Document · 11 November 1979 – 1980

Spanish Air Force file 791111/791117/791128: unusual phenomena in Valencia, Motril and Madrid, November 1979 (the Manises case)

Facts and claims

• documented The Mando Operativo Aéreo intelligence section file covers the events of 11, 17 and 28 November 1979 and was declassified by the Air Force Chief of Staff (JEMA 3216) on 11 August 1994. Its 147 pages include ATC transcripts, witness statements, the interceptor's records and the investigating officers' reports. Source: doc-ea-expediente-791111-manises.pdf
• documented Its summary of 11–12 November records that a Mirage F1 scrambled from Albacete could not appreciably close on the lights and returned to base. There was no radar contact with any object, either by the aircraft or by the Pegaso air-defence centre, though the pilot reported radio interference and some locks on his warning system. A static-looking light southeast of Valencia, flashing green, red and white, was later found to follow the movement of the sky quite faithfully. Source: doc-ea-expediente-791111-manises.pdf
• documented In his "personal interpretation" of 23 January 1980, the Lieutenant General commanding the Air Transport Command (MATRA) notes that the witnesses saw only lights, not objects, even in the Caravelle's case; that there was never radar contact at Pegaso, Barcelona Control, Valencia's GCA or on the F1; and that the lights were seen from several places, so it was not collective suggestion. He concludes that there is "no proof to admit the presence of UFOs" ("no existe prueba para admitir la presencia de OVNI,s"), apart from an unidentified aircraft heading south almost an hour after the main sighting. Source: doc-ea-expediente-791111-manises.pdf
• documented He suggests that the lights seen from the ground may have been an abnormally bright planet, a weather balloon or surface lights reflected by a temperature inversion, and that the airborne sighting may have had the same causes, heightened by the crew's anxiety, as shown in the transcript of their conversation with Barcelona Control. Source: doc-ea-expediente-791111-manises.pdf
• documented An October 1980 note, prepared for the Minister's reply to an oral question in parliament by deputy Múgica, states that what diverted the TAE Caravelle "was not any kind of aircraft", that its nature is unknown and it "may simply have been an optical illusion". It adds that there was no radar contact "either from the ground or from the air at any moment", which "indicates the non-existence of a solid object". (Earlier in the same file, the summary records that the EVA 5 height-finder briefly distinguished up to five echoes at 9,000–11,000 ft; a later report judged these probable fixed echoes or clutter.) It says the "three traffics" were lights of doubtful identification, never shown to be solid objects. Source: doc-ea-expediente-791111-manises.pdf
• documented The file also covers the 17 November 1979 Albacete scramble. Its pilot reported three bright lights in an isosceles triangle that he could not close on at Mach 0.95, and children's voices saying "HOLA ¿COMO ESTAS?" on his radio for about 30 seconds. Source: doc-ea-expediente-791111-manises.pdf

Connected files

Incidents

• Manises UFO incident (TAE flight 297) (documents)

Videos

• 1979-11-11 Manises Case, Spain (discussed in)

More documents

• Brazilian Air Defence Command report on the events of 19–20 May 1986 ("Official UFO Night")
• Spanish Air Force file 761119: the luminous phenomenon over the Canary Islands, 19 November 1976
• Italian Air Force OVNI archive, 1972–1990 (summary table of 208 reports)
• 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
• Project Blue Book case file: Haneda AFB, Japan, August 1952

Links

• Biblioteca Virtual de Defensa — Expedientes OVNI (record 38287, Spanish, CC BY 4.0)

Files

• doc-ea-expediente-791111-manises.pdf