cabin! After the two objects departed,
a larger, disk-shaped craft took their place. The sighting lasted for almost an hour.
More recently, video footage of UFOs performing impossible actions in the air has surfaced from
military archives and sparked a renewed interest. They include videos taken by Navy
pilots from the USS Nimitz and USS Theodore Roosevelt. The Pentagon has confirmed these
videos as authentic. And this footage isn’t rare - a recent report noted that the U.S.
military database now has over 400 reported UFO sightings. Perhaps it makes some sense that air
force pilots are seeing these objects so frequently, since they spend so long
in the skies and surrounded by cutting edge technology. But everyday passengers onboard
commercial airplanes have also sighted UFOs, and their stories are often difficult to explain.
One of the oddest airborne encounters ever recorded occurred in 1985 on board
an Aeroflot airliner. The Soviet plane was passing over Minsk, Belarus when the
passengers and crew were met with a sight they would likely never forget. During the flight,
a giant shaft of light suddenly beamed down past the plane. The light seemed to be coming from an
“unblinking star” overhead and reached all the way to the ground. The crew onboard reported
they could see the illuminated homes of the people below. That would be strange enough,
but then witnesses report that the cone of light focused directly on the airplane itself. Moments
later a UFO flew down and hovered beside the plane, leaving a green cloud behind it. To
keep the terrified passengers calm, the captain allegedly had the flight attendant tell them that
they were just seeing reflections of the city and polar lights. But the UFO was confirmed on radar
by ground control. A member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, Nikolai Zheltukhin,
commented that its ability to reverse course instantly was “undoubtedly abnormal.” This
strange UFO escorted the plane all the way until it landed down in Latvia. And, as no
one has managed to explain this sighting since, it remains a famous example among ufologists.
Of course, inexplicable UFO sightings aren’t limited to Russia. Another weird sighting occurred
over the Aegean Sea in March 2018. Passenger Kerry Forides happens to own a camera company
on the island of Corfu, and this came in handy when he noticed a very strange object outside of
the plane window. He pulled out his camera and managed to capture video evidence of an object
bursting from below the clouds with a long black trail streaming out behind it. Interestingly,
a similar object was spotted in the skies in early 2022 on a Southwest Airlines flight.
Viewers who watched the video footage claimed that the oddly shaped object looked like a
Dementor from the Harry Potter series. The UFO could be explained away as a contrail,
but it gets weirder. The object in the 2018 sighting seems to stall in the sky,
going nose-up, before switching directions in midair. It also appears narrower or thicker
depending on the angle it's seen from. The object doesn’t seem to be flying as much as it
seems to be doing tricks in the air, flipping and shifting among the white clouds. While the most
likely explanation still involves vapor trails and shadows, the way it moves seems to be unnatural.
Next, and while many UFOs are described as lights in the sky, or as saucer-like discs,
there’s some variety in reports of flying phenomena. Take the sighting that occurred
in early 2020 from an Airbus A320, which was flying over Medellin,
in Colombia. The pilot saw something out of the corner of his eye and filmed it with his phone.
A small cube-like object can be seen appearing among the clouds and soaring across the sky.
Although the distance makes it hard to gauge its size, one scientist estimated that it was
10 to 15 feet across. Again, perhaps the most bizarre part of this sighting is how
the object moves - in a straight line and without any sort of fuel or visible energy source pushing
it forward. It appears as though it's just drifting through space with no resistance.
This isn’t the first time an object like this has been seen either. In 2018 a similar looking
UFO was seen by the pilot of an FA-18 fighter jet off of the East Coast of the United States.
The History Channel covered this sighting and even had a panel of experts scrutinize
it. They agreed that it fits the designation of a UFO because it hasn’t been conclusively
explained. It’s obviously not a bird and it’s too slow to be another plane or missile. Plus,
it lacks a jet stream. These odd characteristics cause some to speculate that it’s something like
a Bracewell probe, an automated craft sent here by aliens to gather information on us.
Perhaps the strangest UFO ever seen onboard an airplane, however, happened to a German tourist in
2021. Seeing something odd outside of the window, the passenger began recording the phenomenon.
He saw a wispy object soaring through the sky alongside the plane. But what made this particular
UFO so unique was its ability to apparently shapeshift. The object seemed to be constantly
morphing as it moved. The YouTuber who posted the video online suggested it was some sort of
plasma-based life form living in the atmosphere. Viewers put forward different explanations,
though, claiming it was instead a water droplet on the window, filmed up close, or a refraction
pattern, caused by light passing through air of different densities. Whatever it was, the object
reportedly accompanied the plane, traveling at around 500 miles per hour, for seven minutes.
Finally, although the thought of coming into contact with UFOs while on board a
plane might sound scary… as far as we know, these objects never actually hurt humans. There are no
verified cases of them causing intentional harm to a civilian, even though there are instances
where pilots were afraid they would crash into them. As always, it’s also important to note
that ‘UFO’ doesn’t immediately equate to ‘alien life’. These strange examples are just flying
objects that can’t be identified. Regardless, the U.S. government has been taking UFO sightings more
and more seriously since their military pilots began seeing them in the skies as well. And,
in light of this, the stories from passengers on commercial airlines shouldn’t be automatically
dismissed. Because those are some of the most bizarre UFOs seen by plane passengers.
What do you think? Is there anything we missed? Let us know in the comments, check out these other
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