Incident · 21 March 1990 · Pereslavl-Zalessky / Zagorsk (Sergiyev Posad), Moscow region, Russia
Pereslavl-Zalessky air-defence alert and interception (USSR, 1990)
Also known as Pereslavl-Zalessky 1990, Zagorsk 1990, 21 March 1990 Moscow region
On the night of 21 March 1990, air-defence units north-east of Moscow reported bright, flashing lights moving over Pereslavl-Zalessky, Zagorsk and nearby towns. Radar stations and aircraft were put on alert, and an interceptor was scrambled. The pilot, Lt. Col. A. A. Semenchenko, got within about 500–600 metres of two flashing white lights that did not answer the identification signal, and glimpsed a silhouette against the city lights. A radar post logged the object hovering, disappearing and reappearing, and officers on the ground described a disc with two pulsating lights flying S-shaped paths.
A month later Col. Gen. Igor Maltsev, chief of the Main Staff of the Soviet Air Defence Forces, gave the reports to the newspaper Rabochaya Tribuna. The CIA's press service translated them. Maltsev described a large, silent, extremely manoeuvrable disc. He also said he was not a UFO specialist, and that one station observed nothing.
Sightings continued for weeks along the Yaroslavl Highway. In April a serving major and traffic police officers described them on Soviet state television, which had also heard that air-defence specialists had seen them.
No official explanation has been published. The lights' pairing with nearby aircraft and the lack of any recovered radar data leave conventional explanations, such as aircraft lights or misread radar returns, unexcluded.
Sources: CIA/FBIS Foreign Press Note FB PN 90-123 (Rabochaya Tribuna, 19 April 1990)
Facts and claims
- documented Soviet Air Defence radars and aircraft near Moscow were put on alert on 21 March 1990 to detect and identify objects near Pereslavl-Zalessky; commanders compiled more than 100 visual observations between 20:00 and midnight. Source: CIA/FBIS Foreign Press Note FB PN 90-123: "USSR: UFO sightings no. 2 — General Maltsev comments" (1990)
- documented Interceptor pilot Lt. Col. A. A. Semenchenko closed to about 500–600 m on two flashing white lights that changed altitude and did not answer IFF, and briefly saw a silhouette he could not identify. Source: CIA/FBIS Foreign Press Note FB PN 90-123: "USSR: UFO sightings no. 2 — General Maltsev comments" (1990)
- documented A radar post logged objects at 40–100 km hovering, vanishing and reappearing, and disappearing as a fighter approached. Col. Gen. Igor Maltsev said the object appeared as a radar pip on aircraft sights and surveillance screens, though at one station nothing was observed. Source: CIA/FBIS Foreign Press Note FB PN 90-123: "USSR: UFO sightings no. 2 — General Maltsev comments" (1990)
Connected files
Documents
- CIA/FBIS Foreign Press Note FB PN 90-123: "USSR: UFO sightings no. 2 — General Maltsev comments" (1990) (documented in)
People
- A. A. Semenchenko (witnesses)
- Igor Maltsev (investigated by)
- Vladimir Stroynetsky (witnesses) — He described a huge mass rimmed with welding-like flashes rising silently over the forest at his unit
Videos
Mentioned in this file
- Central Intelligence Agency (Organization)