Incident · 13 December 1985 · San Cesareo toll booth, A1 Rome–Naples motorway, Lazio, Italy
Roberto Doz sighting at the San Cesareo toll booth (Italy, 1985)
Also known as Doz case, caso Doz, San Cesareo 1985
On the evening of 13 December 1985, according to his own account, Italian Air Force officer Roberto Doz, then training at the Air Force helicopter school at Frosinone, was driving home with his wife. At the San Cesareo exit of the Rome–Naples motorway, south-east of Rome, she pointed out a low light. Doz first took it for a Tornado on a low-level exercise. He describes a silent, rectangular object about 30 m long, like a railway carriage without wheels, with three windows and a blue flame at the rear. He says it turned through 90°, followed the rising ground towards the Alban Hills and stepped vertically over a ridge, all within five to ten seconds.
Everything known about the case comes from Doz's own later accounts, and the details shift between tellings: the height (150 or 300 m), the duration (five or ten seconds) and the number of other witnesses (twelve, nearly ten or twenty). He says his group commander and an officer at Frosinone airfield saw the same silent object, that he holds signed statements, and that the Corriere della Sera and local papers reported a wave of sightings across central Italy that evening. None of these statements, witness names or press reports has been published or found: L'Unità for 15 and 17–20 December 1985 carries no such report, and its issue of 14 December is not in the online archive. No official investigation is known, and no conventional explanation has been put forward, so the case stays open.
Sources: Roberto Doz, interviews with Simone Tommasini (podcast, June 2024) and with Sabrina Pieragostini (Extremamente, February 2026)
Facts and claims
- claimed Air Force officer Roberto Doz says that on 13 December 1985, at 17:20 by the car clock, he was driving home from the flight school at Frosinone and had stopped at the San Cesareo motorway toll booth when his passenger pointed out a very low light, about 300 m up; his first thought was a Tornado on a low-level exercise. He stresses that he was not alone: "La persona che era con me in macchina, che oggi conferma tutto" (The archive's translation: The person who was with me in the car, who today confirms everything). — Roberto Doz Source: L'UFO del colonnello Doz: Roberto Doz on his 1985 sighting (Extremamente, 2026) at 4:32
- claimed In a 2024 telling he names the passenger as his wife of the time: "mia moglie Paola dice Roberto ma che cos'è quella luce lì" (The archive's translation: my wife Paola says, Roberto, what's that light there?), while they queued at the toll booth picking out coins. In that telling the object was at 150 m, 30–40 m long, and turned at about 600 m. — Roberto Doz Source: Mistero UFO with Col. Roberto Doz (Simone Tommasini Podcast #18, 2024) at 1:23:10
- claimed Standing on the car's door sill, Doz says, he saw that the light was the front of an object pointing at him, at most about a kilometre away; at about 700 m it turned through 90° and he saw its shape: rectangular, about 30 m long, with no halo, a blue drop-shaped flame at the rear and three rectangular windows along its long side. In his words, "è una carrozza ferroviaria senza ruote" (The archive's translation: it is a railway carriage without wheels). — Roberto Doz Source: L'UFO del colonnello Doz: Roberto Doz on his 1985 sighting (Extremamente, 2026) at 6:44
- claimed He says the object was silent, which ruled out a Tornado, a meteor or a reflection, and that it pointed at them before turning through 90°. — Roberto Doz Source: L'UFO del colonnello Doz: Roberto Doz on his 1985 sighting (Extremamente, 2026) at 10:07
- claimed Doz says the object then held a constant height over the ground rising towards Rocca Priora, Rocca di Papa and the Pratoni del Vivaro, like a bomber's terrain-following radar, and at a rocky ridge rose vertically at a right angle, cleared it and carried on level, without the curve an aircraft or a helicopter would make. — Roberto Doz Source: L'UFO del colonnello Doz: Roberto Doz on his 1985 sighting (Extremamente, 2026) at 11:04
- claimed He puts the sighting at about 10 seconds and the speed at subsonic, around 300–400 km/h. — Roberto Doz Source: L'UFO del colonnello Doz: Roberto Doz on his 1985 sighting (Extremamente, 2026) at 13:32
- claimed In his 2024 telling, after stepping over the ridge "come un ascensore" (The archive's translation: like a lift), the object went on and disappeared towards the Castelli Romani and Lake Nemi, and it all lasted about five seconds. — Roberto Doz Source: Mistero UFO with Col. Roberto Doz (Simone Tommasini Podcast #18, 2024) at 1:24:32
- claimed In 2024 he described the light through the windows as changing, like a television on in a dark room seen from outside, and said he does not remember whether the blue flame was still there when the object rose. — Roberto Doz Source: Mistero UFO with Col. Roberto Doz (Simone Tommasini Podcast #18, 2024) at 1:29:39
- claimed Doz says his group commander at the Frosinone helicopter school saw the same silent object from the motorway to Naples: "il mio comandante di gruppo ha visto la stessa cosa" (The archive's translation: my group commander saw the same thing). He introduces it with "il giorno dopo" (the next day), without making clear whether that is when the commander saw it or when Doz heard of it. In the same answer he speaks of 20 witnesses. — Roberto Doz Source: Mistero UFO with Col. Roberto Doz (Simone Tommasini Podcast #18, 2024) at 1:30:55
- claimed He says a shower of sightings followed within a minute or two (17:19 to 17:21, in his 2024 telling), from Lake Trasimeno to Ponza, Frosinone and Latina, and that the Corriere della Sera and the local press reported them; he does not know whether it was one object. — Roberto Doz Source: Mistero UFO with Col. Roberto Doz (Simone Tommasini Podcast #18, 2024) at 1:32:58
- claimed Among them, he says, an officer of the technical office at Frosinone airfield, leaving work at 5 p.m., saw a light approach the airfield like an aircraft coming in to land, without a sound. — Roberto Doz Source: Mistero UFO with Col. Roberto Doz (Simone Tommasini Podcast #18, 2024) at 1:31:47
- claimed Doz says he investigated it himself, interviewing with a tape recorder people around his flight school who had seen the same thing: twelve gave him statements and signed releases, in 1985–86. — Roberto Doz Source: L'UFO del colonnello Doz: Roberto Doz on his 1985 sighting (Extremamente, 2026) at 14:44
Connected files
People
- Roberto Doz (witnesses) — Saw the object from his car at the San Cesareo toll booth on 13 December 1985, driving home from the helicopter school at Frosinone
Videos
- Mistero UFO with Col. Roberto Doz (Simone Tommasini Podcast #18, 2024) (discussed in)
- L'UFO del colonnello Doz: Roberto Doz on his 1985 sighting (Extremamente, 2026) (discussed in)