Spanish Parliament
The Spanish Parliament reviewed the Manises UFO Incident in September 1980 after representatives requested an official explanation for the November 11, 1979, encounter that forced TAE flight JK 297 to make an emergency landing and prompted a Spanish Air Force military intercept.
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Official Response to the Manises Incident
The Manises UFO Incident reached the Spanish Parliament when representatives demanded an official explanation for an event that involved multiple credible witnesses (commercial pilots, airport personnel, military Marines), radar returns detecting objects up to 200 meters in diameter, and a military fighter jet experiencing avionics jamming and electronic countermeasures during a 90-minute UFO pursuit.
Despite the documented evidence and testimony from Captain Javier Leo de Taha, pilot Fernando Kamaro, and numerous other witnesses, the Spanish Parliament officially dismissed the case as "a series of freak optical illusions." This conclusion was challenged by the involved pilots and UFO researchers, who argued that attributing the events to optical illusions required accepting an improbable convergence of simultaneous coincidences involving multiple trained observers and independent sensor systems.
Broader Context
The Spanish Parliament's dismissal of the Manises case represents a pattern seen in other governmental responses to well-documented UFO encounters, where official explanations minimize or dismiss incidents despite substantial evidence. The case remains one of Spain's most famous UFO incidents, regardless of the official parliamentary conclusion.