UFO Causes Aircraft
to Make Emergency Landing
Date: November 11, 1979
Location: Valencia, Spain
What was supposed to be an ordinary commercial flight turned into the most infamous UFO case in Spain. A commercial aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing after multiple unidentified flying objects were observed in close proximity to the aircraft. TAE Supercaravelle Flight JK-297 was en route to Las Palmas in the Canary Islands from Salzburg, Austria. On board the aircraft was Commander Francisco Javier Lerdo de Tejada, copilot Jose Ramon Zuazu Nagore, flight mechanic Francisco Javier Rodrigues and a total of 109 passengers.
The time was 23:05 when things took a bizarre turn. Flying at an altitude of twenty-three thousand feet, Rodrigues, the flight mechanic, noticed two intense red lights straight ahead of the aircraft. Rodrigues immediately notified Tejada and Nagore, who were also able to locate them. The crew described the objects as not having a solid body, they were simply intense lights, which were moving closer and closer to the aircraft. Tejada decided to ascend the aircraft to prevent any collision from happening, and as he did so, the two UFOs mirrored the same climb, just five hundred meters away.
The Air Transit Control in Barcelona was unable to identify the two aircraft, and the only target air transit did have on radar was Flight JK-297. Every maneuver the aircraft carried out was mirrored by the lights. It was evident that whoever was piloting these strange aircraft was aware of the aircraft’s position in space and time. Due to the lack of information and identification, the crew decided to make an emergency landing at Manises Airport in Valencia. Prior to landing at 23:45, the crew at the airport noticed strange bright red lights, and, thinking that it was an unregistered aircraft having trouble landing, the crew lit up the emergency lights on the runway.
At the Los Llanos Air Force Base in Albacete, the chief of service of the air command of the Spanish Air Defense instructed a military jet to be scrambled. Receiving the order, Captain Fernando Camara took off from the base at 00:40 on board an F-1 Mirage in an attempt to locate and identify the two red lights, which multiple individuals had now seen. The visibility was exceptional, and it did not take Camara long to locate the red lights from afar. Although he had made visual sighting with the objects, he was unable to close the distance. It seemed as though no matter how fast the Mirage was going, the UFOs responded by increasing their speed in order to maintain the distance. Camara described the objects in a similar manner; he stated that they did not have a solid body, they were simply balls of intense light. Camara’s encounter with the unknown became even stranger as his radio communication started getting interference. Furthermore, his aircraft warning system was alerting him that the Mirage was being constantly locked-on (which occurs when another aircraft is locking on to the aircraft on its radar).
After an hour and a half of pursuing the two red lights, Camara had to abandon the mission, as his aircraft was running low on fuel.
The Investigation
Unsurprisingly, as it is with the majority of UFO reports, the authorities played down the seriousness of the encounter and provided explanations that did not match with the reports and observations made. The authorities stated that the two intense red lights, which were observed by the crew members on board Flight JK-297, were bright flash blazes from combustion towers at a chemical industry complex. When it came to the visual sightings made from the ground, the report stated that they were stars and the personnel had misidentified them as UFOs due to their overexcitement.
The UFOs, which were seen by Camara, were unrelated to the lights that were reported earlier by the crew on board Flight JK-297. Since Camara described the lights as being undefined and distant, the report attributed this sighting to celestial bodies once again. The investigation further claimed the Mirage’s electronic malfunctioning was caused by the U.S Sixth Fleet, which at the time was using powerful electronic warfare equipment. Camara, however, did not accept this explanation. He stated that he was flying significantly farther from the Six Fleet’s position and he was positively sure that the lights were not celestial bodies. They were maneuvering relative to his fighter jet’s position, which disproved the theory. To further support their explanations, the authorities stated that Tejada was psychologically vulnerable because he was going through personal issues at the time, and this vulnerability played a part in the UFO sighting.
Although this case is officially closed, we still do not know what Tejada and the rest of the witnesses reported seeing. It could not have been the case that the red lights were emitted from the industry complex, nor could they have been celestial bodies. Lights from a tower would not have maneuvered, they would have simply remained in a stationary position. This explanation also disproves the “bright planets and stars” theory.
Conclusion
Although we cannot decisively state what these lights were, it is important to question how maneuvering lights could have been mistaken for stationary celestial bodies. This conclusion becomes less plausible when we take into consideration that one of the witnesses was Captain Camara, an experienced military pilot.