selected ufo cases
Cases with Images or Photographs
Portage County, Ohio UFO Chase
April, 17, 1966 - Portage County, Ohio, United States
One of the most dramatic encounters by police officers with an apparently structured, low-level UFO. Officers chased the object for eighty-five miles, as it seemed to play a cat-and-mouse game with them. This case was the basis for the UFO "chase" in the film 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind.' View full report
Source: Richard Hall, NICAP website ID: 79
Case Type: MajorCase Features: Police, Witness Sketch, Humming
Over 200 students witness saucer-shape object, physical traces left behind (Westall Incident)
April, 6, 1966 - Westall, Australia
More than 200 students and staff from two schools watched as the object landed in a nearby paddock, lifted off and vanished. It was a low-flying, silver/grey shining object, either of classical flying saucer shape or close to it, "a cup turned upside down on a saucer". The UFO appears to have left a circle of scorched grass. View full report
Source: The Age (Australia), October 2, 2005 ID: 591
Case Type: StandardCase Features: Physical Trace, Group Sighting, Children, Witness Photo, Landing, Witness Sketch
Disc-shaped object hovering few feet above road
March, 31, 1966 - Near Vicksburg, Michigan, United States
Jeno Udvardy, a 1956 Hungarian refugee, was driving home from a late work shift near Vicksburg, Michigan. When he reached the crest of a hill he saw a cluster of lights on the road. They were seen to be on a disc-shaped object hovering a few feet above the road and blocking his passage. View full report
Source: NICAP (National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomenon), ID: 554
Case Type: StandardCase Features: Vehicle Interference, Humming
Sheriffs Watch High-Performance Discs (The Michigan Sightings / 'Swamp Gas' Case)
March, 14, 1966 - Dexter-Hillsdale, Michigan, United States
Washtenaw County sheriffs and police in neighboring jurisdictions reported disc-shaped objects moving at fantastic speeds and making sharp turns, diving and climbing, and hovering. At one point, four UFOs in straight-line formation were observed. Selfridge AFB confirmed tracking UFOs over Lake Erie at 4:56 a.m. Their stories were backed up by more than 100 witnesses View full report
Source: FUFOR (Fund for UFO Research) ID: 778
Case Type: MajorCase Features: Police, Radar, Witness Sketch, Group Sighting, Mass Sighting
The 1966 Tully Saucer Nest
January, 19, 1966 - Near Tully, Australia
The Tully "saucer nest" has a very special place in UFO lore. The famous Tully "UFO nest" affair of 1966 is one of the best known accounts of an apparent UFO landing report. It is the focus of a very important nexus in the pivotal question of UFO reality. 1966 was a major year for UFO activity in Australia. View full report
Source: UFO Research Queensland ID: 65
Case Type: MajorCase Features: Physical Trace, Landing, Animal Reaction
Landed saucer-shaped craft with ladder and 'turret' in Anchorage, 1966
1966 - Anchorage, Alaska, United States
"I was standing in the middle of our street and there was a craft on stilts or legs with a ladder down from the center. It had just snowed, and I remember windows on the upper round part... The main body was like an upside down saucer with a cylindrical 'turret' on the top. The 'turret' was approximately 3 feet across and 2 to 3 feet high and appeared to rotate." View full report
Source: UFOEvidence.org ID: 892
Case Type: RawReport Features: Landing, Portholes/Windows, Children, Witness Sketch
Huge disk like object with dome top, gray metallic, with rainbow lights
1966 - Lunenburg County, Virginia, United States
I observed a huge UFO in 1966. It was gray-silver metallic...disk shape with dome top. Had windows (portholes as I call them). I could see the turning of the bottom of it going in one direction as the top rotated the other direction. It had rainbow colored lights. View full report
Source: UFO Evidence ID: 69
Case Type: RawReport Features: Witness Sketch, Portholes/Windows
The Kecksburg UFO Crash
December, 9, 1965 - Kecksburg, Pennsylvania, United States
An object landed in the tiny town of Kecksburg, PA on December 9, 1965. It was observed as a fireball in the sky across several U.S. states and Canada. Four witnesses have provided independent, corroborated descriptions of the object and its location in the Kecksburg woods. Dozens of others describe the military presence at the crash site, the cordoning off of the area, and the retrieval of an object transported by an army truck. View full report
Source: Stan Gordon ID: 281
Case Type: MajorCase Features: Crash/Retrieval
Canadian Navy seaman witnesses object on beach
November, 30, 1965 - Cornwallis, Nova Scotia, Canada
Seaman Ian Kinsey, of Her Majesty's Coastal Service, was on his 2-4 a.m. watch at the Cornwallis station. When he looked out towards the shoreline, he saw a sharply oval, yellow object resting on the beach. The UFO was "lit up," but not glaring. Five minutes later a sliding door on the object's side opened and a smaller, cigarette-shaped UFO entered the larger object through the door. A similar sighting took place a few hours before in Springhill, about 125 miles from Cornwallis. View full report
Source: NICAP (National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomenon), 'Strange Effects from UFOs', by Donald Keyhoe and Gordon Lore ID: 581
Case Type: StandardCase Features: Military, Landing, Humming, Portholes/Windows
Saucer-shaped UFO with dome seen in Western Pennsylvania
October, 1965 - Pennsylvania, United States
"I saw this saucer shaped disc with a dome on top about 500 to 800 feet up in the sky in front of me. It was silver yellow in color and about 30 feet in diameter. It went vertical for about 1000 feet, then made a sharp angle and disappeared at a high rate of speed, 2 or 3 seconds, no noise." View full report
Source: UFOEvidence.org ID: 765
Case Type: RawReport
South African constables observe disc-shaped object resting on highway
September, 16, 1965 - Pretoria, South Africa
On the night of September 16 two Pretoria, S. Africa, constables came upon a disc-shaped object resting on the highway. The headlights of their police van illuminated the copper-colored object which appeared to be about 30 feet in diameter. On top of the UFO was a small dome. In seconds the UFO suddenly lifted off the road, emitting tongues of flame. View full report
Source: NICAP (National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomenon), ID: 555
Case Type: StandardCase Features: Police, Physical Trace, Landing
The Incident at Exeter (Muscarello Case)
September, 3, 1965 - Exeter, New Hampshire, United States
Norman Muscarello, a teenage Navy recruit, was walking down a quiet country highway at night, when suddenly, a huge object loomed above him. Thus began the "Incident at Exeter," a series of sightings officially qualified as "unidentified." The encounters that night took special precedence over other UFO sightings because of the credibility of two Exeter police officers who also saw the UFO, as well as that of the dispatcher and supervising officer who first heard Muscarello's account. View full report
Source: The Portsmouth Herald (Portsmouth, NH), Sept. 2, 2005 ID: 426
Case Type: MajorCase Features: Police, Animal Reaction, Witness Photo
Patrol Car Illuminated by UFO
September, 3, 1965 - Damon, Texas, United States
Purple and blue lights were attached to opposite ends of an enormous object, hovering about 150 feet from witnesses at about a 100-foot altitude. Object appeared to be triangular shaped, about 200 feet wide and 40-50 feet thick in the middle, tapering off toward both ends. View full report
Source: FUFOR, U.S. Air Force-Project Blue Book, Donald Keyhoe 'UFOs A New Look' ID: 38
Case Type: StandardCase Features: Police, Witness Photo
Football shaped UFO hovers near milk barn, scares animals
August, 19, 1965 - Cherry Creek, New York, United States
Sixteen year old Harold Butcher was milking the cows in his father's barn in Cherry Creek, N.Y. Harold heard one of the bulls outside make a noise "like I have never heard come from an animal before." Simultaneously he saw a metallic-looking, football-shaped UFO about 50 feet long and approximately 20 feet thick hovering just above the trees an estimated 450 feet from the barn. View full report
Source: NICAP (National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomenon), 'Strange Effects from UFOs', by Donald Keyhoe and Gordon Lore ID: 572
Case Type: StandardCase Features: Animal Reaction, E-M Effects, Physical Trace
Rex Heflin UFO Photographs
August, 3, 1965 - Santa Ana, California, United States
Rex Heflin, an Orange County highway inspector, was at work in a county vehicle at 12:37 P.M when he saw a hat-shaped (disc with dome) object hovering above the road. He grabbed his Polaroid camera and took three photographs of the metallic-appearing object and a fourth of a black "smoke ring" left behind by the object. View full report
Source: STUDIOVNI ID: 253
Case Type: MajorCase Features: Photo
UFO on Australian Beach (Vaucluse Beach)
July, 19, 1965 - Vaucluse Beach, Australia
Disc-shaped object glowed as it sat on a beach. As witness approached the object, the object lifted off from the ground, quickly climbed in the air, and disappeared. Investigation revealed landing traces and effects on the nearby plant life. View full report
Source: UFO Casebook ID: 27
Case Type: MajorCase Features: Physical Trace, Animal Reaction, Landing, Witness Sketch
