Say what you will but these UFO sightings sound legit. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the most popular and convincing UFO sightings from around the world.
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00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we are counting down our picks for the most popular and convincing
00:11UFO sightings from around the world.
00:2020.
00:21Green Fireballs Everyone knows the general shape of your typical
00:33UFO.
00:34It's been a mainstay in pop culture for decades.
00:37But what about green fireballs?
00:40The earliest observation of this bizarre phenomenon dates to December 5th, 1948, when a green
00:46fireball was observed over New Mexico by two airplane crews.
00:51One of the crews was military, lending further credence to the event.
00:56Sightings have continued ever since, with reports even coming in from Japan and Australia.
01:02Some believe these fireballs are exceptionally bright meteors, while others at the time thought
01:07they were some type of foreign weapon.
01:10However, no consensus has ever been reached.
01:2119.
01:23Exercise Main Brace In the fall of 1952, NATO conducted Exercise
01:33Main Brace in the North Atlantic Ocean.
01:36It was an extensive military operation, involving 80,000 soldiers, 1,000 planes, and hundreds
01:43of ships.
01:44Military personnel witnessed a number of strange aircraft throughout the exercise, including
01:49a silver sphere and a triangular-shaped object that emitted a blue light and traveled at
01:55an estimated 900 miles per hour.
01:58And on September 19th, RAF officers in Topcliff, England, witnessed a UFO hovering above a
02:04fighter jet before zipping off at unbelievable speeds.
02:08It was this sighting, according to Edward Ruppelt of Project Blue Book, that made Britain
02:13officially recognize the UFO.
02:2418.
02:27The Westchester Boomerang In the early 1980s, the Hudson Valley region
02:36was visited by what some people call the Westchester Boomerang.
02:41Witnesses described the craft as a V-shape or a circle, outlined in brilliant lights
02:46of white, red, or green.
02:48The incident was debunked as a group of Cessna 152s flying in tight formation.
02:54The Cessna pilots reportedly found the UFO reports hilarious and may have done it as
02:59a prank.
03:01But some UFOlogists remain unconvinced.
03:05Some eyewitnesses insisted that what they saw was not a group of planes, or that some
03:10sightings were planes, sure, but there was a UFO up there too.
03:15J. Allen Hynek, the former scientific advisor to Project Blue Book, claimed there's no
03:20logical explanation for it.
03:2917.
03:30The Trans-En-Provence Case Popular Mechanics has called the Trans-En-Provence
03:40case perhaps the most completely and carefully documented sighting of all time.
03:46So buckle up.
03:47It occurred in France on January 8, 1981, when farmer Renato Nicolai saw a UFO land
03:54about 160 feet from where he was working.
03:57It quickly took off, leaving behind burn marks, and Nicolai informed the authorities.
04:02The gendarmerie took samples of the area and sent them off for testing.
04:08Analysis proved that the ground had been compressed by a force of about 4 tons, and best of all,
04:14it had been scorched by temperatures of 600 degrees Celsius.
04:18The French space agency conducted an investigation into the event, but were unable to find a
04:24satisfactory conclusion.
04:3416.
04:36The McMinnville Photos When people say we don't have any clear evidence
04:49of UFOs, show them the McMinnville photos.
04:52These famous pictures, taken by farmers Paul and Evelyn Trent, show what looks to be a
04:57very clear UFO hovering above their Oregon farm.
05:01These photos were widely circulated in May of 1950, appearing in national newspapers
05:07and Life magazine.
05:08Of course, many people are skeptical, suggesting that the Trents staged the photo using a model
05:14or a side-view mirror and some thread.
05:17However, UFOlogists remain convinced that the craft is real, an opinion bolstered by
05:24the Trents' behavior, as they never sought money or fame for the photos.
05:3815.
05:40The Invasion of Washington When the aliens start coming for the nation's
05:48capital, we know we're doomed.
05:51Have you ever seen Independence Day?
05:53Well, if reports are true, that movie almost happened in real life in the summer of 1952.
05:59A number of UFO sightings occurred over Washington, D.C., with UFO historian Curtis Peebles stating,
06:06never before or after did Project Blue Book and the Air Force undergo such a tidal wave
06:12of UFO reports.
06:14At one point, the supposed UFOs hovered over the White House and the Capitol, attracting
06:19the attention of Andrews Air Force Base.
06:22The incident scared both the Truman administration and the CIA, who feared the potential of mass
06:27hysteria.
06:28The Robertson Panel was created as a response and was tasked with analyzing reports of UFO
06:35sightings.
06:3614.
06:37The Lubbock Lights A series of UFO sightings that, five decades
06:49later, still defies explanation.
06:52At around 9 p.m. on August 25, 1951, several people, including three professors from Texas
06:58Technological College, observed about a dozen lights flying over Lubbock.
07:03Just a few nights later, a young man named Carl Hart Jr. witnessed lights flying in a
07:08V formation and snapped some photos.
07:12Becoming known as the Hart Photographs, they were widely circulated in the media, adding
07:16to the nation's deepening interest in UFOs.
07:20These lights were attributed to the undersides of birds reflecting the city's new street
07:25lights.
07:26However, some experts have disputed this theory, including the head of Texas Tech's biology
07:30department, J.C.
07:32Cross.
07:3313.
07:47Space Sightings Believe it or not, there are several spooky
07:58accounts from astronauts describing what appear to be UFOs.
08:03This lends incredible credence to their existence, as astronauts could be considered highly dependable
08:09witnesses.
08:10The first instance occurred during the Gemini 4 mission in 1965, when Jim McDivitt spotted
08:16what he described as a white cylindrical shape.
08:20What he saw has never been officially established.
08:23Fast forward to 2020, when Russian cosmonaut Ivan Vagner was filming the Aurora Australis
08:30from the ISS.
08:31He captured what he personally refers to as space guests.
08:36The Russian space agency Roscosmos admitted that the video was mysterious.
08:42Or how about that object that sped past a SpaceX capsule in 2021?
08:48Space is creepy, man.
08:5212.
09:00The O'Hare Sighting It was November 7, 2006, when a ramp employee
09:14at Chicago O'Hare's International Airport saw what appeared to be a metallic craft hovering
09:20above flight 446, which he was in the process of pushing back.
09:25But he wasn't the only one.
09:26In total, 12 United Airlines employees spotted the craft at the same time, describing it
09:32as silent and dark grey.
09:35The only thing they disagreed on was the size.
09:38With estimates ranging from 6 to 24 feet in diameter, the incident was officially reported
09:44to the FAA, but they refused to investigate, claiming that it was probably just a weather
09:50phenomenon.
09:5111.
09:52The Disappearance of Fredrik Valentich It was October 1978, when a pilot named
10:14Fredrik Valentich called Melbourne Flight Services, claiming that a strange aircraft
10:19had been following him.
10:21Officials told Valentich that radar showed nothing in the sky with him, but he wasn't
10:26convinced.
10:27Continuing to ask for help against his pursuer, he described the object's design, stating
10:32it had a metallic surface and bright green lights.
10:36And moments later, he reported that he was experiencing engine trouble.
10:40The last words heard from Valentich were extremely chilling, because when he was asked to describe
10:45the aircraft even further, he bluntly stated it isn't an aircraft, just before communications
10:52were cut off.
10:5310.
10:54Warren Air Force Base UFO I'm putting it out so people can communicate
11:02about it and we can get more video, more evidence and try to solve a case, that's the whole
11:06point here.
11:07Do aliens really come in peace, as the movies say?
11:11This 2010 encounter began when the Warren Air Force Base reported losing total control
11:17over the nuclear missiles they were storing, with their many engineers unable to communicate
11:22with them via their intricate computer network systems.
11:26Shortly thereafter, a massive cigar-shaped object, believed to be a UFO, was said to
11:32be seen hovering above the Wyoming base.
11:35You probably think there's a connection between the UFO and the malfunctioning missiles, right?
11:40Well, it gets freakier.
11:42Supposedly the military base received transmissions from the UFO, threatening them not to call
11:48for help due to the missile disruptions.
11:51Spooky stuff.
11:529.
11:53Olympics Sir, I think you need to go on TV and convince
12:00the people that there is no such thing as a UFO.
12:03Don't spell in front of me, dammit.
12:05The 2012 London Olympics were packed with athletes and audience members during the opening
12:11ceremony.
12:12Well, packed on the ground.
12:15Word is, there were no aircraft of any kind scheduled to be in the area at the time, especially
12:21considering the fireworks display.
12:23But if that were true, then what were those ominous lights hovering overhead?
12:29As stated, helicopters, planes, jets, and every other aircraft vehicle right down to
12:35hot air balloons was banned from being anywhere near the Olympics that day, leading many to
12:40theorize that the saucer-shaped metallic object could be an indication of visitors from outer
12:46space.
12:47To be fair, the Olympics are a huge event, so maybe aliens just wanted to see what all
12:53the fuss was about.
12:55Alright Beatrice, there was no alien.
12:57The flash of light you saw in the sky was not a UFO.
13:00Swamp gas from a weather balloon was trapped in a thermal pocket and refracted the light
13:04from Venus.
13:05Number 8.
13:06Kecksburg UFO Incident 25 years after the fiery object was seen
13:11streaking through the skies, the answers to the mystery remain as elusive as the object
13:16itself.
13:17One night in 1965, residents across American states and in Ontario, Canada witnessed a
13:24blazing fireball fall from the sky and crash to the earth in Pennsylvania.
13:29The thunderous impact caused shockwaves and sonic booms to ripple across the landscape
13:35and started grass fires.
13:37It didn't take long for members of the government and press to be all over the incident, which
13:42they wrote off as a simple meteor.
13:45However, due to the unusual sonic booms and the fact that many people said they saw trails
13:50of blue smoke in the sky where the object crashed, there was still speculation that
13:56the huge fireball was something out of this world, literally.
14:04Number 7.
14:05Hopa Incident When Japanese student Masahiro Kiro was a
14:20kid, he was looking through his father's old belongings.
14:23He probably never expected to discover a photo apparently taken in Hebei, China with a potential
14:29UFO smack dab in the middle.
14:31The object has a half-dome, half-disk-based appearance, and if you look closely at the
14:37photograph, you can see many of the people below pointing up towards the sky at it.
14:42Naturally, many skeptics have since shut down the UFO conspiracies surrounding the photograph,
14:48claiming the blip in the sky to be either a bird or a hat being tossed up into the air.
14:53To this day, the jury is still out on this one, so it's possible it was indeed Little
14:59Green Men.
15:09Number 6.
15:10The Cash Landrum Incident Referred to as a close encounter of the second
15:19kind due to the direct physical and mental impact it had on nearby citizens, the Cash
15:25Landrum UFO encounter is like something out of a sci-fi horror film.
15:30After reports surfaced of military helicopters chasing a huge diamond-shaped UFO through
15:35the area, many individuals began to feel sick and cars stopped working altogether.
15:41Two women and a young boy claim to have seen the UFO up close and say they felt an intense
15:46heat surging through them.
15:48Over the course of the next few days, they all grew increasingly sick, with one woman
15:53allegedly developing skin cancer due to whatever was in the sky that day.
16:05Number 5.
16:06The Pentagon UFO Videos Okay, now the freaking Pentagon is releasing
16:18UFO videos and shrugging their shoulders, saying we don't know.
16:23In 2017, three leaked recordings from advanced infrared cameras aboard Navy fighter jets
16:28were published online, which the Pentagon later admitted were genuine.
16:33In 2021, the Pentagon confirmed the authenticity of another video taken aboard the USS Russell,
16:40showcasing a triangular object over the ocean.
16:43And in 2023, yet another video followed, showing a small metallic orb gliding over the Middle
16:50East.
16:51So, just what the heck are these things?
16:53Well, explanations vary wildly, from unknown foreign devices to system malfunctions and
17:00atmospheric phenomena.
17:02Hey, what about aliens?
17:15Number 4.
17:16The Gorman Dogfight 25-year-old World War II veteran George Gorman
17:28was soaring through the skies of North Dakota on October 1st, 1948, when he noticed a blinking
17:34light in the distance.
17:36Gorman immediately contacted a nearby airport to ask if anyone was in the sky with him.
17:41They radioed back that, other than a small Piper Club plane he'd already noticed, the
17:46skies around him were empty.
17:49Gorman decided to get a closer look, and an aerial dogfight ensued.
17:53But even with his jet shooting through the clouds at 400 miles per hour, the supposed
17:58UFO was able to effortlessly avoid him at every turn.
18:02Just when Gorman thought he had the UFO caught, it fired vertically upwards and disappeared.
18:08Number 3.
18:16The Westall UFO Encounter A teacher who claimed to see UFOs hovering
18:21over a Melbourne school says military officials threatened to have him fired if he ever spoke
18:26about the incident.
18:27On April 6th, 1966, students of two schools in Westall, Australia had their classes cancelled
18:34in the most bizarre fashion.
18:36A grey saucer-shaped object was seen descending from the sky and then landing not far from
18:42one of the school's locations.
18:44There are conflicting reports as to the shape and color of said UFO, with some claiming
18:49it had hints of purple and others stating it had a more greenish hue.
18:54But one detail is constant.
18:56The UFO remained immobile for 20 minutes, doing nothing as nearly 200 people looked
19:02on.
19:03Eventually, the UFO shot back to life and gained altitude at a blistering speed, joining
19:09five similar-looking ships as they all vanished into the distance.
19:23Number 2.
19:24Lonnie Zamora Incident Police officer Lonnie Zamora was driving alone
19:39in his patrol car one evening in Socorro, New Mexico when, out of nowhere, a loud roaring
19:45sound shook his car while he was chasing a speeding driver.
19:49He then saw a flaming object fall from the sky.
19:52Moving in for a closer look, Lonnie says he saw an oval-shaped object that had landed
19:58in the distance, with what looked like two small men, or at least four legs, standing
20:04next to it.
20:05Lonnie could barely register what the object was when suddenly the same roaring sound came
20:10back even more intensely than before and the object rocketed towards the sky, leaving our
20:16atmosphere.
20:17Lonnie Zamora had no idea that Socorro was about to become another landmark, the location
20:22of what some believe is one of the most significant UFO sightings ever made.
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20:42Number 1.
20:43The Battle of Los Angeles, aka The Great Los Angeles Air Raid.
20:53On the night between February 24th and 25th, 1942, at the height of World War II, air raid
21:00sirens blared in Los Angeles County.
21:03Pretty soon, the United States Coast Artillery Brigade opened fire on a supposed attacker
21:08from the sky.
21:10Initially, many people believed it to be Japanese forces, as tensions were high between the
21:15two after the bombardments of Pearl Harbor and Elwood, but ultimately, military officials
21:21labeled the event a false alarm.
21:23While many skeptics argue that wartime nerves had everyone suddenly firing a barrage of
21:28bullets into the sky, the fact that the shooting lasted for at least an hour led many to believe
21:34there must have been some sort of target, specifically extraterrestrial in nature,
21:40for them to aim at.
21:49Have you ever witnessed what you thought to be a UFO?
21:52Tell us your story in the comments below.