HISTORICAL

Manises UFO incident — Pilots of a TAE Supercaravelle airliner diverted to Manises Airport in Valencia after being tailed by mysterious red lights. A Spanish Air Force Mirage F1 was scrambled to investigate.

On the night of November 11, 1979, a Spanish commercial airliner with 109 passengers aboard was forced to make an emergency landing at Manises Airport in Valencia after the crew encountered unidentified red lights that closed to within 1,000 metres of the aircraft. The incident triggered the only Spanish military scramble against a UAP and became one of the most thoroughly documented aviation UFO cases in Europe. 【Background】 TAE Flight JK-297, a Super Caravelle operated by Trans Europa Airways, was flying from Salzburg to Las Palmas via Mallorca and Valencia. Around 11 p.m. local time, Captain Francisco Lerdo de Tejada noticed two intense red lights approaching rapidly from the left as the aircraft cruised at 7,300 metres over the Mediterranean. 【The Encounter】 The lights matched the airliner's heading and altitude and closed to within roughly a kilometre. Valencia air traffic control confirmed unknown radar returns. With the lights refusing to identify themselves and the closing geometry deteriorating, the captain declared an emergency, diverted to Manises, and successfully landed. Soon after, the Spanish Air Force scrambled a Mirage F1 fighter, piloted by Captain Fernando Cámara, to investigate further radar contacts in the area. 【Investigation】 Captain Cámara's Mirage detected a strong, manoeuvring radar target that displayed apparent counter-measures, illuminating his cockpit and forcing him to break off pursuit twice. Spanish Air Force radar tapes, declassified in the 1990s as part of the Ballester-Olmos disclosure programme, confirmed multiple unidentified tracks. The Spanish Ministry of Defence concluded the case "could not be explained" by known military, civil, or natural phenomena. 【Modern Assessment】 The Manises case is repeatedly cited as one of the strongest aviation UAP encounters of the 20th century, with the unique combination of multiple-witness pilot reports, ground radar, airborne intercept radar, and an emergency commercial landing. The 2023 reopening of Spain's UAP files by Congreso de los Diputados refocused public attention on Manises and the broader Ballester-Olmos archive. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manises_UFO_incident

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Source: Wikipedia