Fernando Kamaro
Fernando Kamaro (also spelled Camacho) is a Spanish Air Force pilot who was scrambled at 04:00 hours on November 11, 1979, from Los Llanos Airbase in a Mirage F1 fighter jet to intercept unidentified objects reported during the Manises UFO Incident. His approximately 90-minute pursuit represents one of the most significant military UFO intercept attempts in European aviation history, notable for documented avionics jamming and apparent electronic countermeasures from the unidentified craft.
| Role | Military fighter pilot, Spanish Air Force |
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The UFO Pursuit
Following the emergency landing of TAE flight JK 297 at Manises Airport, Kamaro was dispatched to identify the UFOs that had forced the commercial aircraft to abort its flight path. During the pursuit, Kamaro was forced to reach Mach 1.4 (1,074 mph) just to make visual contact with an object he described as a truncated cone shape displaying bright, changing colors. Despite his supersonic approach, the object repeatedly disappeared from sight and evaded his intercept attempts.
When informed of a new radar echo near Sagunto, Kamaro took multiple pursuit vectors over the Mediterranean Sea and inland Spanish territories, only to have the object rapidly dart away each time he approached. As he closed on one of the UFOs, it appeared to respond to his presence. At this point, Kamaro experienced total avionics failure—his electronic flight systems were actively jammed and his onboard alert system warned him that he was being locked onto by continuous wave missile radar.
Kamaro also reported that when he attempted to lock onto the object with an infrared (IR) missile, his targeting systems were actively jammed. After this encounter, the UFO rapidly accelerated toward mainland Africa. With dangerously low fuel after nearly 90 minutes of pursuit, Kamaro was forced to return to base.
Official Explanations
Official explanations attributed the instrumentation scrambling to electromagnetic interference from two LPH Iwo Jima-class helicopter carriers of the US 6th Fleet, which was stationed near the Mediterranean during the Iranian Hostage Crisis. Kamaro explicitly rejected this explanation, stating he was too far from the fleet for it to interfere with his navigation, radio, and emergency control systems. The explanation also failed to account for the truncated cone-shaped craft he witnessed with his own eyes, the object's evasive behavior at supersonic speeds, or the active jamming of his IR missile targeting attempt.
Significance
Kamaro's experience during the Manises UFO Incident is frequently compared to other military encounters involving avionics jamming, including Commander David Fravor's 2004 Tic Tac encounter and Major Parvis Jafari's 1976 Tehran UFO Incident. The case reached the Spanish Parliament in September 1980, where it was officially dismissed as optical illusions.