Incident · 31 March 1980 · Over North Gyeongsang, between Mount Irwol, Mount Palgong (near Daegu) and Yeongil Bay, South Korea
Republic of Korea Air Force Phantoms encounter
Also known as Korea 1980, ROKAF F-4 UFO 1980, Palgongsan 1980, Korean Roswell
On the night of 31 March 1980, during the Korea–U.S. Team Spirit exercise, two Republic of Korea Air Force F-4 Phantoms returning to base over North Gyeongsang province saw a very bright light low in the sky. Its four crew, led by Lt. Col. Lee Seung-bae with Col. Lim Byeong-seon flying the second aircraft, say it darted towards Yeongil Bay and stopped, was invisible to both ground and airborne radar, and let the jets circle it at close range for about fifteen minutes, an oval or disc with coloured lights and a brilliant flash at its centre, before it left over the East Sea. They say they watched it for about forty minutes in all.
Both pilots are on record: Lee in a Monthly Chosun interview of 1992 and a report he wrote in 2016, Lim in a JTBC documentary of 2016 and later interviews. The case rests on their testimony; no Korean Air Force record has been released, and the accounts differ on the date, the object's size and the flight's route.
Sources: Korea JoongAng Daily (2016) · Market Economy News (2017) · Cho Gab-je (2021), reprinting Monthly Chosun (February 1992)
Facts and claims
- claimed According to a JTBC documentary broadcast on 31 July 2016, Lim Byeong-seon, flying a combat aircraft with three other pilots during the Korea–U.S. Team Spirit exercise on the night of 31 March 1980, reported “an unidentifiable object is coming towards us”; it was not picked up by their radars. Ordered by the ground controller to pursue it, he blocked its path, and the object stopped and rose vertically to 33,000 feet, where the pilots circled it at about 200 metres: rounded, with bright lights, as big as three combat aircraft combined. It then vanished. — Lim Byeong-seon Source: koreajoongangdaily.com (archived)
- claimed Korea JoongAng Daily reported that the incident was reported to the Air Force's top commanders at the time, who decided not to investigate it as it was outside their area of expertise. No official Korean record of the case has been published. Source: koreajoongangdaily.com (archived)
- claimed Lim told JTBC that he flew a Daegu-based Phantom, and that the object was disc-shaped, the size of three Phantoms combined, with a strong flash of light erupting from its centre: “I had really never seen a phenomenon like this” (translated). — Lim Byeong-seon Source: meconomynews.com (archived)
- claimed Flight leader Lee Seung-bae, interviewed by Monthly Chosun in February 1992, said the two Phantoms were returning to base under ground radar control at about 15,000 feet, between Mount Irwol and Mount Palgong, when he and his back-seater saw a very bright, low “star”. Approaching to about 15 miles, it suddenly moved at great speed towards Yeongil Bay and stopped again; neither the ground radar nor the aircraft radars picked it up. He closed to about 1,000 feet and circled above it: oval, about the size of a large airliner, its surface covered in many-coloured lights, with a golden flash welling up from its centre “like iron melting in a furnace” (translated). — Lee Seung-bae Source: chogabje.com (archived)
- claimed Lim's account, as reprinted by Cho Gab-je: the object was flat, with lights like position lights around its rim and blue-white flashes “like welding” above and below; the Phantoms circled it at about 200 metres for some 15 minutes until fuel ran low, a warning shot was considered and rejected, and the object left towards the East Sea at about 300 knots. He reported it to his superiors and to the U.S. Air Force, and said: “I think it is an extraterrestrial object” (translated). — Lim Byeong-seon Source: chogabje.com (archived)
- claimed The accounts differ: Monthly Chosun's 1992 article dated the sighting March 1979, while Lim gives 31 March 1980; Lee described the object as the size of a large airliner, Lim as not large (but, to JTBC, as big as three Phantoms); JoongAng Daily has the jets flying to Gangneung, while Lee places them returning to base near Daegu. Cho Gab-je adds that the U.S. Air Force replied to Lim's report two weeks later that it had received some 500 similar reports. Source: chogabje.com (archived)
Connected files
People
- Lee Seung-bae (witnesses) — He led the two-Phantom formation as a lieutenant colonel
- Lim Byeong-seon (witnesses) — He flew one of the two F-4 Phantoms that circled the object on the night of 31 March 1980
More incidents
- Cagliari-Elmas orange sphere seen by Army and Air Force pilots (Italy, 1977)
- Exercise Mainbrace sightings (incl. RAF Topcliffe)
- Haneda AFB radar-visual sighting
- Chorwon F-94 engagement
- Wonsan–Sunchon B-29 sightings
- Mirage IV patrol briefly followed by an unknown aircraft near Nancy
Links
- Korea JoongAng Daily — Korean air force jets reportedly engaged a UFO in 1980, documentary reveals (2016)
- Cho Gab-je — Four Korean Air Force Phantom pilots tracked a UFO for 40 minutes (2021, reprinting Monthly Chosun, February 1992; Korean)
- KUFOS — Korean Air Force pilots' UFO chase record (2020 video, on-screen text from Lee Seung-bae's 2016 report; Korean)