Document · 2001 – 2021
Italian Air Force OVNI reports, 2001–2021 (yearly tables)
The Italian Air Force's yearly tables of the OVNI reports it received from 2001 to 2021, one file per year (the 2019 file's last report is from November 2019; there is no file for 2020; the 2017 file lists no reports). Each year opens with a month-by-month count, then gives one entry per report: place, date, time, shape, colour, direction, speed, motion, altitude, weather and who sent the report ("pervenuta da"), and the Air Force's finding ("riscontri"). Most reports come from private citizens; a few come from military and civilian pilots, a military radar controller and the Carabinieri. The finding is usually that the data gathered from the Air Force's offices could not link the event to known flight or radiosonde activity or natural phenomena, and from 2018 the entries say outright that the event was therefore catalogued as O.V.N.I.
The tables name no witnesses. "O.V.N.I." records that no explanation was found, not extraordinary performance or origin; several entries name the likely cause themselves (a parhelion, sky lanterns, the Starlink satellites, a Soyuz re-entry). The files were uploaded to the Air Force site in November 2022 (the 2008 table was re-uploaded in October 2024 with the Terrasini photographs added) and are listed on its OVNI page; our copies come from Wayback Machine snapshots of May 2023 (2005: September 2023) and, for 2008, the October 2024 upload.
Sources: Aeronautica Militare, yearly OVNI tables 2001–2021 (aeronautica.difesa.it/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/, via the Wayback Machine)
Facts and claims
- documented 10 October 2003, Sorrento (Naples): military pilots ("piloti militari") reported a dart-shaped object with a luminous trail, blue-flame in colour, at high speed, heading 090°, at 4,000 ft, 7 NM from the VOR on the 310° radial. The Air Force could not link it to known activity or natural phenomena (2003 table, p. 6). Source: am-ovni-2003.pdf
- documented 8 February 2005, Grazzanise (Caserta): a military radar controller ("controllore radar militare") made two reports, at 23:35 and 23:45, of something at low speed and variable motion between 1,000 and 3,000 ft. The Air Force could not link either to known flight or radiosonde activity (2005 table, p. 3). Source: am-ovni-2005.pdf
- documented 15 October 2008, near the Aeolian Islands (Messina): civilian pilots reported a fiery glow and black smoke, between 11:00 and 12:00, for about a minute, moving quickly away to the north just above 8,000 m. No link to flight or radiosonde activity was found; the national geophysics and volcanology institute (INGV) reported no seismic events of interest in the area (2008 table, p. 9). Source: am-ovni-2008.pdf
- documented 25 March 2018, Atrani (Salerno), 03:25: an on-duty Carabinieri serviceman reported a fuzzy red-orange sphere moving north-west to south-east above 2,000 m. The Air Force noted that many open sources link it to the re-entry of the third stage of the Soyuz MS-08 launcher (launched from Baikonur on 21/03/2018), but said it could not confirm that link or any flight or weather activity, and catalogued it as O.V.N.I. (2018 table, p. 3). Source: am-ovni-2018.pdf
- documented 25 January 2019, Maleo (Lodi), 16:57: a private citizen reported a fast, elongated object with edges, 500–1,000 m up. The Air Force found a radar track recorded by the ATCR sensor at Monte Lesima, but judged it insufficient to correlate unequivocally with the report; with no radiosonde activity found, the event was catalogued as O.V.N.I. (2019 table, p. 3). Source: am-ovni-2019.pdf
- documented Several entries name a likely conventional cause even where the event is catalogued as O.V.N.I. or left without a label: a parhelion (sun dog) for a light photographed at Terrasini (Palermo) on 02/03/2008 (2008 table, p. 3); "lanterne cinesi" (sky lanterns) seen by a witness at the time and place of a sighting of orange spheres at Cicciano (Naples) on 19/03/2014 (2014 table, p. 3); and the "effetto Starlink" for a line of small lights over Florence on 06/05/2021 (2021 table, p. 4). Source: am-ovni-2021.pdf
Connected files
Organizations
- Italian Air Force (Aeronautica Militare) (published by)
Documents
- Italian Air Force OVNI archive, 1991–2000 (summary table) (follows)
- Italian Air Force OVNI reports, 2022–2026 (yearly tables) (followed by)
More documents
- Italian Air Force OVNI archive, 1972–1990 (summary table of 208 reports)
- Brazilian Air Defence Command report on the events of 19–20 May 1986 ("Official UFO Night")
- Spanish Air Force file 791111/791117/791128: unusual phenomena in Valencia, Motril and Madrid, November 1979 (the Manises case)
- Spanish Air Force file 761119: the luminous phenomenon over the Canary Islands, 19 November 1976
- Spanish Air Force file 681104: lights between Valencia and Sagunto, 4 November 1968
- Spanish Air Force file 670603: aircraft and radar encounter over Montánchez, 3 June 1967
Links
Files
- am-ovni-2001.pdf
- am-ovni-2002.pdf
- am-ovni-2003.pdf
- am-ovni-2004.pdf
- am-ovni-2005.pdf
- am-ovni-2006.pdf
- am-ovni-2007.pdf
- am-ovni-2008.pdf
- am-ovni-2009.pdf
- am-ovni-2010.pdf
- am-ovni-2011.pdf
- am-ovni-2012.pdf
- am-ovni-2013.pdf
- am-ovni-2014.pdf
- am-ovni-2015.pdf
- am-ovni-2016.pdf
- am-ovni-2017.pdf
- am-ovni-2018.pdf
- am-ovni-2019.pdf
- am-ovni-2021.pdf