MANISES UFO INCIDENT, SPAIN

The Manises UFO incident took place on November  11, 1979, forcing a commercial flight to make an emergency landing at the Manises airport in Valencia, Spain.

A TAE’s (former airline) Supercaravelle was the first aircraft involved in the incident. Flight JK-297 had taken off from Salzburg (Austria) with 109 passengers on board, and had made a refuelling stop in Majorca before setting course towards Las Palmas.

Halfway through the flight, at about 23:00h, Pilot Francisco Javier Lerdo de Tejada and his crew noticed a set of red lights that were fast approaching the aircraft. These 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 this phenomenon.

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 because of 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, each one with an estimated diameter of 200 meters. The objects were seen by several witnesses. 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.

Given the lack of answer to all communication attempts, a Mirage F-1 took off from the nearby airbase of Los Llanos (Albacete) to identify the phenomenon. The pilot, Spanish Air Force captain Fernando Cámara, had to increase his speed to mach 1.4 just to be able to get visual contact with what he perceived to be a truncated cone shape displaying a changing bright color, but despite his initial efforts the object quickly disappeared from sight. The pilot was informed of a new radar echo, which indicated that another object might be near Sagunto (Valencia).

When the pilot was close enough, the object accelerated and disappeared again. This time, though, the UFO seemed to respond and the fighter had its avionics scrambled -its electronic flight systems were jammed. At last, and after a third contact attempt, the UFO finally disappeared, heading for Africa. After an hour and a half of pursuit, and due to fuel shortage, the pilot was forced to return to the base with no results.

– Barcelona, this is TAE 297

 -TAE-297 tell me?

– Can you confirm me that we have a traffic next to us, to our left, more or less four five miles?

– TAE-297 negative. No traffic reported..

– We see two signals, red lights now.  About three miles to ten in our position.. Approximately the same height..

-at ten of your position, three miles left now?

-yes

-TAE-297 received, thank you.

-(voice starting to panic) when you can, inform me about that traffic.

– 297 we Are not aware of any traffic on that route, you are the only one  from Ibiza to Alicante.

-thank you very much (it is possible that traffic, yes)

-TAE-297 confirm me, those lights are on the sea or in the air?

-I repeat, is a traffic and it is in our high!

-TAE-297, received, thanks.

-Barcelona, this TAE 297, confirm me the type of aircraft that it could be that traffic!

-TAE-297 confirm me if it’s in the same direction?

-yes! We got closer and closer! … I can only see two red lights, no flashes

-TAE-297 we have no reported traffic around, we have also called Palma(Mallorca) to see if it’s a «lower level 240» and they told us they had no reported traffic either.

-Barcelona, this TAE 297, I have increased upward through 280 and the traffic rises faster and more close.

-TAE-297, received.

-Barcelona, this TAE 297, I go towards Valencia.

-TAE-297, received.

… … TAE 297 pass to frequency 13365

-13365 TAE 297

-TAE 297 do you want to communicate with Defense?

-now keep heading to Valencia.

-do you want to communicate with Defense?

-Well information, if it’s possible!  because the traffic is less than half a mile and now has dropped a lot, now at 10,000 feet below us.

-agree, we will communicate with defense.

– Agree, I keep heading to Valencia ..

… …The traffic it’s going up again! Now we are at the same height!

(Information base, Barcelona)

-look in the radar to see if anything appears around the south west of Ibiza.

– Nothing.

– It’s 63 miles from Valencia, and an unidentified flying object is behind it.  The plane will land in Valencia..

…