YouTube video · UAP Gerb · 22 January 2024
The First Commercial Flight Grounded Due to UFOs
A short documentary on Spain's best-known case. A Super Caravelle diverted to Valencia after two red lights paced it, airport staff saw lights over the field, and a Mirage F1 pilot chased an object at Mach 1.4 and reported jamming and a missile-radar lock-on alert. Gerb sets out the refinery, star and 6th Fleet explanations and finds none of them covers what the pilots describe.
Timeline
On the recordWitness testimonyAlleged / one person's word
11 Nov 1979, about 23:05
Red lights approach JK-297Two powerful red lights to the front left at about 23,000 ft.
The claims, checked
On the record (1)
The sighting reached the Spanish parliament in September 1980, when deputies asked for an official explanation.Cited, not read here.firsthandCortes question (Sep 1980)Manises: TAE flight JK-297 diverted and the Mirage chase
Witness testimony (10)
TAE flight JK-297, a Super Caravelle with 109 passengers under Capt. Javier Lerdo de Tejada, flying Salzburg to Las Palmas via Palma, saw two powerful red lights to its front left at about 23,000 ft around 23:05.The flight engineer spotted them first.firsthandCapt. Javier Lerdo de Tejada and crewManises: TAE flight JK-297 diverted and the Mirage chase
Barcelona control reported no traffic; the lights had no visible body, followed the airliner's altitude changes and stayed between half a mile and five miles away.Crew account.firsthandCapt. Javier Lerdo de Tejada and crewManises: TAE flight JK-297 diverted and the Mirage chase
The captain diverted to Manises because flying on near an object he could not avoid was not worth the risk to his passengers.Crew account; the diversion itself is not disputed.firsthandCapt. Javier Lerdo de TejadaManises: TAE flight JK-297 diverted and the Mirage chase
Airport staff and personnel at the nearby air base saw moving lights, and the runway emergency lights were switched on when one passed close to the field.Airport director Miguel Morlán among them.firsthandManises airport staffManises: TAE flight JK-297 diverted and the Mirage chase
Capt. Fernando Cámara, scrambled in a Mirage F1, had to reach Mach 1.4 to close on a light that showed a truncated-cone shape and changing colours before it pulled away.Named military pilot.firsthandCapt. Fernando CámaraManises: TAE flight JK-297 diverted and the Mirage chase
Sent after a second radar echo near Sagunto, he made several pursuits over the sea and inland, and each time the object darted away as he approached.Named military pilot.firsthandCapt. Fernando CámaraManises: TAE flight JK-297 diverted and the Mirage chase
Near the object his avionics were jammed and his warning system showed he was locked on by a continuous-wave missile radar.El Debate's summary of the official file mentions blockages in the aircraft's alert system.firsthandCapt. Fernando CámaraManises: TAE flight JK-297 diverted and the Mirage chase
When he tried to lock an infrared missile on the object, his systems were jammed.Named military pilot.firsthandCapt. Fernando CámaraManises: TAE flight JK-297 diverted and the Mirage chase
After about an hour and a half, low on fuel, he returned to base.The duration matches El Debate's quote of the file.firsthandCapt. Fernando CámaraManises: TAE flight JK-297 diverted and the Mirage chase
Cámara rejects the fleet explanation: he was too far from the ships, and it explains neither the shape he saw nor an object that outran a Mach 1.4 fighter.Named military pilot.firsthandCapt. Fernando CámaraManises: TAE flight JK-297 diverted and the Mirage chase
Alleged / one person's word (5)
Just before landing, three new radar signals appeared, each estimated at about 200 m across.As Gerb tells it. The official file, as quoted by El Debate, says there was no radar contact. Unresolved.secondhandunnamed radar sources → press → UAP Gerb → told itManises: TAE flight JK-297 diverted and the Mirage chase
The lights were optical illusions.The official dismissal. Proposed, not demonstrated.analysisSpanish Air Force communiquéManises: TAE flight JK-297 diverted and the Mirage chase
The airliner's lights were the flare towers of the Escombreras refinery, and the other lights were stars and planets.Natural cause proposed, not demonstrated; it does not explain lights that paced the airliner through altitude changes.analysisJuan Antonio Fernández Peris (as summarised by Gerb)Manises: TAE flight JK-297 diverted and the Mirage chase
Cámara's jamming came from electronic-warfare ships of the US 6th Fleet.Natural cause proposed, not demonstrated.analysisskeptic analyses (as summarised by Gerb)Manises: TAE flight JK-297 diverted and the Mirage chase
Jamming of fighter systems near the object matches Tehran 1976 and the Nimitz encounters of 2004.Gerb's comparison.analysisJets lose weapons over TehranThe Nimitz 'Tic Tac'