Manises UFO Incident
The Manises UFO Incident of November 11, 1979, is considered the first recorded case in aviation history of a commercial flight being grounded due to a UFO encounter. The incident involved TAE flight JK 297, a Spanish commercial airliner forced to make an emergency landing, and a subsequent Spanish Air Force military intercept that resulted in documented avionics jamming. The case is regarded as one of Spain's most significant UFO encounters and involved multiple credible witnesses, radar returns, and sensor data.
| Date | 1979-11-11 |
|---|
The Commercial Flight Encounter
On November 11, 1979, TAE flight JK 297 departed Mallorca after a refueling stop on its route from Salzburg, Austria to Las Palmas. The Super Caravelle aircraft carried 109 passengers and was crewed by Captain Javier Leo de Taha, co-pilot Jose Ramon Zarazua Ingore, and flight mechanic Francisco Javier Rodriguez.
At approximately 23:05 hours while cruising over the Mediterranean Sea at 23,000 feet, Rodriguez alerted the crew to two powerful red lights visible to the front left of the aircraft. Captain Javier contacted Barcelona Air Traffic Control, which confirmed no other aircraft were operating on or near their flight path. The crew observed the lights as two powerful sources with no visible solid body attached.
When Captain Javier changed altitude to avoid collision, the objects mirrored the aircraft's trajectory and maintained a distance of between half a mile to 5 miles. Unable to identify or evade the objects, and recognizing that continued flight would violate aerial safety rules, Captain Javier aborted the flight path and performed an emergency landing at Manises Airport in Valencia. Just prior to landing, the crew detected three additional UFO radar signatures, each estimated at approximately 200 meters in diameter. These lights were independently witnessed by airport personnel and Marines stationed at the nearby Manises Air Force Base.
The Military Intercept
At 04:00 hours, Spanish Air Force pilot Fernando Kamaro was scrambled from Los Llanos Airbase in a Mirage F1 fighter jet to identify and intercept the UFOs. Over approximately 90 minutes, Kamaro reached Mach 1.4 (1,074 mph) to make visual contact with an object he described as a truncated cone shape with bright, changing colors. Despite supersonic speeds, the object repeatedly evaded intercept.
When informed of a radar echo near Sagunto, Kamaro pursued the object across the Mediterranean and inland Spanish territories. As he approached one UFO, it appeared to respond to his presence. At this point, Kamaro experienced total avionics failure—his electronic flight systems were actively jammed and his alert system indicated he was locked onto by continuous wave missile radar. When he attempted to lock onto the object with an infrared missile, his targeting systems were also jammed. The UFO then rapidly accelerated toward mainland Africa, and Kamaro was forced to return to base with dangerously low fuel.
Official Response and Explanations
The incident reached the Spanish Parliament in September 1980 after representatives requested an official explanation. The sighting was officially dismissed as "a series of freak optical illusions." Additional proposed explanations included:
- Refinery lights: The red lights were attributed to combustion towers of the Escombreras Refinery near Cartagena, though this fails to explain the objects' movement, altitude matching, and pursuit of the aircraft.
- Astronomical misidentification: Moving lights witnessed by multiple observers were attributed to stars or planets (Venus/Jupiter).
- US 6th Fleet electromagnetic interference: Avionics jamming was attributed to the US 6th Fleet stationed nearby during the Iranian Hostage Crisis. Pilot Kamaro rejected this explanation, stating he was too far from the fleet for interference, and it failed to account for the craft he witnessed or the active jamming of his IR missile targeting.
Parallels to Other Cases
The Manises incident is frequently compared to other military UFO encounters involving avionics jamming, particularly:
- 1976 Tehran UFO Incident: Major Parvis Jafari of the Imperial Iranian Air Force experienced total instrument failure when approaching a UFO in an F-4 Phantom 2, and the object displayed similar active countermeasures.
- 2004 Nimitz Tic Tac Encounter: Commander David Fravor reported that UAPs actively jammed radar and sensory equipment of Navy jets.
The recurring pattern of avionics jamming, radar lock responses, and active electronic countermeasures across independent military encounters spanning different decades and countries is cited as evidence of a genuine phenomenon rather than misidentification or equipment malfunction.