Incident · 10 February 1951 · Off Newfoundland, near Gander
Gander Navy R5D encounter
Also known as Bethune sighting, Gander 1951, Flight 125 1951
Partly explained. The Air Force's intelligence center explained it as the aurora borealis and the sceptic Philip Klass as a reflection of the moon below the horizon; the crew rejected both, and the original report records clear weather and no other aircraft. (source)
On the night of 10 February 1951 a U.S. Navy R5D transport flying from Keflavik, Iceland, to Argentia, Newfoundland, with two crews aboard, saw a glow on the sea that its pilots first took for a city. According to the Northeast Air Command intelligence report filed that day, the light grew very bright and large, appeared semicircular, closed on the aircraft, turned through 180 degrees and disappeared rapidly over the horizon. Five experienced North Atlantic aircrew, including the co-pilot Lt. Graham Bethune, signed reports; the weather was clear and Gander traffic control knew of no other aircraft.
The Air Force's intelligence center later filed it as the aurora borealis, and Philip Klass argued in 1974 that the crew had seen a reflection of the moon below the horizon. Bethune, who saw the explanation in 1990, rejected it, and in 2001 described the object rising from a circle of lights on the sea, pacing the aircraft and being tracked on radar; the radar tracking is not in the documents. The case papers, including the intelligence report and a Navy memo, are transcribed in Patrick Gross's casebook from National Archives copies.
Sources: Air Intelligence Information Report IR-4-51 (1951), via Patrick Gross · Disclosure Project press conference (2001)
Facts and claims
- documented Northeast Air Command's Air Intelligence Information Report IR-4-51: at 0055Z on 10 February 1951 a MATS Navy C-54 (R5D) of squadron VR-1 at 10,000 ft saw a yellowish light that grew very bright and large, appeared semicircular, did a 180-degree turn near the aircraft and vanished over the horizon; the speed was “terrific” and the size “tremendous”. Five crew members, among them Lt. G. E. Bethune, saw it; Gander Traffic Control reported no other aircraft nearby. Source: ufologie.patrickgross.org (archived)
- documented The report records “Weather clear, visibility from 15 miles to unlimited” and that it could not have been a comet, as the object was below the aircraft and between it and the ocean. Source: ufologie.patrickgross.org (archived)
- claimed Bethune said a glowing object rose from a “monstrous circle of white lights” on the sea, flew alongside showing a dome, caused crew members to collide and be injured, upset the compass and direction finders, and was tracked by radar at over 1,800 mph. — Graham Bethune Source: Disclosure Project press conference, National Press Club (May 9, 2001), full event at 31:04
- claimed The Air Force's intelligence center explained it as the aurora borealis; Philip Klass, in UFOs Explained (1974), argued it was a “Sub Moon”, a reflection of the moon below the horizon. Source: ufologie.patrickgross.org (archived)
Connected files
Programs
- Project Blue Book (investigated by) — The Northeast Air Command report went to the Air Force's intelligence center
People
- Graham Bethune (witnesses)
Mentioned in this file
- National Archives and Records Administration (Organization)
- The Disclosure Project (Organization)
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