Incident · September 1978 · South of Cameri air base (Novara), towards Genoa and Piacenza, Italy
Cameri 1978: an F-104 pilot's intense light south of Novara (Italy, September 1978)
Also known as Cameri 1978, Mainini 1978, F-104 Cameri UFO, caso Mainini
In September 1978, during a month of UFO reports across Italy, Lt. Col. Giulio Mainini, commander of the 21° Gruppo caccia intercettori at Cameri (Novara), reported an intense light seen from his F-104. La Stampa carried his account on 22 September. He had taken off around 20:00 heading south. Between Cameri and Genoa, after turning towards Piacenza, he saw a very bright point that seemed to grow and approach. It was too bright for an aircraft or a sunlit balloon and too low for a star. He kept to his course, and after three minutes it was gone. He filed a confidential report with the base commander. The Air Force's archive table records a report by Air Force personnel from Novara at about 20:00 on 20 September 1978: a white luminous point moving north to south, catalogued O.V.N.I. The table names no witness.
His later accounts, recorded in 2019, 2020 and 2024, tell a bigger story. In them the light was below him, the radar saw nothing, and he was cleared to chase it, at supersonic speed or Mach 2, for 15 to 30 minutes, as far as abeam Tuscany, until fuel ran short. He also says thousands of people saw it from the ground in Liguria. None of this is in the 1978 report of his words, which says he did not change course. The chase, the radar call and the crowds rest on his own account four decades later, and on what a colleague told him.
No official explanation is on file. In 1978 Cameri officers offered a sodium cloud, the re-entry of Pegasus 1 and a lithium-rocket experiment as possibilities. Mainini himself says it may have been a refraction of light. He does not believe in UFOs, and says Italy's radar archive never confirmed a sighting.
Sources: La Stampa, 22 September 1978, pp. 1 and 11 · Aeronautica Militare, Archivio OVNI 1972–1990 (entry 21 of 1978, p. 49) · Mainini's interviews with Spazio Tesla (recorded 2019) and RONIN FILM PRODUCTION (2024)
Facts and claims
- claimed La Stampa, 22 September 1978 (front page), quoted Lt. Col. Giulio Mainini, commander of the 21° Gruppo caccia intercettori at Cameri: he had taken off at 20:00 heading south in an F-104 and, about halfway between Cameri and Genoa, after turning left towards Piacenza, saw on his right, at a distance he could not judge, a very intense luminous point that seemed to grow and come towards him. He ruled out an aircraft or a balloon lit by the setting sun, as the light was too intense: "Non poteva essere neppure una stella in quanto troppo bassa all'orizzonte" (It could not be a star either, being too low on the horizon). "Ho proseguito sulla mia rotta" (I kept to my course), he said, and after three minutes the object vanished from sight. — Giulio Mainini Source: archiviolastampa.it (archived)
- claimed La Stampa's special correspondent the same day (p. 11) put the sighting at dusk "qualche giorno fa" (a few days ago), at about ten thousand metres over Piacenza, and quoted Mainini: "Non ho mutato rotta. Dopo tre minuti, l'oggetto è scomparso" (I did not change course. After three minutes the object disappeared). — Giulio Mainini Source: archiviolastampa.it (archived)
- claimed According to La Stampa, the base commander, Col. Carlo Sabbatini, had received from Mainini "un rapporto riservato e rigorosamente tecnico" (a confidential and strictly technical report) on the flight. Sabbatini said he was a sceptic: he had once seen a luminous point in flight himself, which turned out to be a sodium cloud released by an experimental launch from a base in Sardinia. Source: archiviolastampa.it (archived)
- claimed The duty officer at Cameri told La Stampa that Mainini's statement allowed no fanciful interpretation, and offered conventional hypotheses of the moment: the re-entry of the satellite Pegasus 1, reported for just after mid-September, and an American rocket experiment near the Arctic Circle releasing lithium, which could produce "palle brillanti, rosso fuoco" (bright, fiery red balls) as far as Mediterranean skies. Neither was tied to this sighting by any investigation on file. Source: archiviolastampa.it (archived)
- documented The Italian Air Force archive table has one entry from Novara in 1972–1990: entry 21 of 1978 (p. 49), Novara, 20/09/1978, about 20:00, a white luminous point-like object of variable speed moving from north to south, altitude not indicated, clear sky, reported by Air Force personnel, catalogued as O.V.N.I. The table names no witness; its place, hour and reporter fit Mainini's account, but the record itself does not name him. Source: Italian Air Force OVNI archive, 1972–1990 (summary table of 208 reports)
- claimed In 2024 Mainini says he took off one night from Cameri to climb to 36,000 ft and act as the target for two other interceptors: "decollo una notte da Cameri, dovevo salire a 36.000 piedi per fare il target agli altri due intercettori". — Giulio Mainini Source: F-104 insegue un UFO | La testimonianza del Gen. S.A. Giulio Mainini – Ep. 2 at 7:05
- claimed Climbing, he says, "vedo una luce molto più bassa di me, intensa, proprio una luce come se fosse una strobe light" (I see a light much lower than me, intense, really a light as if it were a strobe light); he called the radar, which answered "No non vediamo niente Assolutamente" (No, we see absolutely nothing). — Giulio Mainini Source: F-104 insegue un UFO | La testimonianza del Gen. S.A. Giulio Mainini – Ep. 2 at 7:32
- claimed He says he asked to pursue it, was cleared to suspend the mission and accelerate to Mach 2, and "l'ho inseguito fino al traverso della Toscana, fino a quando avevo il carburante sufficiente per tornare indietro" (I chased it until abeam Tuscany, until I had just enough fuel to get back), the light always ahead of him. — Giulio Mainini Source: F-104 insegue un UFO | La testimonianza del Gen. S.A. Giulio Mainini – Ep. 2 at 7:52
- claimed Back on the ground he told colleagues it was nothing special, "però io non credo agli UFO" (but I don't believe in UFOs). — Giulio Mainini Source: F-104 insegue un UFO | La testimonianza del Gen. S.A. Giulio Mainini – Ep. 2 at 8:21
- claimed Mainini relays that the next day the base's public-relations officer told him the light "è stata vista da 20, 30.000 persone quasi da tutta la Liguria" (was seen by 20 or 30,000 people from almost all of Liguria). No such count is on file. — Giulio Mainini Source: F-104 insegue un UFO | La testimonianza del Gen. S.A. Giulio Mainini – Ep. 2 at 8:26
- claimed He says a short item in the Corriere di Novara was followed by half a page in another paper, and that after he told two reporters from La Notte (Milan) that he did not believe in it and that the radars had seen nothing, the next day La Notte ran a full page with his photograph headlined "Asso della caccia insegue un UFO a Mach 2" (Fighter ace chases a UFO at Mach 2). We have not obtained the Corriere di Novara or La Notte articles. — Giulio Mainini Source: F-104 insegue un UFO | La testimonianza del Gen. S.A. Giulio Mainini – Ep. 2 at 9:50
- claimed In the 2019 interview he dates it "settembre 1978": he was flying south as the target ("facevo la lepre") towards Genoa at about 25,000 ft when he saw a very intense light below him, like a star. — Giulio Mainini Source: Italia Ufo Alert 1978 at 0:49
- claimed He says the Puma radar answered there was no signal of any kind, and that he was cleared to chase the light. — Giulio Mainini Source: Italia Ufo Alert 1978 at 1:26
- claimed He compares the light to Venus ("luminosa come Venere") and says he chased it for about 20 or 30 minutes at supersonic speed without ever gaining on it, until fuel ran short and he turned back. — Giulio Mainini Source: Italia Ufo Alert 1978 at 1:48
- claimed He relays that the next morning the wing's spokesman, a Major Casarino (as transcribed), told him hundreds, even thousands, of people on the ground had reported an intense light in the Genoa area towards the sea. — Giulio Mainini Source: Italia Ufo Alert 1978 at 2:36
- claimed Asked whether a pilot could mistake Venus for something strange, he says stars always appear higher, and that what made that light odd was that it was much lower than the 25,000 ft at which he was flying. — Giulio Mainini Source: Italia Ufo Alert 1978 at 12:10
Connected files
People
- Giulio Mainini (witnesses) — Said he saw an intense light while flying an F-104 out of Cameri in September 1978
Videos
- Italia Ufo Alert 1978 (subject of)
- F-104 insegue un UFO | La testimonianza del Gen. S.A. Giulio Mainini – Ep. 2 (subject of)
Mentioned in this file
- Italian Air Force (Aeronautica Militare) (Organization)
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