One of the most significant and convincing UFO sightings/encounters in history.
The Manises UFO incident
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>on November 11, 1979, aboard a Supercaravelle airplane bound for the Canary Islands, pilot Francisco Javier Lerdo de Tejada and his crew noticed a set of red lights that were fast approaching the aircraft.
>the lights appeared to be on a collision course with the aircraft, alarming the crew
>the captain requested information about the inexplicable lights, but neither the military radar of Torrejón de Ardoz (Madrid) nor the flight control center in Barcelona could provide any explanation for the flying object(s).
>in order to avoid a possible collision, the captain changed altitude
>however, the lights mirrored the new course and stayed about half a kilometer away from the plane
>since the object was violating all elementary safety rules and an evasive maneuver was deemed impossible by the crew, the captain decided on going off-course and made an emergency landing in Manises' airport
>this was the first time in history in which a commercial flight was forced to make an emergency landing due to a UFO
>the flight crew reported the lights abandoning the pursuit just before the landing took place; however, three new UFO signals were detected by the radar systems of the airport control center, each one with an estimated diameter of 200 meters
>one of the UFOs passed very close to the airport runway, and emergency lights were lit by the land crew in case the object happened to be an unregistered flight experiencing difficulties
>the Spanish Air Force sent a fighter to investigate; the pilot described seeing a cone-like object that changed colors, but the UFO escaped from his sight
>however, the pilot managed to once again catch up to it
>as he approached it again, the pilot attempted to intercept the object with an IR missile
>before he could activate the controls, the fighter's avionics and electronic flight systems became jammed, and the luminous object sped off
>the public impact of the incident was such that on September 1980 it reached the Spanish Parliament
>>the full official report, declassified by the Spanish Air Force on August 1994, states that the Supercaravelle JK-297 pilot Javier Lerdo de Tejada, the land crew in Manises' airport and the Air Force Captain Fernando Cámara might have been misled by "flashes emitted from a distant chemical industry complex" (about 100 miles away from Manises) "and some stars and planets"
>however, this explanation has been widely argued against and rejected, even by statesmen and those involved in the incident, and remains controversial
>the on-flight difficulties experienced by the fighter were not mentioned in the public release
>the electronic system failure on board the Mirage F-1 was attributed to the U.S. Navy Sixth Fleet that was stationed in the Mediterranean Sea and that was making use of electronic warfare equipment while awaiting the outcome of the Iran hostage crisis
>however, the F-1 combat pilot, Fernando Cámara, denied such possibility saying that the Sixth Fleet was too far and furthermore that his systems only became jammed when he tried to block the UFO with an IR missile.